The District 1–50 school board tonight voted to designate the current Glen Oak Primary School site as the new birth through eighth– grade school building.
Finally. I’m sure there’s a huge sigh of relief from East Bluff activists this evening. If you went to the school forums, you know that this was the site preferred by most people, including neighbors, parents, the City of Peoria, and the Chamber of Commerce. Even the Community Forum Report acknowledged this was the most popular site. The school board made the right decision.
Now comes the big push from the school board to try to get as much money out of the city as possible. The line will be, “Hey, this is where you wanted us to put the school, now you’re obligated to give us whatever money we ask for to make this happen.” Oh, look, it’s started already:
Martha Ross said, “The citizens in that area have said they want us in this site so we’re going to help us figure out how we’re going to pay for a lot of this in addition to the city of Peoria.”
But the last line of WEEK’s report is most troubling to me. It reads, “The price tag for the new school is upwards of $60 million.”
$60 million?
Where on earth did that figure come from? Last I heard, a new school was going to cost around $21 million. How did the cost triple in three months? Surely this is an error. Perhaps WEEK meant the cost of building both new schools (above and below the bluff) plus the cost of property acquisition is “upwards” of $60 million. But just the Glen Oak School replacement building is going to be $60 million? I’ll need to see an itemized accounting of that.
UPDATE: As PeoriaIllinoisan pointed out, the Journal Star reports that the cost of the school is “estimated at $25 million,” which is still higher than the $21 million previously reported, but nowhere near $60 million. Don’t forget, the reason they’re replacing the building is because STS Consultants determined that the cost to replace the building was less than the cost to renovate, but they determined the replacement costs at only $115.36 per square foot. If the replacement cost is now $25 million for a 120,000-square-foot school, that’s $208.33 per square foot. Gee, think they could have renovated for less than that? I bet they could have.
Sweet, sweet victory.
Kudos to everyone who fought like Hell for this outcome.
The Journal Star reports $25mil.
I love this line from the article: “Mary Spangler, the only “no” vote cast Monday, said the district should have taken more time to make a decision.”
More time? What is she smoking? Brilliant… drag this thing out even longer. One wonders what Ken Hinton will do in retaliation.
Maybe they’re going to make the new school building out of gold, with pearl sidewalks! It’s a beautiful area, I used to live near the park.
Hey, check out the new blog by HOI TV news personality Jen Christensen.
News Anchor Mom
Don’t be to quick to pop the champaigne. You haven’t seen what you are buying yet. New isn’t always better.
True, Mahkno, but one fight at a time. When it comes to fighting the school board, any victory is worth celebrating.
PI — At the public meetings, the school board said this was going to be decided by the first week of December, so they already took an extra month.
Congrats to those of you who fought the School Board and its Supt. on the Glen Oak school site. Now let’s get the school started before they go back on their word. Are any of the school properties on Prospect for sale?
Yes we had a “victory” for the neighborhood, but somehow I still feel that it may fall apart. Until there is construction of the school I am reserved about the whole issue. As always as a assocation we have always stood behind a new school, Just the location was an issue. We look forward to help #150 with the new school.
It is very good news to see the school site in the Glenoak School area. I have one request, tear down that 100 year old money pit and build mondern air conditioned school.