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District 21 spending $1.5 million to convert old administration building into storage space

Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 will spend $1.5 million to renovate its former 1960s-era administration building for storage space, following the opening two years ago of the new district office next door.

Half of the old Gill Administration Center, attached to London Middle School at 999 W. Dundee Road, was to have been torn down for green space, officials said at the January 2023 opening of the new Community Service Center and Administrative Office just across the parking lot. But the need to store everything from classroom furniture and supplies to loads of paper and other materials has only grown, officials said.

Work is now beginning to gut the front portion of the old two-story Gill building where district administrators had their offices. The back half is already being used for offices and storage by the technology and operations departments.

“We simply do not have enough storage space in the district,” said Superintendent Michael Connolly. “As we have been looking at options for what to do with that vacated area and then compare the marketplace for storage space, it is insane how costly the leases for that is. It really made a lot of sense for us to look at that space as a place that could be converted into our own storage facility.”

The renovation of some 5,000 square feet of the old building will allow the district to discontinue rentals of outside cargo containers and additional facilities from construction manager Nicholas & Associates, said Micheal DeBartolo, the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and operations.

The district is also looking at building smaller outdoor concrete or brick structures at some schools for additional storage, he added.

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