Cost Rises To $7.3 Million For Niles West Pool Repairs

SKOKIE, IL — School board members in Niles Township High School District 219 decided to stick with the construction company they hired renovate the swimming pool at Niles West High School.

The $7.3 million repair project includes replacing the pool deck, tiles and the concrete that sits below it, according to district officials.

Renovations also include improvements to accessibility, addressing health and safety issues and eliminating things like non-compliant catwalks.

According District 219 Operations Director Sarah Kowalski, a list of needed pool repairs was drawn up early last year with a price tag 45 percent lower than the amount so far allocated to the project.

"The estimate developed in January 2022 was for $4,000,000," Kowalski said in a memo to the facilities committee earlier this year.

"The total cost for this project is higher than originally anticipated because of inflation and added scope," she explained.

Nearly $2 million of the $3.3 million in increased cost can be attributed to additions to the scope of the project, according to a memo from Studio GC architect Athi Toufexis.

At the Dec. 5 board meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Business Tim Neubauer, Toufexis and Kowalski presented a trio of potential plans for a larger-scale expansion of its pool facilities.

Board members said they are considering two of them. One (Option A) would cost another $18.5 million to expand the space.

The other (Option B) would create a separate, 28,430-square-foot space at a cost of $29.6 million in additional funding.

---

Superintendent Tom Moore said district officials have previously discussed adding a second pool at Niles North. He emphasized that planning for a major aquatic center expansion would have to go work its way through the facilities committee.

"I don't want to make false promises to people, this wouldn't be going out immediately to go with this," Moore said.

"There'd be all the steps that go into this," the superintendent said. "And then we'd have to plan out how you'd finance it, and what the timeline would be for that."

Students, parents and coaches have expressed concerns that the renovations will not sufficiently expand the facility's offerings, according to Pioneer Press, which first reported the plans for an aquatic center expansion.

Also at this month's meeting, board members voted to approve a 7.4 percent increase to its property tax levy.