Advocate clinic inside District 21 headquarters expected to open by winter
The buildout of the community health clinic inside Wheeling Township Elementary District 21's new administration building could begin this fall and be done by late winter, officials said.
District officials are finalizing an agreement with Advocate Health Group to run the 3,000-square-foot clinic - now just a concrete box on the first floor of the district's three-story headquarters at 959 W. Dundee Road in Wheeling.
Preliminary designs by ARCON & Associates - presented during a school board meeting late last week - show five exam rooms, two consultation/mental health therapy rooms, a laboratory, workroom, conference room and reception area.
"We're designing it to start with students and staff, but offering services to the entire community is the ultimate goal of this," said Micheal DeBartolo, the district's assistant superintendent for finance and operations. "Because we truly believe there still is an access issue especially for those who are either lower income or don't have insurance at all."
District officials are using a $1 million donation they received a year ago from an undisclosed family foundation for build-out and startup costs. They've also submitted paperwork for a $1 million federal earmark secured by U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider; the funds could come through as early as September.
That should be enough to keep the clinic going for a few years, officials say, but they'll be looking for additional funding sources for the long-term. That will likely include reaching out to local businesses that could use the clinic for their workers' compensation cases, DeBartolo said.
The school board selected Advocate in April after sending requests for proposals to nine potential service providers last November. After the contract and design are finalized, the project is set to go out to bid in October. The goal is to open in January - a year after the district started moving into the new building.
"It's not a major construction project when you look at it because we've already built everything that's in there," DeBartolo said. "It's now putting up walls and hooking up some plumbing."