The Master Facility Plan

In this episode of the Glenbrooks Insights Podcast, host Dr. R.J. Gravel discusses the District’s ten-year master facility plan. The District collaborates with Arcon Associates once a decade to evaluate 1.3 million square feet of building space and 128 acres of campus. Expert guests Lauren Bonner, Dr. Kim Ptak, and Erin Miller join the conversation to detail the roadmap for these facility upgrades and the financing behind them.

The discussion emphasizes that this plan is a promise to the community, focusing on intentionally designing environments for future learners. A key priority is ensuring these improvements are made without placing an extra financial burden on taxpayers. Ultimately, the episode highlights how the District balances infrastructure needs with community feedback to support the student experience.

Guests:

• Lauren Bonner, Incoming Assistant Superintendent of Operations and Student Experiences
• Dr. Kim Ptak, Director of Operations
• Erin Miller - Arcon Associates, Principal Architect 

Host: Dr. R.J. Gravel

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Picture

Speaker 3 0:09

Hello and welcome back to Glenbrook Insights Podcast. I'm your host, RJ Gravel, and today we are talking about a very exciting project, the Master Facility Plan. You may not know this, but every 10 years, the district partners with our architect, Arcon Associates, to conduct a comprehensive review of over 1.3 million square feet across four buildings and 120 acres of campus, which is truly a vast project that we work through. And this helps our operations team understand current building conditions and anticipate future needs. Today we are sharing the process of planning the roadmap of our plan, the financing behind it, and most importantly, how we incorporate our students, our parents, and community members in providing feedback. Joining me today in today's conversation are Mrs. Lauren Bonner, the incoming assistant superintendent of operations and student experiences. Lauren, welcome.

Speaker 1 1:13

Thank you, Dr. Gravel. So good to be here.

Speaker 3 1:15

It is great to have you here. Can you remind me, is this your first podcast? This is my first official podcast. All right. Well, welcome to the excitement. Just remember, just be yourself, have a good conversation, and most importantly, anything you have, just know you're being recorded and it's going to be shared with everyone. Sounds fabulous. Wonderful. Dr. Kim Ptak, our director of operations, Dr. Ptak, you've been here before, haven't you?

Speaker 1:38

I have never been on a podcast. Oh my God. I have not.

Speaker 3 1:42

We're going to have three people brand new to this experience. Well, let this not be your last time, but your first time of many. Are you excited for today?

Speaker 1:49

Yes. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 3 1:51

And can you remind me, Kim, how long have you been with the district and when did you start around?

Speaker 1:56

So do I have to say I've been with the district for it's coming up on about 20 years. So I was here during the referendum and I was here for many of these master facility plans.

Speaker 3 2:07

So I just wanted to kind of highlight that without per se like highlighting how long Kim has been here. But we don't have a lot of staff members who have been overseeing construction projects all the way back to 2006. So you've had a lot of different experiences, and we look forward to learning more from you. So thank you for being here today.

Speaker 1 2:24

Thank you.

Speaker 3 2:25

And Erin from Arcon. Erin, why don't you tell us a little about yourself, your background with Archon, and how long you've worked with the district?

Speaker 2 2:33

Sure. So I'm with Arcon Associates. We are an architecture firm that specializes in K-12 construction. And I've had the pleasure of working with District 225 since about 2013. But our firm has been with the district much longer than that, actually. So I um am a principal with the firm and I kind of oversee things from a big picture perspective and work with our teams and you're disturbed.

Speaker 3 2:54

Wonderful. Well, not to put you on the spot, but to kind of put you on the spot. In all of your years, you said dating back to 2013, you've worked on a lot of projects. If you were to choose one project that stands in your mind as a really cool, exciting thing that you've worked on, what would it be?

Speaker 2 3:11

That's a very tough question because I feel like we've done a lot of fun work here and a lot of uh very satisfying work. Um I did really love what we accomplished with State and Madison at GBS and more recently at GBN with the Student Activities Corridor. I thought those projects both served the students very well and were um, you know, more transformative and more visual to people. So those were both great.

Speaker 3 3:34

Well, what I really like about what you pointed out, Erin, were two projects that maybe to just a regular person walking by, you would think, oh, I'm I'm working on a corridor, I'm working on a hallway. But in reality, those spaces are almost hot spots for our kids where they come together, they collaborate, they're able to engage with each other. And so what might look like just the hallway actually is an intersection where creativity and collaboration

What A Master Facility Plan Does

Speaker 3 4:00

come to life. And so, kind of taking that in mind, Kim, I want to switch over to you and just talk about the planning of the master facility plan. There's so much more to the process than just thinking about our rooftops, sidewalks, and even the interiors of our room. So, what does master facility planning mean to you from someone who oversees the process?

Speaker 4:24

Yes, good question. A master facility plan is really just a long-term roadmap for our buildings. It helps us look ahead and assess not only our infrastructure needs, like our roofs and parking lots, and mechanical systems, but it also allows us to look at larger facility enhancements that really improve the day-to-day student experience. Um, a good example of that would be our outdoor stadium. So that's actually a project that we're fortunate enough to be able to address in the very first year of our plan. And that project has major infrastructure components such as our bleachers and the turf and the track, where those items, they've just reached the end of their life cycle and so we're ready to replace them. But the project also allows us to think bigger and look at ways to really enhance the whole stadium experience. And so we will be adding bathrooms so that all the users can enjoy the bathrooms and not just the people within the stadium, but making those bathrooms accessible for all of the fields that are outside. Also looking at things like adding an outdoor pavilion that can also serve as an outdoor classroom or also be a shelter during games, looking at things like adding a trainer's room to improve the safety for our athletes. So all of those types of improvements go into the master facility plan. So we're fortunate that we don't only have to focus on the infrastructure type things, but also ways to just improve the overall experience.

Speaker 3 5:42

Now, Kim, I've had the opportunity to sit through a variety of feedback sessions with you and our teachers, our coaches, our student athletes, our students who just enjoy going to games, um, and and even our parents and community members. Getting feedback is always an important element. We'll talk about that a little more later, but just out of curiosity, when you think of the stadium project, is there any, you know, piece of feedback that without those sessions we wouldn't have known about that's helped inform what we're going to do?

Speaker 6:14

Yes, I would say it's all the little pieces we learned from the feedback sessions. Um, I had a really nice conversation with one of the drum majors who was looking at the plan and just wanted to make sure that the entrance was large enough because the whole drum line processes into the stadium before before the games. And so just looking at the different entrances and how that would work, or also looking at how the the truck will drive in with all of the band equipment before the game. So things like that we don't always think about, but talking to these different users, and there's countless examples of of that.

Speaker 3 6:47

Well, thank you for that. Now, Erin, from an architectural perspective, we know that the master facility plan I mentioned earlier is

How Architects Find The Right Questions

Speaker 3 6:55

not just about the nuts and bolts, but a lot of visioning. How would you describe the architect's role and really helping coach the district through the process since you guys work with so many districts and this isn't something that we've we've done every year for the last 20 years as an example?

Speaker 2 7:11

Uh yeah, absolutely. I think the role that we play that's important is to be asking the right questions. Um, as you mentioned, when we do a facility survey, we're working, looking at the building infrastructure and taking a careful inventory, but we're also asking questions like does the space uh support education? Does it support day-to-day operations? Um, are we serving the community with the building? How is the daylight in the space? Um, how is the acoustical environment? So we're extracting information from the people that live in the building day-to-day so that we can help the district create a roadmap to best serve its users.

Speaker 3 7:46

And so kind of digging into that, you know, if we were all just to get together around a table and say, we're we're building a new stadium and we need bleacher capacity and we need a track inside the stadium, and then uh we also need a variety of components like washroom facilities, we can easily miss things that are all of the minute details. Having done this for so many times, what are some things that that you have seen schools um might um overlook by accident without kind of digging through that process and gathering feedback and things of that nature?

Speaker 2 8:23

Uh yeah, I think one important thing is how are people um moving through the site? One thing that came up very early in the planning process at GBN um was reviewing where your existing entrance is located and asking, you know, the very early question, is this the right place for this entrance? And uh through those conversations and through um learning from other designs that we've completed, we made the decision, along of course, with the people we were working with on your end of things to shift that entrance so that it felt more central and so that it better served not only the football stadium but the surrounding athletic campus. So it's it's kind of learning from what we've done that's been effective at other schools and then asking the right questions and engaging with the end users from that point of view.

Speaker 3 9:05

But really, a key highlight here if we wouldn't have heard that feedback well before the the you know depth of the design process, the whole design could have been fixed, and then it would have been much more difficult to make uh uh changes to.

Speaker 2 9:20

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 3 9:21

So hearing that feedback in really shows that we take that, we value

Why The Plan Starts Outside

Speaker 3 9:25

it, and we implement it. So here's another question, Lauren, kind of switching to you. We've we've had a lot of uh different taglines we've used in the district, especially as we work through projects. And one of the ones that we've shared about the master facility plan is working our way outside in. Can you help me understand what that means and why it's relevant in this specific plan?

Speaker 1 9:50

Oh, it's a it's amazing. Actually, the work that we've done in the past few years in our buildings really has focused on our instructional spaces. So we did the total classroom project, we've renovated science labs, um, and then Erin spoke beautifully about our corridors, right? Madison, State and Madison and the student activities hallway here at North. So we've spent a lot of time and energy to get those spaces in in a wonderful shape, have a great experience for our students, for our teachers. It's time now to focus on our outdoor facilities. In particular, our stadiums serve so many different entities. It is a space that every single student uses.

Speaker 3 10:28

So don't worry about that. And that's one of those things, right, that people don't realize that the stadium is in use well beyond after school hours.

Speaker 1 10:34

Exactly. So you have to think past athletics, and and athletics are incredibly important, and of course, they're a major driver to the design and all the decisions we're making. But our students who are in PE classes, which they need to take each year, go into that stadium and use that for a curricular space. So we can't omit that part of the experience. And then we also have just these ancillary buildings surrounding it that we want to make sure serve everybody. So if you attend the mental health uh lacrosse fair that's happening this weekend, there's adequate bathrooms for you. And there's a place for agencies throughout the community to set up and tell our students and our staff and our visitors about what it is they provide to our community and to our students in particular. Um, so that when our boosters come and they grill, they have an experience that allows them to create a safe food and food product for anybody who purchases that. And that's a great fundraising mechanism that then supports our teams too. So it's one of those spaces that touches everybody. And we host events out there too, across the district. So sometimes it's, you know, uh to honor those who have served in the military. And so we draw in all of these different stakeholders into this space that it's time to improve. You know, Kim talked about some structures that are close to end of life. Um, we've seen some capacity concerns about our bleachers. So it's just really exciting that we now get to focus on the outside facilities.

Speaker 3 11:57

And another element that I want to highlight about the stadium project is the stadium is almost the hub of the exterior part of our campus at both Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South. And so infrastructure with respect to uh power and plumbing and certainly washroom facilities. We have we have heard that loud and clear. Um you need in that first year to to build that infrastructure, which will further inform additional renovations to fields, whether that's baseball, softball, practice fields, soccer, lacrosse, and and so on and so forth. Um one of the items that I want to make sure I address that we've heard from parents, and and Kim, I'm gonna turn back to you on this one. Um, we've heard a lot of questions since we're looking to renovate two very large um footprints on our campuses in the same year, um, that that might impact spring sports. So just putting it out there for our listeners, our parents, our community members, um, what have we learned since we first started to announce the project in February and March from where we are today?

Speaker 13:05

Yeah, so we we know how important every season of sports are for our athletes. And the spring obviously is no exception. And that was something that came out, you know, very clear from our student athletes, especially who participated in our learning sessions, just especially the seniors, right? The worry that during the spring, their final season, they would not be able to participate and have their, you know, their home games at their stadiums. And we really have been working hard with our construction manager and with Archon on the timing and phasing and sequencing of everything. And we are very optimistic that we will be able to still host all of our spring sports and right there on our fields, and that we will just get creative with what we need to do to start the construction while also preserving the fields. So some things they may see, we may not have all the home bleachers because we may want to start, you know, the demolition of those bleachers early. However, we would try to maintain the visitor bleachers so at least we would have some seating on the stadium. We may not have the bathroom facilities. However, we would make sure we had portable bathrooms. We would make sure we still had lights so that the goal would be to preserve that spring season and let the athletes still play on all of our fields while we safely try to phase in construction as we can to make sure it is still completed on time.

Speaker 3 14:25

So basically, there might be some under construction elements that'll be well signed and there will be accommodations made, but we'll be able to get through most of the spring 2027

Timeline From Concept To Construction

Speaker 3 14:35

season. Yes. So knowing that construction is gonna start around that springtime, let's kind of work our way backwards as we're now in May 2026. What is the timeline? Um, the board originally approved the plan on February 9th. And um, in the near future, they're gonna see kind of an overview of that first year, which includes a stadium. So take us through what the next steps are gonna look like.

Speaker 14:58

Yeah, so before the master facility plan, we had established a pretty solid process with our board um in terms of when they would first see projects, when they would approve the concept, take them out to bid, and then ultimately be constructed. And that was about a nine-month process. So we are still with the master facility plan able to follow that process, but we're just starting much earlier. So now instead of nine months, we're starting about 18 months in advance where we're really looking and defining these projects, um, again, meeting with these stakeholder groups so that we can bring conceptual drawings and high-level budget estimates to the board. We will be bringing that on May 11th. So, for again, work that will happen in the summer of 27, we're bringing it to the board, these conceptual drawings on May 11th. Once they look at that and they give approval with the concepts, then we will start the more detailed bid specifications. And that's where we work very closely with our architect, Archon, and we will go through probably some more little sessions, getting feedback as we need it and really fine-tuning all of the details. So, what material we're using, what colors we're using, exactly the placement of everything. So we take about six months to go through all of that, and these very detailed bid specifications will be created. Um, we put the projects then out to bid in October, and we'll be opening the bids in December, which means we'll be getting all the pricing for everything in December before we head off for the winter break.

Speaker 3 16:24

So we basically have an initial approval process on kind of the scope of the first years of work uh of May, so this month. And then we have bids specifications that are being developed for the next several months, ultimately with bids being approved after they go out in December.

Speaker 16:42

Yeah, so the bids will go out in October and then we'll open bids and get approval in December.

Speaker 3 16:48

And then construction starts.

Speaker 16:50

And then construction can start really on any of our projects probably as soon as February, as long as it's not impacting the day-to-day life of the students. And so if we have things again like the bleachers that can possibly be removed or bathrooms that can be, you know, altered, we will do all of that and just wait until school lets out to start doing other pieces.

Speaker 3 17:13

So we have a pretty um

Funding The Work Without Tax Increases

Speaker 3 17:15

pretty accelerated timeline here. And so, Lauren, let's transition back to you and uh talk about the question that one would naturally have, which is there is a substantial amount of work to be done in total. The master facility plan is about $150 million for a budget which takes from a variety of different sources. Um, can you share us uh a little bit of how the funding will be provided in order to make these enhancements for our students become a reality?

Speaker 1 17:43

Yeah, I can talk about that. This is your cup of tea, Dr. Gravel. And you really have positioned us, the district, uh, in a way that we can move forth with this work. So in 2006, um, when Kim was first joining the district, we uh the community passed a referendum. And at that time, we we made a full promise to, for at least 10 years after that, not go back out for another referendum. It is now 20 years later, and we have zero intent to change our path. And so this does not involve a referendum, which is pretty impressive. Um, so really, since that referendum was done, we use a pay as you go model for our project. So about $5 million a year is allocated within our operating budget for construction projects. With this master facility plan, we will continue to allocate five or so million dollars a year towards these projects that are in the 10-year master facility plan.

Speaker 3 18:31

Within the budget as is.

Speaker 1 18:34

And so in addition to that, in order to not have any burden on a taxpayer, so there will be no tax increases whatsoever, our debt for the district uh all will retire December of 2027. And so we can go out to bond and get $95 million to renew that debt, and that will support then the remaining balance of what we need for the 10-year master facility plan. Um, you know, again, thanks to the work you've done, we have that triple A rating. It allows us to borrow at the lowest possible rate for any governmental agency, which is incredible. So between the um five or so million dollars a year in the operating budget that we already are allocating and plan to continue allocating for the next 10 years, and then the bonds at $95 billion will be able to fully fund this project.

Speaker 3 19:19

So is it fair to say that the financing approach is really the district living within its means, collecting the same amount of money that's currently collected through what we would call debt service payments, leveraging the budget and prioritizing those modernizations and the preventative maintenance that we have for years, um, and now doing so just on a larger basis with respect to these uh next 10 years of projects.

Speaker 1 19:42

Absolutely. And I think part of what you'll see, you know, as we talk about the stadiums are in the first year. And so those are really significant large projects. And so we know that there's a bit of front loading of that monetary resource due to that first year being so big and encapsulating two full stadiums.

Speaker 3 19:57

Gotcha. Well, let's transition back to Aaron. Erin, one of the things we talked about was the true value that architects bring to a school district, which is that you work with a number of school districts. Um, and so you see large projects and small projects, and that that knowledge helps inform and make what we're doing even more refined or in some ways um better or being inspired by other other districts. So, one of the things that naturally um is hard when you're doing projects is making them not only relevant for today's needs, but future needs. So, from your perspective, um, how do you actually design as an architect um spaces and facilities so that they're flexible and don't become obsolete in a year or two?

Speaker 2 20:46

Yes, and that's a good question because of course that's very challenging. We don't know what's going to happen 10 years from now or what classrooms might look like. Um I think the most effective way to design for flexibility is really to prioritize adaptability, um, taking into account things like movable walls or flexible furniture or um, you know, infrastructure to support technology that's going to continue to evolve and change. Um I think designing spaces that can easily shift from lecture to group work to project-based learning, um, that can also serve multiple types of classes and different teaching styles without major renovation is really key. Um, two, I think flexible design acknowledges, as we've talked about and, you know, previously, um, that learning is not confined anymore to four walls in a classroom. Uh, you know, thinking outside the box, how can a cafeteria be transformed to meet a student's needs, or how can we spill out into a hallway? Or we talked about the idea of an outdoor pavilion that can also be an outdoor classroom. Um, so I think it's thinking outside the box in that regard. And then, of course, engaging with your teaching staff and with your administrators. Um, you know, they they know more than we know how things are evolving in the district. So as we work through your science uh renovation project that's upcoming. Or the culinary refresh, thinking about how those spaces can evolve as the program evolves and as pedagogy evolves so that they can function now, but function in the future as well.

Speaker 3 22:11

You know, I always find it interesting. Sometimes you get nervous when you have listening sessions and you invite different stakeholder groups to come, because sometimes you'll have a session and maybe three people will show up. And their thought is, well, it's because they're just having those opportunities because they need to have those opportunities. But as you mentioned earlier, those opportunities where people come, whether it's 20 people, 100 people, or five people, that feedback gets treated just the same. And so having more feedback and more individuals coming out and sharing thoughts only helps refine to get to this concept of building something for years.

Speaker 2 22:50

Yes, absolutely. We would much rather hear early in the process what people are thinking, even if they don't like, you know, our initial design. Um, sometimes hearing what people don't like or what isn't working helps us to refine things. And our most successful projects are ones where we've had some close engagement with the end user.

Speaker 3 23:06

So using that as a bit of a springboard, Lauren, we'll come back to you and

Student Voice And Staying Involved

Speaker 3 23:10

we're just going to get a little bit into the nitty-gritty. Um, we've been talking about the stadium, so let's keep on that same path. And you were challenged, um, even though you're currently at north, you're challenged at north and south to gather student voice to hear directly from our kiddos what they believe are needed. Can you walk us through what that process looked like and how students were able to contribute to where we are today?

Speaker 1 23:34

Yes, uh it's the best part of everything we do, the students. And so what we did is um we worked collaboratively to design a way for students to give us real-time feedback. So our con presented and prepared large boards that showed renderings at that time, kind of high-level, some level of detail in certain spaces like at concessions or potentially an entrance. Um, so we had visuals to have our students look at. So we hosted at north and we hosted at south these student listening sessions. We were purposeful about making sure we had a representative group of students. So when you think again about the users of the stadium from a student's lens, you hear about our broadcasting students, you hear about our marching band students, you think about the students who um are on the Flags team, you think about our athletes, of course, that are in that stadium. And that's it's not just football. We have lacrosse that's in there. And so you think about that. We also invited students that were on um, you know, the student council student advisory boards to make sure that it might not be a student who is competing on the field, but that goes to support their their friends. So we invited this representative group. We asked them to take a look at those boards and in that process share with us, share with us.

Speaker 3 24:44

When we say the boards, the boards mean they actually had an opportunity to see examples.

Speaker 1 24:48

They saw examples and they were great. So some were like the, you know, the almost like the sky, the bird's eye view of the stadium. And then there were some zoomed in, especially for our concessions building, um, zoomed in takes of what those could look like. And so the students uh walked, oftentimes with, you know, a friend or a set of friends, and walked and talked, and just hearing those conversations were wonderful. But we also asked him to give three points of feedback. So, what what it was that they were seeing on those visual representations that they loved, what it was that they thought was missing, so something we might not have considered, and then what it was that they had questions or were curious about. And they gave such phenomenal feedback, and especially they were coming from such a representative group of lenses. So our broadcasting students thought about, oh my gosh, if those pavilions had outdoor screens when it's icky outside and it's raining, we're already streaming the games. We could just stream them over there and people could be out of the weather and have that experience. Um, you know, Kim talked at length about the marching band feedback that we've gotten. It was wonderful. And so it was a way to incorporate student voice early on, like Erin was saying. We wanted that information early on so that we didn't have any missteps, so that we were designing purposefully, so that when we come back to the board this month with updated versions of that, it really is reflective of all of the feedback that we received across the schools.

Speaker 3 26:09

So, one of the things that I've been very happy to see is not just the opportunities for our students and staff, but also community members to reach out. And I just want to highlight for those who may have missed those opportunities, remember that there are going to be new opportunities coming forward. And we'll communicate those out through social media, through email, and also community announcements. But also, if you have thoughts, especially as we're talking about the large stadium renovation or what have you, please feel free to reach out to Lauren or myself or Kim so that we can make sure we have that feedback. It it does not need to be something major, it can be just a small idea of something that you've realized. I think back to when we were talking with students and they were highlighting some real challenges about traffic flow, about trying to navigate in and out of the stadium, which was not directly related to the actual bleachers or concession or things, but the whole student experience, not only at an event, but also during the school day. So it's exciting to see. So as we wrap up today's conversation, it's really clear that the master facility plan is much more than a list of renovation projects. It's a promise to our students and our community that we're not just fixing what's broken, we're intentionally designing an environment that supports the next generation of learners, athletes, artists, and others without placing an extra burden on our taxpayers. I want to especially thank Lauren, Erin, and Kim, who all did an amazing job preparing for today. And then I changed all of the questions that they were presented with just so we could have that natural conversation. But thank you for highlighting how we plan to make our buildings and our environments more welcoming, our long-term financial stewardship and ongoing community engagement. Now, to our listeners, our friends on the air, we invite you to visit our district website to view the full details of the master facility plan at Glenbrook225.org. Until next time, thanks for listening, and I can't wait to connect with you next month on Glenbrook Insights.