Wheeling District 21 gets anonymous $1 million donation for new clinic

Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 has received an anonymous $1 million donation to help defray the cost of its new $17 million administration center and community clinic.

The gift is from a family foundation that supports entities that have "the basic needs of health care for children and the community at heart," according to Micheal DeBartolo, the district's assistant superintendent for finance and operations.

DeBartolo secured the donation - literally, putting a $1 million check into a safe when he got it July 15 - after meeting with the foundation's officer in charge of gift giving.

"We met with them a couple times, talked with them about the vision. They came out to see the clinic space, walked it, and at that time told us that they were going to give us that gift," DeBartolo said.

"It was a very short negotiation - which I shouldn't even say negotiation. They handed us the gift agreement. We said thank you."

District 21 is building the three-story, 42,558-square-foot structure - formally to be named the Community Service and Administrative Center - within the 11.5-acre London Crossing development. Located on the south side of Dundee Road, west of Elmhurst Road, in Wheeling, it's just down the block from the district's cramped, 1960s-era Gill Administration Center.

The first floor of the new building will house a medical clinic for physical, dental and mental health care, and space for community groups like OMNI Youth Services, Hands On Suburban Chicago, NWSRA and the YWCA.

The foundation's gift is intended to support the establishment, construction and operation of the clinic specifically, DeBartolo said.

The donation came to be after an initial conversation Superintendent Michael Connolly had at a meeting in March.

School board members acknowledged and accepted the gift late last week.

"All of us in our professional lives know the importance of networking," said board President Phil Pritzker. "I've got to say that the announcement ... was in large part the result of some good solid networking within the professional community."

The building is set to open in November.