North Shore 112 unveils renovated Ravinia Elementary just in time for school year

While summer is coming to a close, students in North Shore School District 112 will have something to appreciate when classes start again next week: a freshly renovated Ravinia Elementary School building.

D112 administrators, educators, parents and board of education members gathered outside Ravinia Elementary on Wednesday morning, Aug. 13, to celebrate the completion of construction work that began in 2023 at the more-than-100-year-old school building as part of a larger overhaul of district buildings. 

Members of the public were invited Wednesday to tour the halls of Ravinia Elementary, which now boasts completely updated interior spaces, ADA-compliant features like elevators, eight new grade-level classrooms and a state-of-the-art geothermal heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

“This building is more than just modernized or expanded or pretty,” Ravinia Elementary Principal Courtney Gilkison said before cutting a ceremonial blue ribbon in front of the building’s front door. 

“It is every one of those things, don’t get me wrong, but it is also a nod to all those before us and planned for all those who will be here after we’re gone. It’s a perfect blend of history and innovation.”

The $40 million project involved keeping the historic building’s red-brick exterior intact while gutting much of its inside to create an “open-concept” floor plan between its centralized library, special instruction spaces, gymnasium, cafeteria area and brand new wing of expanded-size classrooms. 

Amy March, a recently retired teacher of 35 years, said she was in attendance Wednesday because she was excited to hear about improvements to the building’s previous lack of air conditioning and wheelchair accessibility. 

Inside classrooms, individual desks have been swapped out for larger tables, which should help with encouraging collaboration between students, March said, adding that the wider, color-coded hallways should help with transitions between classes.

“It’s magical. I think it’s beautiful what they’ve done,” March said. “To be able to teach in a place where there’s air conditioning and the climate will make a huge difference for learning because when it’s 100 degrees it’s really hard to learn.”

Liz Ponce, a Highland Park parent with an incoming first-grader and third-grader at Ravinia Elementary, echoed that she appreciated the new air conditioning and expanded classroom sizes in the building, as well as its many windows. 

“Number one was probably the AC just because, for summer, it was really tough on her,” Ponce said referring to her daughter. “Even for the eco-friendly, like having more natural light, I feel like that helps for their mental health as well, especially in the winter time.”

New features in the building also include sound padding in a number of its classrooms, lighting designed to match student’s circadian rhythm, a lunch-service space where food prepared at Edgewood Middle School will be made available for Ravinia students, a courtyard, and an accessible playground. 

Barry Kravitz, another Highland Park resident, said during his tour of the building that he was happy to see taxpayer dollars go toward improving the building in ways that weren’t even possible when his two children grew up attending Ravinia Elementary. 

“It’s been decades since my kids were here and this building is outfitted with the latest and greatest technologies of the 21st century which didn’t exist back at the time,” Kravitz said. “The money was well spent to put the best facilities into the building.”

D112 worked with Susan Benjamin, a local architectural historian, to ensure that the renovations retained the historically significant features of the old school. Inside, the building’s original wooden beams remain intact and several of its brick fireplaces now provide shelving space. 

Vince Procaccio, an architect who worked on Ravinia Elementary’s renovations, said one challenge was to make the old building ADA-compliant by knocking down all three floors in its middle part and holding up its exterior while construction crews rebuilt it into a level two-floor schoolhouse.

More than 70% of Highland Park and Highwood voters turned out in support of a referendum in 2022 for D112 to issue $114.4 million in bonds to fund upgrades to its school facilities.

The district initiated its multi-phase facilities plan in 2019 with construction at Northwood Middle School. Renovations then followed at Edgewood and Oak Terrace. 

Come Aug. 21, 340 D112 students will enter Ravinia Elementary after a number spent the past two years inside Green Bay Early Childhood Center. Renovations will next begin at Braeside Elementary School and construction at Wayne Thomas should begin in 2026. 

“We stand before you at the fourth of what will be seven ribbon-cuttings rebuilding your community’s schools,” D112 Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld said, addressing the crowd gathered on Wednesday on the district’s ongoing overhaul. 

“Why did you move here? For the schools. Why do you raise your kids here? For the schools. Why do you want to grow old here, live here? Because of the schools,” Lubelfeld continued.  “We take that very seriously; we take that humbly. These are your schools.”