Education official doesn't want to leave old Geneva school

In coming weeks, Kane County Board members must decide if the holes in the walls of the old Sixth Street School in Geneva are part of the solution for the holes in this year's budget.

The school is the current home of the Kane County Regional Office of Education. The office is an oversight agency that ensures school safety, trains teachers and helps students earn their high school equivalency diploma.

The building is 85 years old. Cracks spider along the floors of each level of the building. A leaky roof in one corner has saturated walls enough that weakened plaster has left fist-sized holes exposing the brick underneath. The ceiling of the old gymnasium is stained with water marks and pitted by tile that's fallen.

Regional Superintendent Doug Johnson said the building is the best home for his staff that the county can provide.

"We would like to stay in this building as long as possible," Johnson said.

The fate of the building is up to the Kane County Board, and several members toured the building Thursday. The board expects a bad budget this year to get worse next year. That could force the board to lean toward selling the property and use the proceeds to help close revenue gaps caused by loss of income and sales taxes and investment returns. In that scenario, the regional office of education would most likely move to the former office of the Kane County Forest Preserve District.

Johnson suggested to board members Thursday that the former forest preserve offices might be too cramped to accommodate the frequent training his office conducts for area teachers and school administrators. Johnson also believes it would be a bad business move in the long run for the county.

"Be very careful about selling off a capital asset to balance the budget," Johnson said. "You just don't do that."

The potential sale may depend solely on a willing buyer. The Geneva Public Library has a right of first refusal on the property. County Board Member Jim Mitchell said library officials have told him they have the money to buy the property. However, the library does not have the money to demolish the old school and build a new library on the site.