Beecher 200U Plans Multi-Building Summer Projects, Approves $14,276 Junior High Floor Restoration

Beecher Community Unit School District 200-U Meeting | May 13, 2026

Article Summary: Beecher Community Unit School District 200-U board members on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, approved a $14,276 floor restoration contract with Citywide Facilities to strip and refinish more than two decades of wax buildup at Beecher Junior High School. They also approved removing the failing digital sign in front of the junior high, while the superintendent detailed a slate of additional summer projects across all three school buildings.

Summer Capital Projects Key Points:

• $14,276 VCT floor restoration at Beecher Junior High awarded to Citywide Facilities; building expected to be closed for roughly three weeks in June.
• Aging digital sign at Beecher Junior High to be removed entirely; board cited the existing vinyl signage as preferable.
• Beecher High School old-gym floor to receive a $9,200 oil-based refinish from gym floor specialist Stalker, including replacement of 17 floorboards.
• Elementary window replacement project and seal coating work at the junior high also moving forward this summer.

BEECHER — The Beecher Community Unit School District 200-U Board of Education on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, approved a $14,276 contract with Citywide Facilities to restore the floors at Beecher Junior High School, voted to remove the building’s aging digital sign, and heard a detailed summer construction outlook from Superintendent Dr. Jack Gaham.

The floor restoration contract was approved unanimously. Gaham told the board the project is necessary because the vinyl composition tile (VCT) floors at the junior high carry more than 20 years of wax buildup that has become impractical to maintain through routine waxing alone.

“We’re going to take the 20 years of wax and we’re going to … have Citywide strip those down back down to the original VCT, back to their origin instead of trying to replace these things,” Gaham said. “We can get it back down to the to the base level and we can start it fresh.”

The superintendent said Citywide Facilities will handle the stripping while the district’s own custodial staff will re-wax the floors and put the rooms back together. To prevent overlap between the contractor and district staff, Gaham said it is highly likely the junior high will be closed to district workers for roughly three weeks in June. “I’m going to give the company carte blanche to get it done,” he said.

Gaham added that he expects to bring an updated annual cleaning contract with Citywide back to the board at its next meeting, covering both the junior high and elementary buildings. “Both buildings have been very happy with this past year. So fingers crossed we can keep that,” he said.

Junior High Digital Sign Coming Down

In a separate unanimous vote, the board approved removing the digital sign at the front of Beecher Junior High School. The sign has been the subject of previous discussions about whether to repair, replace or remove it.

Dr. Kwasny initially indicated she was open to either path, but Gaham said a follow-up conversation produced a clearer recommendation. “At the end of the day her preference would be to to remove it altogether,” Gaham said, citing the existing vinyl signage already in place at the building as a strong visual identifier. Removal will be handled internally and is expected to cost less than $10,000.

Gym Floor, New Office, Other Work

Outside the formal action items, Gaham used his report to walk through the broader summer slate.

At Beecher High School, the long-running issue with the old gym floor has produced what Gaham called welcome news. After an evaluation by floor contractor Stalker, the school will not need to sand the floor down — a fix the superintendent said he had feared could climb into six figures. Instead, the company will replace 17 boards in the old gym, scrub the surface, and apply an oil-based finish, with the same treatment applied to the floor in the high school den. The total estimated cost is $9,200, Gaham said. The contractor told the district that a previous water-based finish was likely the cause of the heaving issues observed in the gym floor over the past year.

The high school will also gain a new office. An unused journalism lab will be converted into a dedicated office for a high school administrator who currently has to walk through another teacher’s classroom to reach his workspace, Gaham said. A new door will be installed as part of the conversion.

At Beecher Elementary School, district staff will scrub and wax the floors while a major window replacement project moves forward. At the junior high, parking lot seal coating previously approved by the board is also scheduled.

The board’s next regular meeting is set for Tuesday, June 10, 2026, at 6 p.m.