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Read the press release here.

Parents Rejoice As Annex At Canty Elementary School Takes Shape

DUNNING — As parents across the Far Northwest Side seethed at the news that no relief is in sight for their children's overcrowded schools, parents near Canty Elementary School watched crews slowly build a two-story annex.

The $18 million annex — which includes 15 classrooms, a computer lab, music room, multipurpose room and administrative offices — is set to open in September, officials said.

Like students at many schools on the Far Northwest Side, students at the school at 3740 N. Panama St. are forced to eat lunch in the auditorium and study in hallways.

Once the school year ends, the school's modular buildings will be torn down and replaced with grassy open space, officials said. In addition, the school will get a new playground, according to plans.

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.

City officials have announced plans to expand Byrne Elementary School in Garfield Ridge and build new schools in Clearing and the South Loop.

[[All images courtesy of Stacy Babich]

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