The overcrowded Oak Terrace School in Highwood will be torn down to make room for a new school on the same site, school board members have decided.
But a second element of Supt. JoAnn Desmond’s plan for the school–the proposed acquisition of land from the former Ft. Sheridan military base–will not proceed. Board members have voted down plans to spend $25,000 on an environmental study that would have been necessary before the district could legally acquire the land.
As a result, community leaders will get half of what they want–a larger school, but without additional land for playgrounds and parking, which everyone agrees will be in short supply after the new school is built.
Municipal officials from Highwood and Highland Park have been negotiating for Ft. Sheridan land across town, which they had hoped to use for a new school site. Consequently, municipal leaders were surprised when North Shore School District 112 officials effectively ended those negotiations.
“The city of Highwood respects the opinion of the educators in this matter,” said Highwood Mayor John Sirotti, who shook his head in surprise after the board effectively halted efforts to acquire the land. “I’m sure they’ll put together a good school at the current site.”
School board President Steven Jacobs defended the decision to halt the negotiations and move forward with a new school.
Said Jacobs: “I’m not willing to gamble another year, two years, three years of kids.”
The plan calls for the district to raze the elementary school at 240 Prairie Ave., which is mostly on a single floor, and construct a two-story school on the 3 1/2-acre site.
Until the board’s decision, many believed the negotiations for land would continue. Jacobs had said the district would move forward on two tracks: planning the new school at Oak Terrace, while continuing discussions with the Army Reserve. As it turns out, the second track will not be pursued.
Mayors in Highwood and Highland Park began discussions with the military in December 1997 about getting Ft. Sheridan property for the new school, though no solid agreements were made.
The Army Reserve recently said it would consider providing 5 acres at the fort for a new school, but the school board has said it is only interested in a site of at least 10 acres.
If 5 acres at the fort became available, the final size of the school wouldn’t be much larger than the planned building at Oak Terrace because of roads and parking lots, Jacobs has said.
Officials are contemplating space-saving measures such as building parking beneath the playground.
The planned school would be 50 percent larger than the current Oak Terrace building, where it is so crowded that students practice band in a storage area, and the library is housed in the former auditorium.
Although voters approved the $40 million construction of an elementary school in a referendum almost two years ago, finding vacant property in Highwood has proven difficult.
Plans to obtain property from Exmoor Country Club were met with strong opposition from the club and its neighbors, and negotiations with the military regarding Ft. Sheridan property have been dragging on for more than 15 months.
Rebuilding a school on the current Oak Terrace site has always been a possibility, but until the district found a place to house Oak Terrace students during construction, 11 homes surrounding the school faced possible condemnation.
On Christmas Eve, the 11 homeowners received letters from a Naperville appraiser informing them the school district had determined their land needed to be acquired for public use.
The district said the letters had been sent in error and assured residents that no homes would be acquired to build the school.
The district will try to buy properties surrounding the Prairie Avenue school as they come on the market, officials said.
