Gurnee Dist. 56 to ask voters for $28.5 mil. for new school
Gurnee Elementary District 56 soon will decide whether to ask voter approval to borrow about $28.5 million for construction of a new school.
District 56 board members Wednesday night agreed to hold a special meeting Aug. 11 to vote on whether to place the borrowing question on the November ballot. Officials say the new school wouldn't result in higher taxes.
"I know it sounds too good to be true," District 56 Superintendent John Hutton said. "I've tried to be as open and honest as I can be."
Under the plan, District 56 would leave the flood-prone Gurnee Grade School near the Des Plaines River in the village. Gurnee Grade serves children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Replacing Gurnee Grade would be a building for grades three through five on a 75-acre site the district owns in Wadsworth. The school would house 600 students north of Wadsworth and Delany roads for the budgeted $28.5 million.
O'Plaine Elementary School adjacent to Gurnee village hall would be reconfigured to serve kindergarten through eighth grade if the new structure is built in Wadsworth.
In a report to District 56, the Park Ridge office of the Fanning Howey architecture, engineering and design firm contends "minor remodeling" would accomplish the changes at O'Plaine.
Hutton reiterated that District 56's strong financial position would allow it to pursue the new school in Wadsworth. He said property taxes wouldn't rise because about $15 million in debt would be retired by 2014, with only the new loan to repay.
"We're committed to holding down the cost of this project as much as we can," Hutton said.
Major flood-protection efforts for Gurnee Grade most recently occurred in 2007 and 2004. Fanning Howey's report said most of Gurnee Grade is nearly 60 years old, but some sections have been around longer.
"With the increased flooding from the Des Plaines River, the continued use of the Gurnee Grade structure is untenable," Fanning Howey states.
Officials said a federal grant may cover 75 percent of a projected $3.2 million in demolition costs for Gurnee Grade. The property would be restored to wetlands.
District 56 voters rejected seven education fund tax-increase requests in referendums from 2002 to 2005.
Opposition also surfaced in 2008 when Gurnee-based Warren Township High School District 121 said property tax rates would be cut if voters granted permission to borrow $30 million, mostly to expand the upperclassmen campus.
Gurnee-area resident Shawn Depke and other opponents questioned how Warren High could take out the $30 million construction loan and ultimately reduce costs for taxpayers. Voters approved the measure.