Walking through the soon-to-be cafeteria of East Peoria Community High School, superintendent Cliff Cobert could not help but comment on the progress made each day.
“It’s amazing how much changes from day to day,” Cobert said. “We’re probably getting close to 90 percent complete.”
Phase one, which cost $10 million, includes the addition of a new kitchen and cafeteria, along with 17 new classrooms — 13 on the second floor and four on the main level.
Once the expansion is complete, phase one also includes renovating the existing cafeteria into a fine arts wing with two art classrooms and a band and chorus room, Cobert said.
At the same time, the current weight room will be turned into offices, and the Rosedale Road entrance will become the school’s main entrance, he said.
The renovations will be complete at the start of the 2010-11 school year, Cobert said. Come mid-March, students will move into the cafeteria, which will serve more students than the current facility allows.
“We will serve 600 students at a time, which will allow us — with an enrollment of about 1,200 students — to go to two lunches instead of the three lunches we have right now,” Cobert said, adding with three lunches, some classes have to be split. “We can make the lunches a little bit longer, and no classes will be disrupted.”
Also in the cafeteria, two large drop-down screens will be installed for multi-media use.
“We’re really going to encourage (the cafeteria’s) use by the community,” he said, adding it would be a great spot for class reunions. “School dances will be held in here. It will be a much nicer and larger space.”
New lockers line the walls of the new second-floor addition. Students will move into the classrooms right after spring break, Cobert said.
Each classroom has its own audio system as well as motion-detecting lights. And recently, an accent color was painted on one wall inside each classroom.
“We wanted some color up here, so it wasn’t so institutionalized,” Cobert said, as he entered a classroom.
After expansion and renovations are complete, phase two will include demolishing the old “A Building,” which was first built in 1922. Cobert estimated the cost of that project would be close to $4 million.
In the future, the district will secure the financing to build a new facility that will house a gym, locker room and weight room, Cobert said.
“The building has some structural issues,” he said. “Ultimately, we just want to update the new facility and bring it into the 21st century.”
