DuPage reviews school plan for former youth home

DuPage County officials appear receptive to the idea of transforming part of a former youth home into a new school for young people with severe behavioral, emotional and learning disorders.

Members of the county board’s public works committee Tuesday got their first look at Joseph Academy’s request to rent nearly 20,000 square feet at the former DuPage County Juvenile Detention Center, 420 N. County Farm Road. The Wheaton building has been largely vacant since DuPage started sending youth detainees to Kane County at the end of January.

Michael Schack, Joseph Academy’s executive director, said the nonprofit organization was founded in 1983 to help students in Lake and Cook counties. The academy partners with school districts that refer students to its program, which follows the “Boys Town” model of education.

With four facilities in Des Plaines, Melrose Park and Hometown, Joseph Academy now wants to expand into DuPage.

“We would like the opportunity to serve children in the DuPage school districts,” said Schack, adding the academy enrolls students that many districts don’t have resources to help.

Specific details about the proposed rental agreement haven’t yet been finalized. Still, several board members already are voicing support for the plan.

“I encourage us to go forward,” county board member John Curran said.

Academy officials are waiting for county board members to vote on the rental agreement before offering services to DuPage districts. “We have not formally approached school districts in DuPage as a courtesy to the (county) board,” Schack said.

Schack said the academy wants to rent space at the former youth home because it has a gymnasium and classrooms and is centrally located. “School districts wouldn’t have to take their children very far,” he said.

Sections of the building are being used by the county’s Office of Emergency Management and the sheriff’s adult work release program.

Steps would be taken to ensure the area Joseph Academy occupies isn’t accessible to the rest of the building. The school would have its own separate entrance.

The academy would like to start operating out of the Wheaton location by the fall. To meet that deadline, the county board would have to approve the proposed rental agreement by the end of July.

If Joseph Academy is able to open the DuPage location, it could serve between 40 to 50 students. It hasn’t been determined what grade levels would be taught at the facility.

“It’s really up to what the districts need,” Schack said.