School may be out for the summer, but the work never stops at Pekin Community High School. After the completion of some major renovations to the campus in 2023 including the office areas, main entrance, and the gym, cardio balcony, and weight room, we are once again spending some time both refreshing some areas of campus and bringing others into the 21st century.

This spring saw the completion of some renovations at Pekin Memorial Stadium. Restroom facilities on both sides of the Stadium were renovated, expanded, and brought up to code regarding ADA accessibility. This project also allowed us to renovate the freshmen football locker room, which also houses our track team during the spring season. New showers, lockers, and restrooms were included in this renovation. In addition to the renovations, PCHS was also able to build a multi-purpose locker room toward the northwest corner of the Stadium. This locker room has public restrooms on both sides as well as an officials’ locker room for football. There is both a large and small locker room housed in this building that have individual restrooms as well as shared shower facilities. This can serve our visiting football teams, our own boys’ and girls’ tennis teams, and our baseball team. Additional storage is also available, along with an overhang for players and fans alike to use in case of inclement weather.

This summer brings three major projects to fruition. The first is a long-overdue renovation of our science labs at PCHS. The science labs in the original 1963 building, several of which have not been renovated since the original construction, are being completely overhauled to provide both new lab spaces as well as collaborative tables and open areas for instruction in each classroom. The Science Department has also been our only department that had classrooms in two different areas of the building, which is not conducive to teacher collaboration and workflow. This department will now be housed in one location in the original building with brand new classrooms, lab spaces, and prep spaces. 

Starting in the summer of 2024, PCHS committed itself to going more green. Solar panels have been installed over the course of the 2024-2025 school year on most of the roofs. PCHS was able to purchase the 1.63 megawatts of solar panels and equipment for a net cost of about $2 million after rebates, with an additional $2.1 million of energy credits expected to be paid back to the District over the course of the next 20 years. The system itself has a return on investment of just six years while also generating energy that will cover 50% of the electrical load saving hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. The installation of the system was complete in June and, once testing of it is complete, it will be fully operational by July 1st.

Lastly, if you have driven past Memorial Stadium in the past few weeks, you may have noticed a new digital scoreboard being installed just past the north endzone. Although a stadium staple for 30 years, the older scoreboard had seen its better days. Never fear, the neon Dragon has been salvaged and will be getting a facelift. Stay tuned for its return to campus later this year. In its place will be a 16’ X 28’ full color LED video display board complete with an LED strip scoreboard and decorative arched logo. This board will not only serve football but will allow us to use it for boys’ and girls’ track as well as many other events and will incorporate our own students in our digital media program. Our PCHS Dragon Boosters are currently in the process of selling sponsorship packages specific to digital advertising as well as this gives us another avenue to recognize our Dragon supporters.

In addition to the scoreboard at the Stadium, PCHS is also installing a 4-face full color 6.5’ x 10’ LED video display board in Hawkins’ Gym. Similar to the board at the Stadium, this will allow for digital coverage of all sports held in Hawkins’ as well as other events. And, sponsorship packages also include advertising on these boards. These boards will truly be the capstone in the renovated gym bringing it into the 21st century. The purchase of these two new scoreboards have received support from the Pekin Dragon Athletic Boosters, the Pekin Insurance Holiday Tournament Committee, as well as Pepsi. Their committed donations covered the cost of the new scoreboards allowing for PCHS to only have to cover the cost of installation. 

PCHS is also looking for two sponsors who would like naming rights to both the new indoor video board as well as the scorer’s table in Hawkin’s Gym. If interested in this amazing business opportunity, please contact Dr. Danielle Owens.

Pekin Community High School is the pride of the Pekin community and truly one of the best facilities, bar none, in the conference and the region as a whole. We are proud to continue to upgrade it with the support of the community knowing that our students and staff are very lucky to have such a wonderful place of learning. We hope to offer community tours again this fall to allow the public time to see the tremendous upgrades to our amazing facility. Stay tuned.