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Oak Brook sets special meeting to discuss sale of Sports Core land to school district
Updated: December 3, 2012 4:07PM
OAK BROOK — Oak Brook has scheduled a special Village Board meeting for 7 p.m. Dec. 10 to allow for discussion about the possible sale of part of the Sports Core to Butler Elementary District 53.
The special meeting was set up one day before an already-scheduled board meeting to allow sufficient time for discussion on the possible land sale.
“We’re expecting quite a bit of discussion on this,” Village Manager Dave Niemeyer.
District 53 is interested in purchasing about eight acres of the 285-acre Sports Core to use as a site for new kindergarten through eighth-grade school. The district houses students at Butler Junior High and Brook Forest Elementary. The District 53 Board is interested in selling those properties.
Two referendums would need to be approved to make a new school on Sports Core property a reality. Those referendums would be on the April 9, 2013 election ballot.
The first referendum, for all Oak Brook voters, would seek voter approval for the village to sell the Sports Core property to District 53.
The second referendum, only for voters living within District 53 boundaries, would seek approval for the sale of $15 million in bonds to help fund the building of a new school. School officials said the second referendum would result in a property tax increase of $375 a year for a home valued at $944,000.
School officials spent the past nine months studying the district’s facilities future before holding three community meetings to present options and get feedback from residents.
The District 53 Board favors the option of building new schools on the Sports Core property. Feedback on a community questionnaire also supported that option.
The other options studied were repairing and keeping both Butler Junior High and Brook Forest Elementary open, and closing Brook Forest and adding on to Butler Junior High to create one K-8 school.
