Lockport High School District 205 officials conceded Wednesday voters rejected an $85 million Central Campus renovation referendum Tuesday.

“I think it’s fair to say the votes are in. The voters have spoken,” said Superintendent Robert McBride.

Voters were asked Tuesday to fund $85 million in renovations to its historic Central Campus, where the district’s freshmen attend.

There were 6,773 votes against the measure and 5,810 votes in favor, according to unofficial results from the Will County clerk’s office with all precincts reporting.

“The margin is strong enough. I can’t imagine that there would be some kind of change due to mail-in ballots,” McBride said. “The election results have really fallen out, precinct by precinct, similar to past referendums in the district.”

Voters rejected six requests from 2006 to 2011 to build a high school in Homer Glen. McBride said DLA Architects, the district’s architectural firm, found building a new freshmen center would cost $145 million.

Board President Ann Lopez-Caneva said Wednesday board members are disappointed, but proud to have used the democratic process to gather feedback from the community.

“We have some challenges ahead of us,” Lopez-Caneva said. “We don’t want another system failure.”

McBride said the board will now have to consider how to make improvements to Central Campus on a smaller scale, such as roof improvements, major mechanicals, accessibility, windows and electrical work to maintain the building and to minimize structure failures like the November classroom ceiling collapse.

Central Campus, built in 1909, has been closed to students and staff since November. The board has moved forward with ceiling improvements, and the district’s 900 freshmen attend classes at the former Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort.

Since the ceiling collapse, the board has moved forward with ceiling repairs. The board approved a memorandum of understanding Monday to authorize DLA Architects to create architectural plans and bid specifications for a project to replace ceilings throughout the building. The district’s goal is to have freshmen back in Central Campus by the fall, McBride said.

Lopez-Caneva said the board has options to consider including another referendum, maintaining the building or a smaller scale renovation.

The board will look into a financial strategy for how to approach renovations, McBride said, but it will likely be a scaled-back version of what the referendum proposed.

“What we learned this year is that old systems fail, and if they fail then the building might not be usable,” McBride said. “The community both sent a signal about what it would like to see happen at Central, but they’ve also assumed some risk in that vote that we could have future failure. I think our board, although they’ll have fewer resources, will likely turn their attention to doing everything they can to prevent future risks.”

District officials will work with a citizen advisory committee, made up of 10 members with various backgrounds in school business, architecture, construction and technology, to determine how to move forward and if another referendum should be proposed, McBride said.

“The history of referendum voting in the district does not support another referendum. In many ways, this vote resembles the past six votes in terms of precinct patterns,” McBride said.

The referendum money was slated for facility upgrades, life safety work, renovating the auditorium and general interior remodeling, according to a financial sheet from DLA Architects.

About $31 million would have gone toward the upgrades and life safety work, including installing a second elevator, McBride said. Renovation of the auditorium, the largest unused space, would have cost $7.2 million and the general interior remodeling was estimated at $24.8 million, according to the financial sheet.

The remaining costs were for contingencies, including a potential $8 million to cover the courtyard to use the space year-round, according to the financial sheet.

John Podgorny, who voted Tuesday at the Lockport Police Department polling location, said he voted against the referendum because of the cost.

“The numbers they’re putting out is just too much,” he said.

Joy Brown said outside the Homer Township Public Library polling location Tuesday that while she’s a former educator and believes students should have modern facilities, she voted no because of the cost.

“They need to figure out how to do it for less,” Brown said.

Audrey Manly said she was a member of the committee the district formed in 2022 to consider Central Campus’ future. The committee decided it should remain a freshmen center and be renovated, McBride said.

Manly, who voted Tuesday at the Lockport Police Department, said even if she wasn’t on the committee she would’ve voted in favor of the referendum because a more modern building would benefit the students.

akukulka@chicagotribune.com