Welcome Message

Superintendent Victoria Hansen, Ph. D.

 

Bellwood School District 88 - Project Kickoff Event at Thurgood Marshall Elementary

Dear Parents, Guardians, and Community Stakeholders:

As your superintendent it is with great pride that I provide you with an exciting update on the many facility improvements that we began this summer. The Board of Education, under the leadership of President, Sondra McClendon, initiated a long overdue Master Facility Improvement Plan. With the help of my administrative team, we assessed our facilities needs and began to prioritize projects that will ensure equitable learning environments for all our students. As a result, we chose Energy Systems Group (ESG) as our partner to design, engineer, and manage the implementation of facility improvements throughout our district. A safe and healthy learning environment is always top of mind, therefore, you will continue to see improvements throughout this school year and years to come. Those upgrades will be seen in our hallways, in our classrooms, and throughout all of our schools and district facilities. Some of the improvements that we have begun include but are not limited to:

▪ Upgrading all HVAC systems to ensure proper heating and cooling in each school
▪ Replacing the lighting in each school to maximize the learning environment
▪ Removal of carpeting and replacing original flooring
▪ Painting the hallways of each school with the school colors, etc.


This is only the beginning! Many of our buildings have not experienced improvements and upgrades in over 30 years. It takes time to create the optimal learning environment; one that our children deserve. I thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we journey through this process. Stay tuned for future updates and please visit the website to follow and learn more about our progress. In closing, I recently coined the phrase #One88. This motto symbolizes unity across all of our schools. I have high expectations for our entire school district. This is encapsulated in my 3E platform. In collaboration, I want to ensure excellence in our schools, improve the equity of our school community, and engage stakeholders across all the communities we serve. On behalf of the Board of Education, my administrative team, and the entire Bellwood School District 88 family, we are committed to working in partnership with parents and the community to ensure high quality educational experiences for our scholars.

With SD88 Pride,

Victoria Hansen, Ph.D.
Superintendent

“Grow to Greatness” | #One88

Project Overview

Roosevelt Middle School during Winter with Snow on the Ground
Bellwood School District 88

Bellwood School District 88, located in the Chicago metropolitan area of Bellwood, Illinois, serves over 2,400 students in kindergarten through 8th grade. The school district operates seven schools that serve the communities of Bellwood, Broadview, Hillside, Maywood, Melrose Park, and Stone Park. Bellwood competitively selected Energy Systems Group (ESG), a leading energy and sustainable solutions provider, to design and implement a project that improves the school district’s infrastructure and learning environments  while providing energy and operational savings. Construction is currently underway with a scheduled completion of Fall 2023.

Bellwood School District 88’s commitment is to provide an exceptional learning environment for its students starts with the motto of Grow to Greatness and We’re all in this together. Bellwood and ESG are working together to promote an enhanced learning and teaching environment by taking a comprehensive, proactive approach to addressing much needed capital improvements. This project will update Bellwood’s infrastructure while making the facilities more modern, efficient, and sustainable, ensuring this investment is for the benefit of all parents, staff, and students.

Benefits

Electric Energy Consumption to be Reduced by 687,331 kWh annually (13,746,620 kWh over 20 years)
Natural Gas Usage to be Reduced by 22,995 therms annually (459,900 therms over 20 years) 

Carbon footprint to be reduced by 26.84 million pounds of Carbon Dioxide over the next 20 years which is equivalent to any of the following:

2,369 homes' electricity use for one year

1.37 million gallons of gasoline consumed

1.48 billion smartphones fully charged

Improvements

Construction at Lincoln Elementary

Learning Environment Improvements 

▪ LED Lighting Upgrades
▪ District-wide Indoor Air Quality Enhancements
▪ New Temperature Controls for Improved Comfort
▪ Acoustical Ceiling Replacement
▪ Comprehensive Flooring Replacements

HVAC & Mechanical Infrastructure 

▪ Lincoln Elementary Boiler Room Renovations
▪ Thurgood Marshall Elementary Chilled Water System Replacement
▪ Thurgood Marshall Elementary New HVAC equipment 
▪ Building Envelope Upgrades

Construction Updates

Work completed from contract signing (Mid-July) through October:

▪ District wide LED lighting improvements in all 9 facilities
▪ Lincoln Elementary (LE) corridor new ceilings
▪ Thurgood Marshall Elementary (TME) cooling repairs to HVAC and mechanical equipment
▪ TME controls replaced in classrooms 
▪ Completed installation of new boilers and pumps at LE
▪ LE Performed factory startup of boilers 
▪ Received design approval for flooring at Roosevelt Middle School (RMS)

Upcoming Work to be Completed:

▪ Begin Installation of flooring at Roosevelt Middle School
▪ McKinley Controls improvements
▪ Begin retrofit of remaining building controls at LE
▪ LE heating equipment to be installed in vestibules along with new ceilings 
▪ Finalize ceiling reinstallation in basement of Lincoln Elementary