Oak Park Elementary School District 97 officials will host a series of meetings over the next couple of months in order to gain input from the public regarding a proposed new central office.
Over the next two weeks, the district plans to host focus group meetings with selected community stakeholders to discuss design options and needs for the new building, which is expected to be completed by summer 2016.
Representatives from STR Partners, D97’s architectural firm, will preside over two December focus group sessions and at a pair of public meetings scheduled for Feb. 5 and 26. The focus group meetings are not open to the public.
D97 Supt. Al Roberts stressed that residents will have opportunity to weigh in at the community meeting. Therese O’Neill, the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said the intent of the focus groups is get feedback from those selected stakeholders, who have a background in either the use or design/construction of the new building.
Roberts said that the district wants to hear from the public but that the focus group meetings serve a different purpose.
“It’s important, whether it be board pressure or community pressure, it’s important for the folks who come into this to feel that they can really speak their mind,” Roberts said. “This is not about a lack of transparency. This is about really getting the best information we can get from folks who really have a knowledge base, interest and skill-set that promotes where we’re going. The transparency part, that absolutely I’ve heard the board and administration is committed to, takes place in the public session.”
The focus groups will likely include representatives from other taxing bodies, school PTOs, the business community, and Oak Park and River Forest High School, O’Neill said.
D97 plans to build its new headquarters at 260 Madison St., the site of a former Volvo car dealership. The district is still finalizing an intergovernmental agreement with the village of Oak Park to gain ownership of the building, said D97 Board of Education President Bob Spatz.
According to STR Partners’ Jennifer Costanzo, construction will take about a year beginning in August of next year and wrapping up by June 2016.
The timeline was discussed Tuesday with the D97 school board at their regular meeting.
Roberts noted that the new headquarters will likely house other organizations, including the Oak Park Education Foundation and possibly the district’s Multicultural Education Resource Center, which is housed at Julian Middle School, 416 S. Ridgeland Ave.
Spatz said that the intergovernmental agreement with the village will likely be finalized over the next two weeks. The district will, essentially, swap its current 970 Madison St. headquarters for the former Volvo property, funding the construction of a new building with money from the Madison Street tax increment financing (TIF) district.
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com