DUNNING — Canty Elementary School's new two-story, $18-million annex will include a multipurpose room — but it won't be big enough to host basketball or volleyball games, as parents had hoped, according to plans unveiled by city officials.
However, parents said they were "thrilled" with the design for the annex, which also will include 15 classrooms, a computer lab, music room and administrative offices.
"It's going to be pretty amazing," said Stacy Babich, who has a son in sixth grade and another in fourth grade, and was one of many parents to press Chicago Public Schools officials to address severe overcrowding at the school, 3740 N. Panama St., that forced students to eat lunch in the auditorium and study in hallways.
Babich said she was especially pleased the annex would be environmentally sensitive and feature the latest technology.
However, Babich said parents were "disappointed" the annex's multipurpose room won't be tall enough to serve as a gym and host basketball and volleyball games.
City officials said they would consider a request to move the existing teachers lounge and copy room from the original building to the annex to allow seating in the gym to be expanded, Babich said.
During the 2013-14 school year, Canty's utilization rate was nearly 154 percent, making it among the most overcrowded schools in the area, with 831 students attending class in a building meant for no more than 540, according to Chicago Public Schools data.
But the school has an eight-classroom modular building, giving the school an adjusted utilization rate of 111 percent and an "efficient" rating, according to data provided by CPS.
Those modular buildings will be torn down and replaced with grassy open space, officials said. In addition, the school will get a new playground — which parents want to be left open after school hours to allow neighborhood children to play there, Babich said.
Construction of the annex is expected to begin next month and be completed in time for the first day of school in September 2016, according to a presentation given by Public Building Commission Executive Director Erin Lavin Cabonargi.
The new music room in the annex will allow the school to expand its fine- and performing-arts magnet program, officials said.
In addition to the construction of the new 40,000-square-foot annex, the existing 65-year-old building will be renovated as part of the project. The current kitchen and copy room will be turned into two new classrooms, and the school will get new alarm, security and intercom systems, officials said.
In 2004, when Mayor Rahm Emanuel was a congressman he wrote to then-CPS CEO Arne Duncan asking him to make building an annex at Canty a priority. Parents unearthed that letter, and used it in their campaign for an annex.
Emanuel attended the community meeting last week where the plans for the annex were unveiled, and said he was pleased to make good on his more-than-a-decade-old promise, Babich said.
Most other schools on the Far Northwest Side face a similar space crunch because of an influx of families looking for affordable homes in a relatively safe area of the city. Those families' children have filled many Northwest Side schools' classrooms to the bursting point, according to city census data.
Annexes at Wildwood Elementary School in Edgebrook and at Oriole Park Elementary School in Norwood Park are scheduled to be completed this summer.
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