GALESBURG, Illinois — This school year will be different for students across the country. Students at Galesburg High School will head back to a completely different building if they go back after their first five weeks of remote learning.
Galesburg School District is remodeling multiple schools this summer, the largest being a $36-million dollar renovation to the high school. When and if students go back, they will have class in 40 mobile classrooms on the north end of the building.
The make-shift classrooms can house up to 800 students the next two years as part of a renovation to modernize the building and make room for 7th and 8th grades.
"The district - back in the eighties - closed 21 building in a response to a drop in enrollment," says Dr. John Asplund, Galesburg School District Superintendent. "Now we are doing it again after what we experienced in the last 15 years as another drop."
That's a 50% drop in enrollment since the 1980's. But the 1958 high school has a lack of air conditioning and power outlets.
"I think it's going to be a pretty great opportunity for our kids and our staff to be in here (mobile classrooms) versus the second floor of GHS, which is really hot," Dr. Asplund explains.
He says once the renovation is complete, it should last for 20 years.
"There was going to be a lot of change anyway," says Dr. Asplund. "This, obviously being with Coronavirus has made the change a lot bigger than we planned on."
The next phase of construction will condense the auditorium seating in half - from 2,400 seats to about 600.