St. Charles district trades Little Woods in exchange for police
St. Charles Unit District 303 officials will give land that's existed in the local system for more than 80 years to the city in a deal that's expected to ensure police presence in the district's two high schools for the next eight years.
The Little Woods facility opened as an elementary school back in 1928. In recent years, the building has housed the bulk of the district's special education staff. Tight financial times started the district thinking about closing the facility to save about $100,000 a year.
On Thursday, a school board committee signed off on a deal that would sweeten those savings.
The deal gives ownership of the land and school building to the city of St. Charles. In trade, the city will provide police officer presence at the district's two high schools for free. The school district paid $114,222 for that police presence in the 2010-11 school year.
The city will now assume that cost regardless of what the salaries of the officers proves to be during the next eight years. The school district will still have a say in the hiring of those school resource officers.
The school district staff estimate the value of that police presence to be about $1 million for that time period. The savings and the eight-year time frame reflect two appraisals of the Little Woods site that place its average value at about $950,000.
“The district has for some time been wanting to close off our Little Woods facility,” said Chief Financial Officer Brad Cauffman. “This turned out to be a good opportunity for us.”
The benefit for the city is expected to come with the transformation of the 2.25-acre Little Woods site into the home of a new water tower. The city council and the full school board must both still vote on the agreement before it's final. Those votes are expected to come in the second week of August.
The school board must also vote on a resolution saying the building is neither usable nor needed by the school district.
If all parties agree, the closing date is expected to be Aug. 18. The school district will auction off the remaining contents of the building on Aug. 15.