Elgin (Ill.) District U-46 says it is postponing its plans to move sixth-grade students to middle schools because of construction-related problems.
The Elgin Courier-News reports the delay means that sixth grade will continue to attend elementary schools in 2023-34 and 2024-25 and then become a part of middle school for the 2025-26 school year.
ARCON Associates, the architectural firm converting Hawk Hollow Elementary in Bartlett into a middle school, has informed the district that problems in scheduling electrical, mechanical, concrete, and steel contractors and obtaining needed materials was creating delays.
District Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm said the longest lead time item is the electrical transformer needed to power a building addition.
Plans to close Hawk Hallow as an elementary at the end of the school year remain in place so the renovation and building work can be done, Superintendent Tony Sanders said. Garfield Elementary School also will close at year's end as planned.
Because of the delays, the district will be able to consider the updates necessary at some of its other middle schools, especially Elgin-based Ellis, Larsen, Kimball and Abbott as they prepare to add a new grade level, Sanders said.
Middle school boundaries will need to be adjusted as district prepares to make Hawk Hollow the district's ninth middle school and relocate about 2,500 sixth graders into the other middle schools by August 2025.
