Ill winds dissipate around school site

When Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 proposed that a new Hubble Middle School be built in Warrenville, it did so knowing it wouldn't be popular among those who wanted the school to stay on site at the Hubble Middle School in Wheaton.

And it might have dismissed, as a red herring, allegations that building the school in Warrenville would put children at risk of serious illness. But to the school district's credit, it didn't.

Last year a group called Educate 200, which had been opposed to relocating Hubble to Warrenville, claimed building on the Warrenville site would present a health risk to children because of the site's proximity to the BP Amoco research lab. A number of BP Amoco employees who worked at the site came down with various illnesses, including brain tumors, some fatal.

The school district did the right thing in doing its own environmental assessment. That study found no evidence of risk to children.

But the school board also made a wise precautionary move in agreeing to make a final contract to buy the Warrenville land contingent on the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency giving the site a clean bill of health.

The IEPA has released its findings. It has concluded that the 19-acre site in Warrenville "does not constitute a threat to human health and the environment and does not require further remediation."

This should allay fears that building a school on that site would put children in peril. Better to have in hand this credible IEPA report than to have proceeded with plans to build a school on the site without such a conclusive finding -- not that we believed that the school district at any time was determined to ignore any known risk the site might have posed.

The IEPA's clean bill of health by no means clears the way to start turning over dirt for a new Hubble Middle School. The school district must still get voters to approve a tax increase to pay for the school on Herrick Road in Warrenville. The school construction price tag stands at $54.5 million, according to recent estimates.

Nor has the school board yet formally stated its intention to sell the Hubble Middle School property at Main Street and Roosevelt Road in Wheaton. Some of the money from the sale of that property would offset construction costs of the new school.

There is a new wrinkle, too. Educate 200 has asked the District 200 school board to look at the possibility of building the new middle school at the Warrenville Centacle Retreat House, which is for sale. It wouldn't hurt to determine if it is feasible to build a school at the Centacle, if it can be built at a more reasonable cost to taxpayers and without further delays in getting children into a new building.

But the main focus is on the Herrick Road site. And there is no reason, anymore, to believe it's a bad place to build a school. The school district and community can move forward without fear.