Murrayville-Woodson Grade School project saves district substantial money

Superintendent Steve Ptacek told the Jacksonville School District 117 board that the Murrayville-Woodson Grade School project is saving a substantial amount of money by avoiding the water tank and pump the district had expected to buy for its fire suppression system. That cost break comes as the district works through a major replacement plan for the aging school in Woodson.

The savings matter because the district has been laying the groundwork for a far larger project at Murrayville-Woodson Elementary, which earlier reporting described as a 107-year-old building headed for replacement. A new elementary school is planned for an 8-acre site near Dollar General in Woodson, at Woodson-Winchester and Water Tower roads, and one more harvest was expected there before construction began. S. M. Wilson has said the new campus will be 40,000 square feet and is scheduled to open for the 2027-2028 school year.

Ptacek’s update also lands in the middle of a broader financing picture for Jacksonville School District 117. The board has considered issuing up to $13 million in bonds for renovation or construction projects, and Ptacek has said online sales tax revenue increased the district’s bonding capacity. In that context, any savings on the Woodson project reduce the odds that one part of the building plan will force cuts or create new pressure on other priorities across District 117.

For families in Murrayville, Woodson and the rest of the district, the latest change is less about a new feature than about keeping the project’s cost in line while the building plan moves ahead. The district still has to finish the work, but the board was told one of the expected fire-suppression expenses is not shaping up the way officials first thought, a small but meaningful shift for a district managing a major capital project in Morgan County.