







by BRIAN NADIG

Construction on a three-story, 40,000-square-foot annex at Canty School, 3740 N. Panama Ave., is scheduled to start this summer and to be completed by September of 2016.

Canty, which in 2014 had 759 students, is operating at 50 percent over its capacity, according to the Chicago Public Schools. Canty, which has a Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Program, serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and is considered a Level 1+ performing school, the highest rating given by the school system.

The annex will feature nine standard classrooms and five pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, a kitchen and lunchroom, a computer lab, a music room, an administrative office and an elevator. In addition, an existing kitchen and copy room will be converted into two classrooms.

Plans also call for the installation of a new playlot and a new handicapped accessible entrance ramp and for the removal of the modular classroom units, which will be replaced with green space.

The annex and the playlot are being built at the southwest corner of the campus near Waveland and Paris avenues. New fire alarm and intercom systems and an updated security system with cameras also are planned.

Canty, which was named Grace Street School until 1949, has 25 classrooms, an auditorium and a library.

The Public Building Commission has named Friedler Construction as the general contractor for the $13.26 million project. The commission will hold a hiring fair for the project from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, and from 2 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 31, at Hiawatha Park, 8029 W. Forest Preserve Drive.

Also on the Northwest Side, new annexes are expected to open this September at Wildwood School, 6950 N. Hiawatha Ave., and Oriole Park School, 5424 N. Oketo Ave.







