A private Montessori school in Wheaton’s far northwest corner that recently broadened its educational programs to the junior high school level is planning to expand its campus to make room for a third school building.
Officials of Wheaton Montessori School, which currently has buildings at 1960 and 1970 N. Gary Ave. on a nearly 1-acre campus, have been working with Wheaton officials on plans to annex a vacant, 0.32-acre lot to the north where it would construct a two-story school building.
Rebecca Lingo, head of school at the Wheaton Montessori School, and her sister, Elizabeth Berdick, own the land where the school is located and they lease it to the school. Last year, Lingo and Berdick’s Bergo Inc. paid $129,000 to buy the one-third-acre vacant parcel in the 0N600 block of Gary Avenue from the family of the late Harold Muehlfelt.
Now, Lingo and Berdick are proposing to annex that vacant property to Wheaton and make some changes to its campus. On the vacant land, the school would construct a new, two-story building that it would use for all three of its preschool and kindergarten classrooms, Lingo said. The newly constructed building’s second floor would contain an open gym and a nap room, she said.
Then, the school’s original building, at 1970 N. Gary, would be renovated to become a junior high building. The school’s junior high program started this year, Lingo said.
Finally, the south building at 1960 N. Gary, which is a former fast-food restaurant and coffeehouse that Lingo and Berdick bought in 2003 and completely renovated in 2005, would serve as the school’s elementary school building.
“All three will house different levels of programming,” Lingo said.
Lingo said she expects the proposal to appear before the Wheaton City Council for a public hearing sometime later this fall, likely in November.
