Keystone Montessori School will have to wait a while longer for a brick façade and window revamp. The small, aesthetic projects have been in the works since the school applied for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) projects nearly a decade ago. But Keystone has been unable to come up with the funds to make them happen.
The River Forest Board of Trustees granted the Montessori school a three-year extension on the required date of completion for the two construction projects, in hopes that school officials and contractors will be able to brainstorm a feasible plan within that time.
“The original PUD came back like in 2002,” said Village Administrator Eric Palm. “There were three elements they had not completed once the original work was done.”
Those three elements included the addition of the brick façade to the school building, the installation or adjustment of two windows in the building, and a third item relating to traffic flow around the school building. According to Palm, the traffic issue, which called for installing a traffic-calming arrangement, was resolved in 2009. “The school and the village met with the residents in that area, and they were pleased with the final outcome, so that item was waived,” Palm said.
The village has granted the school a number of extensions for completing the façade and window projects, and agreed to one more at a recent meeting of the board. Keystone representatives cited financial constraints as their reason for being unable to complete the projects in time, and the school was granted an additional three years to finish, which was slated for completion by Oct. 11 of this year.
“We kind of want to get an idea, with the contractor, about what ideas they’ve got about making it look better,” said Keystone attorney Cathleen Italia at the meeting. “Three [years] might help us to get the contractor to give us some ideas, and then also to budget it in.”
Palm said the school has had financial struggles in the past, and recently attempted to secure a property tax exemption from the village, in return for a large one-time payment, which Palm described as a “pilot payment in lieu of taxes.”
“That did not gain any ground in the village,” said Palm. Though the school verbally agreed to go back to paying those taxes after five years, there was nothing legally requiring them to do so. Palm said the village decided against taking them at their word, but it may have had long-term effects. He added that, anecdotally, it’s been suggested the school might have been more financially able to implement the aesthetic changes in question a bit sooner if the tax break had been granted.