CHAMPAIGN – Plans for a renovation and addition to Garden Hills Elementary School will move forward, now that the Champaign school board has approved a $13.7 million budget for the project.

The school board approved a design plan for the school at a special meeting Monday night.

The project will turn Garden Hills into a state-of-the-art magnet school that will lend itself to more hands-on and project-based learning, Principal Cheryl O'Leary said.

The plans include a science lab where "we'll be able to explore things we've never been able to do before," O'Leary said.

The design will provide nearly the same amount of space as originally planned for the school, as well as much of the desired renovation work, but at a lower cost than the $15.3 million estimate the board discussed at its regular meeting last week.

The school district plans to build an addition to the school, renovate the existing space and create a magnet school with a focus on international education and the performing arts.

The original cost estimate for the project was $12 million, but both the size of the addition and the scope of renovations to the existing building increased. Board members balked at the $15.3 million price tag when they met a week ago, and they asked the architects, BLDD Architects in Champaign, to revise the plans to lower costs.

But there were some things the school district did not want to give up. The revised design approved Monday restored space to the gym and the kindergarten classrooms, so they are the same size as originally approved.

Architects presented an alternative last week that decreased the square footage somewhat to get the cost estimate back to $12 million.

The plan approved Monday also includes replacing the school's windows and adding a sprinkler system in the existing building, which requires changing the ceiling.

"I thought it was really good the board went back over the plans and increased (the scope of the project) because of the renovations they found that would be needed," O'Leary said, adding, "I like the size of the new kindergarten classrooms."

The plan does cut some square footage in common areas in the school, rather than in space for educational programming. It also does not include adding shelving, replacing doors, adding bleachers in the gym and removing some of the old mechanical equipment that won't be used anymore, architect Mark Ritz said. Those items are priced as alternates to the design plan, and if bids come in low enough, the board can decide to include some of the alternates in the work.

The original $12 million estimate was made before the school district decided on a magnet school theme for Garden Hills. In addition to more square footage for the school and more extensive renovations, the site work for the school will cost more than originally expected to bring the addition above the flood plain, Ritz said. Those things led to the increase in the estimated cost of the project.

"I think the board feels great that we've done our due diligence," said school board President Dave Tomlinson. "We're going to be able to get the same size in programming space ... and do it in an educationally sound manner."