Wheaton Christian school nears $25 million fundraising goal

Wheaton Christian Grammar School is nearing completion of an ambitious fundraising effort to pay for a new $25 million school in Winfield.

School officials said they have received pledges and donations totaling about 80 percent of the project's cost.

The money has come from more than 400 parents, past alumni and other friends of the school during a four-year stretch, said Bob Broman, the school's director of development and business operations.

School officials hope to lay the groundwork for a groundbreaking on the new school by this fall. The single-story structure would be located near the eastern edge of Klein Creek Golf Club, just off Pleasant Hill and St. Charles roads.

"We're hopeful we can have a groundbreaking this fall," said Steve Clum, the head of the school. "But a lot of that depends on how the permitting process goes with DuPage County and the village of Winfield."

The private Christian evangelical school began planning for a new building for its growing school population more than five years ago.

The current school site, at 530 E. Harrison Ave., houses more than 500 students from kindergarten to eighth grade.

The Wheaton school has had several building renovations and additions since it was built in 1951. Three school trailers on the five-acre school campus help provide additional classroom space.

The largest chunk of the school's construction dollars will come from the sale of its current school site to Wheaton College, Broman said. The grammar school signed a contract last year to sell the land to the college for $8 million.

Wheaton Christian Grammar School hopes to have the new school building completed sometime in 2010.

However, their plans haven't been met with enthusiasm from homeowners living near the new school site in Winfield. In 2003, a homeowner's association unsuccessfully sued the village of Winfield in 2003 in an effort to keep the school from using its street as an access route for the new school. The entrance to the school has since been moved to accommodate the association, Broman said.