Minooka Community High School to build new fieldhouse, career center for $82 million

Minooka Community High School is spending about $82 million to build a new Career and Technical Education Center and a field house.

Minooka Community High School District 111 Superintendent Robert Schiffbauer said $30 million of the funding for the projects will come from the district's savings. The district has been saving to fund this project for a while and the rest will be funded by $37 million in debt certificates and an additional $15 million in working cash bonds. The board voted on the $37 million in debt certificates in the spring, and the expectation is that the $15 million in working cash bonds will be needed after the project goes out to bid, he said.

"We're estimating the project at $82 million, and that won't affect our tax rate whatsoever," Schiffbauer said. "The tax rate as we're sitting here today is $2.28. None of this borrowing will affect that with the way our debt is structured. We planned this so we would roll off debt and bring in new debt by keeping that tax rate completely the same. We're not asking the taxpayers to do anything more."

Schiffbauer said the district's S&P bond rating came back at AA stable, which he said means the district still has good fund balances to insulate the district from any kind of financial issues that could pop up in the world.

"There was a lot of financial planning well before I even got here to set us up to be able to do these things for our students, staff and community," Schiffbauer said.

The new project includes the Career and Technical Education Center, which will add an auto shop, welding shop, construction and woods shop and a robotics electricity lab. It will also add a commercial kitchen, and will remodel the food lab. The Career and Technical Education Center will be built at the Central Campus at 301 Wabena Ave. in Minooka.

The field house, which will be built at the South Campus at 26655 Eames St., will be the home to a 200-meter, six lane indoor track, a weight room, additional locker rooms, a coaches office, more storage and a maintenance shop.

Schiffbauer said the maintenance shop is something that's been in the works for a long time.

"This will update the building, and we'll be able to teach our students in areas where they can go out into the real world and get good paying jobs," Schiffbauer said. "We hear a lot that skilled tradesmen are in high demand, and we're hoping our programs that we're going to have at MCHS that our kids will be ready to go be a welder with Pipefitters Local 597 or go be a carpenter, out there in the world right away. We know not every kid wants to go to college, so we want to give them as many opportunities to learn skills as possible."

Schiffbauer said the district will still partner with the Grundy Area Vocational Center, though it may look a little different since it will have its own construction and auto shop programs. The district will still have students participating in the criminal justice, fire science, health and cosmetology programs.