District 200 looks to overhaul aging facilities
Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 officials are reviewing several conceptual proposals to overhaul aging facilities, but they’ll need voter approval to turn the plans into reality.
Officials say their main priority is replacing Jefferson Preschool, a 26,507-square-foot building at 130 N. Hazelton Ave. near the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton. The building opened in 1958 and no longer meets the needs of the district.
Chicago-based Legat Architects presented design plans for a new facility at a committee of the whole meeting Wednesday. The proposed building would add amenities such as a media center and preserve a sensory garden for students.
Superintendent Brian Harris said the proposed design would better meet the needs of the district’s earliest learners.
“One of the biggest issues with the current building is that it’s not really designed for 3- and 4-year-old students,” he said. The existing building would be razed once the new one opened on what is now an athletic field at the 10-acre site.
But none of that can happen without voters approving a referendum question at some point in the near future. Harris said the earliest such a question could be placed on the ballot would be April 2013.
The next step, Harris said, is to gauge community support for the project. The district could hire a firm to conduct a survey or set up a committee of community members for feedback.
If voters approved the plans and bidding for the project began in the fall of 2013, students could move into the new facility in January 2015, said Patrick Brosnan, president and CEO of Legat Architects.
How much the Jefferson facility would cost depends on whether the district decides to move its administrative offices to the new building.
The presentation of the design plans pegged the cost of the new Jefferson near $18.3 million. That figure would jump to an estimated $24.6 million by adding a second floor for district offices in a wing along Manchester Road.
In addition, the district is reviewing a variety of scenarios for both the property that contains the former Woodland School in Warrenville and the School Service Center at 130 W. Park Ave. in Wheaton.
Woodland School closed in 1978 and serves as a storage facility for the district. Two options call for either selling the property or updating it for storage of vehicles and additional office space. The update is expected to cost $5.3 million.
The district also could revamp the School Service Center for storage of vehicles or expanded training space.
To pay for the proposed projects, officials are looking at a $14.4 million construction grant the district received last week from the state Capital Development Board. In 2003, the district applied for the grant to fund the classroom additions at Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South high schools.
The money currently sits in the district’s operations and maintenance fund.
The district offices currently are located in the School Service Center. Several officials supported moving the offices to a new Jefferson.
“I would love to be connected to that school or any school but particularly with our youngest learners,” Harris said. “It would be a gift from my perspective to be able to have that connection.”