Two Thornton Township High School District 205 schools are closed until July 28 for a combined $25 million in facility upgrades, including upgrading athletic fields and swimming pools.
Thornwood High School in South Holland closed May 23, and Thornridge High School in Dolton closed last week. Superintendent Nathaniel Cunningham said Thornton High School in Harvey will not close, though work is ongoing for its new athletic field and renovations to its band room.
Athletic field upgrades include replacing the football field’s grass with artificial turf for consistently safe play despite weather changes. Cunningham said the district is also installing running tracks around the fields as an investment into its high performing track and field teams.
At Thornwood and Thornridge, workers are renovating swimming pools and replacing floors and lighting. Getting rid of deteriorating tile would expose those in the school to asbestos through the floor’s adhesive, so the district also approved asbestos abatement to be completed this summer.
Thornridge will get all new windows to replace ones Cunningham said are probably original to the school.
“By upgrading those windows, we make ourselves more energy efficient. It looks better, and kids take better care of schools that look better,” Cunningham said.
The pool at Thornridge requires urgent exterior repairs, and Thornwood’s pool has been unusable since 2018.
“We were having trouble having those physical education programs because we’re having trouble with those pools,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said the district has been saving for many years to cover two phases of facility and school renovations, the first of which began this spring. None of the capital spending requires tax increases, which Cunningham said was a priority for him as superintendent.
“We’ve had a few blessings come our way as we were saving that are going to allow us to get these things done,” he said, referencing public support including $19 million of state funding for the athletic field renovations.
District officials are expected to present their plans for Phase 2 at the July 9 school board meeting.
“With many of the things that we’re facing, we’re trying to take it step by step and make sure we take care of our kids,” Cunningham said.
Many ideas for improvements came from a community survey administered in 2023, Cunningham said, with much of the feedback centering on potential athletic facility improvements.
Associate Superintendent Jerry Doss said he is part of an administrative task force working on a five-year capital improvement plan “that will basically renovate the entire district by 2030.”
“Going forward, we’ll be looking at all classrooms, some work here at our district office … touching every instructional space and modernizing it to 2025 standards,” Doss said.
Doss said the district also hopes to add more inter district transportation, including building its own bus hub. However, he said tariffs on materials such as steel being championed by President Donald Trump could make it more difficult for the district to construct buildings from scratch.
While costs and project priorities remain up in the air, Cunningham said he is excited to improve students’ learning environments.
Most recent data from the Illinois Department of Education show District 205 proficiency scores lag behind state averages.
In 2024, 10% of District 205 high school students were proficient in English/language arts compared to 39% of high school students across Illinois, and 5% were proficient in math compared to 28% statewide. Science scores were higher, with 21.5% of students proficient compared to 53% of students across the state.
“You want to have the best opportunity for instruction, and you want to have your kids focused on learning, and each one of our steps is about that,” Cunningham said.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
