Edwardsville to upgrade campuses, tighten cell phone rules

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – It’s back to school today for more kids in our area, including the largest district in the Metro East, the Edwardsville School District.

The changes are all about campus improvements and a cell-phone policy being enforced.

The campus of Lincoln Middle School is getting a significant expansion and many other upgrades thanks to a $100 million bond issue that voters approved last year.

In fact, Lincoln Middle School is receiving the most money of any of the 13 Edwardsville school buildings from that bond issue. One big improvement is a major renovation to the main school entrance.

The original entrance, built back in 1925, had one door, and then you had to go up or down stairs once you came inside to get to different areas of the school. Now there are two doorways to increase safety and security and all of those immediate stairs have been eliminated.

There is also better accessibility to get into the main entrance. A 60-thousand-square-foot expansion is being added to this campus as well. It includes two gyms, one with a storm shelter, a library and media center, eight classrooms, a commons area and a multipurpose room.

That expansion is set to be open before the 2025–2026 school year. We spoke with District Architect Alex Metzger about the changes here.

“It’s gonna make a huge difference. It’s one gonna clean up just how this building is laid out. It’s a little haphazard. It was once a high school; it’s now a middle school. So things are completely different on the aspect of, you know, how that building would be designed for those two different uses. It cleans up the layout. People get lost in this building constantly. So we’re gonna clean that up, make it more straightforward.”

District officials will also be strictly enforcing the district’s cell phone policy this year. That means middle school students will not be allowed to use their cell phones at any point during the entire school day.

High school students are not permitted to use their phones in class but they are allowed to use them during lunch and during passing times between classes. School officials say there will, of course, be some exceptions for various situations.

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