District 211 may decide fate of unused school land
The fate of a 60-acre site in Schaumburg — purchased but never used for a sixth school by Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 — could be resolved as part of the district's strategic planning process this year.
The undeveloped land lies between Summit Drive and Plum Grove Road, among residential subdivisions south of Weathersfield Way and north of Wise Road.
District 211 Superintendent Dan Cates said Schaumburg's rapid growth in the 1960s led school officials at that time to see a potential need for another school in that area.
The district purchased 40 acres there in 1966 and another 20 acres in 1971. Construction of a school on the site even received approval in 1974 but never started.
Cates said the district gradually realized it could avoid construction of a sixth school by efficiently building additions to its existing schools. That assessment has never changed, and the district has no definite plans for the property, he said.
The property's future is likely to be raised during a nine-month strategic planning process scheduled to begin this month.
“I'm confident the 60 acres will be a topic for us,” Cates said. “I can't predict what direction that will go.”
The village of Schaumburg appears to have stopped seeing the property as a potential school site for at least the past 20 years. As far back as the village's 1996 comprehensive land-use plan, the land has been designated for residential development, Schaumburg Community Development Director Julie Fitzgerald said.
Schaumburg's senior village Trustee George Dunham said he believes it's time to find a buyer for the land.
“There's no need for a high school,” Dunham said. “As a taxpayer, my opinion is that they could sell that land, and it would go a long way toward filling (the school district's) coffers.”
District 211 school board President Mucia Burke noted that continuing to own the land has not cost the district anything.
While there have been some inquiries over the years, Burke said she's not aware of any that would have been cost-effective for the district.
She also expects the land to come up during this year's strategic planning discussions and said she would not be opposed to selling it if it was the right financial move.
Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 already is trying to sell off a smaller parcel of land it owns but doesn't need in Schaumburg.
Donated to District 54 in 1993, the 4.4-acre site on Thacker Street between Verde Drive and National Parkway was under contract for sale, but a potential developer backed out, district spokeswoman Terri McHugh said.
Because there is a body of water on the site, there are about 2.5 buildable acres there, she added.