Lisle 202 to break ground on new elementary school
Lisle Unit District 202 is set to break ground this month on a $39 million project to build an elementary school.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the building that will replace the aging Tate Woods and Schiesher elementary schools is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at the former Meadows school site along Westview Lane.
A community engagement session will he held from 1 to 3 p.m. the same day at Lisle Junior High so residents can learn about the features and benefits of the new school.
"This is going to be a community space," said Jenna Engler, the district's communications coordinator. "It's going to be a place that we all use for many years to come."
The two-story, 100,000-square-foot facility will serve up to 770 prekindergarten through fifth-grade students when it opens in fall 2019.
The students now attend either Tate Woods or Schiesher depending on their grade. Tate Woods is for prekindergarten and first- and second-grade students, and Schiesher serves kindergartners and third- though fifth-graders.
Talk of replacing both schools dates to 2015, when the district held a series of public meetings as part of its Vision 202 community engagement process.
Officials say Tate Woods and Schiesher are aging schools that require expensive renovations. The Meadows building, meanwhile, was constructed in 1963 and decommissioned as a public school about 30 years ago.
Under the current timeline, Meadows will be demolished between June 11 and 22. Construction of the new school is expected to start around July 1 and end in summer 2019.
It will feature 35 classrooms, including some specifically designed for kindergarten and preschool. There also will be STEM rooms, a dedicated band and music room, conference rooms and a learning resource center that Engler said "is actually going to be heart of the building."
Officials say the school will be a learning hub for early childhood through fifth-grade students.
"We are going to have spaces where kids can really maximize their learning experiences with the STEM labs," Engler said. "The kids who want to explore their learning further are going to have the resources and the space to do that."
Because District 202 will be debt-free in 2019, the plan is to borrow roughly $18 million to help pay for the project. The district already has the rest of the money.
Meanwhile, school board members have authorized the sale of Tate Woods at 1736 Middleton Ave. Sealed bids for the building are being accepted until June 18.
The fate of Schiesher is yet to be decided. Options include tearing it down, leasing it or having the district use the building in a different way.