With the Trump administration imposing nearly universal tariffs on all imports last week, District 65 school board member Biz Lindsay-Ryan asked Director of Strategic Project Management Kirby Callam at Monday’s board meeting about potential impacts to the cost of constructing Foster School.
The good news, Callam said, is that “80% of the budget’s been ordered or under contract,” with precast concrete walls already welded in place around the building perimeter and steel beams scheduled to arrive Tuesday, April 8.
So the vast majority of construction costs are locked into place at this point, he said, but there’s one area of concern going forward.
“Our furniture is something that we’re looking at — we’re trying to beat a 25% increase from vendors that they’re promising to have by the end of April. That is included to their 5%, 6% annual increase as well, so that’s a big jump,” Callam said. “But the furniture is 2% of the total budget, so it’s not going to be too big.”
Two percent of the $48.4 million project comes out to about $970,000. If the district ends up stuck paying for chairs, desks and other interior items at a price 25% higher than expected, that could cost an additional $240,000 or so, but that’s well within the $1.97 million in remaining construction contingency funds budgeted for these kinds of situations.
As for the rest of the project, “we’re looking good,” Callam said.
The concrete walls of the building went up over the course of seven days in late March through April 1, and now crews will get to work laying steel beams. After that comes the roof and then the interior.
The project remains on budget and on schedule to finish in July 2026, said Callam, in time for the K-5 school to open for the 2026-2027 year that August.
How tariffs could affect Foster School: Construction mostly unscathed, but furniture may be hit is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.