Drive by Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South on this first morning of the 2012-13 school year, the parking lots are filled despite some dirt piles and fencing remaining from this summer's capital improvements.
Doug Lim of Gilbane, Inc., the district's contractor, said at the Aug. 13 District 86 Board of Education meeting that some exterior pre-cast paneling and bleacher-work might not be done in time for the first day of school, but Superintendent Nick Wahl said Wednesday morning that those comments have since been clarified and landscaping is also among the to-be-finished tasks.
The winning landscaping bid wasn't approved by the board until Monday night's meeting. Wahl said that timing was "by design" and that this late-summer period is preferable to begin the work of sodding and planting perrennials and trees.
"None of the work is going to disrupt instruction," Wahl said.
Wahl said the fencing that can be seen along the north side of Hinsdale Central is around spots that will be landscaped and is necessary because there's a bioswale along that side of the school.
A small number of workers can be seen outside the buildings this morning, but Wahl said they will remain out of the way of students and won't be in pick-up or drop-off areas before or after school. Lim's Aug. 13 statement, Wahl said, was "accurate to a point as far as [construction workers] in the building."
Wahl did not give a date on the expected completion of the landscaping work at the two schools.
"The landscaping is contingent on the kind of weather we get the next month or so," he said.
Flowers or no flowers, District 86's school year did begin Wednesday morning.
"All the driveways and the bus loops are open," Wahl said. "The first day is off."