Schools

Where Else Did District 41 Look to Build a New Hadley?

District 41 fact sheet shows process of determining land to acquire for a new school and explains pitfalls of other sites.

Glen Ellyn School District 41 will be making an offer on a Wheaton College property with plans to build a new Hadley Junior High School to alleviate overcrowding in the district.

The property, commonly referred to as the Scripture Press property at 1825 College Ave., is just west of Kenilworth in Wheaton, according to a District 41 news release.

With a new Hadley, the district would create a new elementary school at the current Hadley facility and eliminate its use of 32 portable classrooms throughout the district.

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In order to build on the property, District 41 would need to pass a referendum "no sooner" than the 2015-16 school year, according to the release. 

The district has been engaged in facilities planning due to overcrowding since 2002. After voters defeated a $40 million bond referendum to expand, renovate and restructure district schools in 2007, board members and staff analyzed the district's space through a boundary study and two task forces to conclude the district needs a new school, District 41 spokesman Julie Worthen said. 

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District 41 sent out a fact sheet along with an email explaining the decision to move forward with the acquisition of the Wheaton College property. Over the years, the district has looked at other options for a new Hadley building and gave the following explanations of why they would or wouldn't work:

Ackerman Park: Not available. District and Park District officials discussed the possibility of using or acquiring part of this park as a school location. This plan would have required acquisition of privately-owned parcels. The Park District developed the property into the Ackerman Fitness Center.

Main Street, 933 N. Main St.: Small and costly. The Glen Ellyn Park District bought Main St. School in 1982 for a recreation center. District engineers evaluated the 13 classroom-building and found it needed expensive renovations to meet school code, and the structure still would have been too small. Assuming the district could acquire the property, questions of which students would be assigned to this site and operational expenses for such a small facility made the site imprac- tical and expensive. The park district has since renovated the building for its own use.

Omni: Bad location. This “big Box” structure in the northwest corner of the district was available for a limited time; district architects reviewed its suitability before it was withdrawn from the market. The space might have been ade- quate, but the district did not pursue building a school in a strip mall on two major arterials with no green space that would require busing of every student.

Spalding, 652 Spalding St.: Too small. The vacant 4.7-acre Spalding site in the northeast section of the district once housed a small elementary school. Test fits of two and three story structures illustrated inadequate space for play areas and parking and poor bus access. The district explored acquisition of adjacent properties, but the property owners did not welcome this idea. The 2.3-acre park district parcel adjacent to the site is in a floodplain which complicates potential use for building or parking. Most students would need to be bused to Spalding, due to the absence of sidewalks and the fact that many would have to cross major roads to get to the site.

Adding on to all five schools: Pricey and inadequate. The district looked into adding on substantially to the elemen- tary schools, including adding storeys. The elementary schools sites are smaller than Illinois State Board of Education standards recommend. Adding a story is expensive, disruptive to school operations and an inefficient use of space. To significantly enlarge the elementary schools regardless of configuration would increase demands on the campus, the neighborhood, and on libraries, gyms, bathrooms and parking.

1825 College Ave.: Right size, well located, affordable. Extensive searching yielded one potential site: College Avenue, a site large enough for a junior high and centrally located within the district. The district would eventually like to build a new junior high, and turn the current Hadley Junior High into an elementary that also houses the prekindergarten and dual-language programs. This would “right-size” our current 600-student elementary schools into schools of 450, greatly reducing the need for renovations. 2013 is a good time to buy land, with prices being lower than they’ve been for many years. The district would not be taking the parcel off of tax rolls, because it is already owned by a non-profit organization. The district would like to negotiate a mutually agreeable sale with Wheaton College, but it has the right to use imminent domain to purchase it for a fair price regardless of whether the college wants to sell.

District 41 will host a public forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 3 in the Hadley Library Media Center to provide information about the plan before the board takes action to proceed with an offer at the April 8 meeting.

The district will hold a second forum April 25 to get community feedback and provide updates on the plan, Riebock said.


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