Arlington Heights, IL – A blustery morning yesterday couldn’t keep the students and staff at both Ivy Hill Elementary and Olive-Mary Stitt Elementary from celebrating their upcoming expansion and construction projects.

The groundbreaking ceremonies at each school were unique and special in their own way, but both schools shared a sense of excitement and readiness for the upcoming additions.

One Ivy Hill kindergartener, Ben, summed up the construction project with two words, “bigger gym.” 

Another Ivy Hill student was excited for the new playground to come, and another thinks of construction as soring “higher and higher.”

The Olive students were super psyched for the additional space in their upcoming expanded gym to run around. Dominic, a fifth grader, was excited that Olive was getting “bigger classrooms and more space.”

Yesterday morning, Superintendent, Dr. Lori Bein, kicked off the groundbreaking ceremonies with an uplifting message to the students, parents and staff of both schools.

“I am so, very excited for all of you,”, Dr. Bein told both communities. “You are beginning to plan for the future…we look forward to watching your school grow this year.”

The groundbreaking video was shown to both student bodies Tuesday afternoon and was unique to each school. Each school selected one student from each grade at random to “assist” in the construction with one shovel of dirt.

Ivy Hill is set to expand with 10 new classrooms, a new courtyard, an updated playground and an expanded gym allowing for multiple gym classes at once.

Olive-Mary Stitt is getting five new classrooms, an updated playground and an expanded gym also to hold multiple gym classes.

Both schools have seen a recent increase in enrollment, pushing for this expansion and leading to an exciting time in Arlington Heights School District 25 history. Please stay up to date on the construction projects via twitter @ahsd25 and online at www.sd25.org.