District 300 alternative school may get new home
At the beginning of the 2009-10 school year, leaders in Community Unit District 300 trumpeted the end of an era that had seen many students across the district educated in mobile classrooms.
The era didn't completely end, though, as students at Oak Ridge School, an alternative school for kids in grades six through 12, are still attending classes in a building cobbled together from several trailers.
That could change next year. District 300 officials are looking at a plan that would move Oak Ridge's 57 students and 17 staff members into the building that houses the Woodland Early Learning Center in Carpentersville.
Under the plan, District 300 would lease part of the building from Barrington Unit District 220, which is expected to move its early learning center from Woodland to a new facility next year.
"This is the 12th year that Oak Ridge has been here, and we have been in mobile units all 12 years," Principal Shelley Nacke said. "I am positively optimistic."
Among the benefits of the new building are a gym (Oak Ridge currently lacks one), larger classrooms and more classrooms, officials said.
Because special education regulations allow no more than 13 students per classroom at Oak Ridge, the current building, with only about 9,300 square feet, has little room to grow, district officials said.
At Woodland, which measures more than 40,000 square feet, 17,000 of which Oak Ridge would occupy, Nacke would have two additional classrooms to expand her school, according to District 300.
"The ultimate goal would be to expand the program because it's a much larger building," Nacke said. "If I can add more classrooms, I can add more kids."
Oak Ridge serves both special education students and regular education kids who have been expelled from their normal schools and are working to get back there.
The lease terms are still being determined. District 300 is mulling a three-year lease for about $180,000 to $200,000 a year, Director of Operations Mike Prombo said.
If Oak Ridge moves, District 300 will most likely try to rent out the current building, Prombo said.