Berkley School District begins construction on 2025 bond work

BERKLEY — The Berkley School District has kicked off the beginning of its bond work for 2025.

Construction commenced in the Berkley School District recently with work on two of its buildings, Pattengill Elementary and Burton Elementary schools. Both schools will be getting new cafeterias that also will act as multipurpose spaces.

This month, the district also will start construction work on projects at Berkley High School, including the addition of a performing arts wing with a new auditorium and black box theater, upgrades to the swimming pool and science wing, and the building of the new athletic structure, the BEAR Complex. BEAR stands for Berkley Education, Athletics and Recreation.

The BEAR is an indoor fieldhouse with a 60-yard turf surface lined for multiple sports, including football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball and the school’s marching band. It also will have a new weight room.

“It’s a game changer on many levels because it enhances and extends what we’re able to provide so many athletic programs, and even in our marching band program as well, where we had to have a lot of shared spaces for students,” Superintendent Scott Francis said. “(The baseball team is) practicing in our gymnasium because the outdoor fields aren’t ready because of the weather. Well, (the BEAR) can now provide a beautiful, larger space for many of our groups right now who are wanting to practice and get ready for the season.”

Site preparation for the BEAR will start next month. An old maintenance building has to be demolished first, the district stated, and actual construction of the facility is expected to take place in several months.

The construction comes as part of an $88 million bond that was approved by voters in 2023.

For this year’s work, the science, performing arts and pool projects were bid out for more than $13 million, the BEAR Complex was bid out for $16 million and the Burton and Pattengill work was bid out for $8.5 million.

“The upgrades were noted back in 2014, our districtwide (building) assessment, where we knew we could tackle a lot of the needs in that assessment, but we were sensitive to how much we could ask from the community back in 2015 and we weren’t ready to address all the needs because it would have been a larger ask at that time,” Francis said.

“We made some improvements in the auditorium, performing arts spaces there, but we knew we’d have to come back to do a complete overhaul of the project, and that really became apparent over the last couple years for us,” he continued. “We’re excited about really overhauling the high school auditorium with everything pretty much new, from seating to sound and lighting to the acoustics.”

Berkley’s drama coordinator and musical director, John Hopkins, has been with the district for 13 years and said the performing arts space was in need of improvements when he started.

While some improvements were made around that time, Hopkins said they were mainly Band-Aids and more was needed to be done.

“The district has never been unaware that things needed to happen,” he said. “It’s always been on the district’s mind that if our performing arts programs are winning awards and things, that really we need a better place to showcase them.”

“The need for the black box, to my knowledge, my understanding, is that the drama department, we’re always being displaced,” Hopkins continued. “A lot of times, we’ll be moved, like we’ve moved for the National Honor Society to have a meeting. … We moved for pretty much everything. So the district has also always been pretty aware that we’ve needed an additional space for drama so that we’re not always displaced, that our drama kids feel like they have a home as well, and same with our choir program.”