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player ready...Wheeling and Des Plaines schools will scramble this week to iron out the details of how they will spend their portion of $220 million state lawmakers doled out in the recently passed state budget.
Wheeling School District 21 plans to use $100,000 in unexpected state funds to expand after-school care. Des Plaines District 62 will use $250,000 to relocate day-care programs.
“We have been very interested in opening our learning centers after hours, on the weekends and the summertime,” said Arlen Gould, District 21 board of education president. “We believe that the equipment, the facilities could well serve our community broader than we have. Now it’s limited to students during the school day.”
District 21 will team up with the village of Wheeling and start after-school and evening programs in the learning centers at London and Holmes Middle Schools.
The joint project will be announced at the Village Board meeting Monday.
The program will extend the hours of the learning centers, equipped with Internet access, so that students can use the computers after school, on Saturdays and possibly during the summer.
The district also is hoping it can attract members of the community, particularly senior citizens, to use the computers.
District 21 already has started a few after-school programs at its middle schools, but until now the district, which is operating on a deficit, could not justify the expense of a full-blown plan.
The district is finishing up a buildingwide reconstruction program that has renovated each of the 12 schools’ learning centers with more space and updated technology.
“I think there is a critical need for this type of programming. We all know about latchkey children who go home to an empty house. It’s far better that they can stay at school and do homework,” Gould said. “This program will only expand what we have started to do.”
District 62 is expected to benefit from a $250,000 gift targeted for early childhood programs.
The money could help the district move an existing program to the redeveloped Des Plaines downtown.
The total cost to renovate a site for classroom use would be about $600,000.
The city has tentatively agreed to commit $320,000 in tax increment financing funds for the project, and the state funds could be used for the bulk of the remaining cost.