Constructed in 1920 at 41W625 Russell Road, Plato Center Grade School is the oldest building owned by Central Community Unit School District 301, according to Dan Polowy, the district’s director of facility operations.
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The district closed the school in 2000.
In that same year, See Saw Day Care Center, which had been running a children’s day care facility at 275 South Street in Burlington since 1996, decided to open a second location in the Plato Center building.
See Saw Day Care Center is licensed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. It offers full and part-time day care, preschool programs, before and after school care, and care during the summer months for children ages 6 weeks to 12 years old. It is open Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. year round.
Becky McClure, owner of See Saw Day Care Center, rents two separate locations for her business from the district. See Saw Day Care Center in Burlington is found in the same building that houses the Central School District 301 main office.
Due to the ongoing costs of keeping the Plato Center building maintained and up to code, the district has been considering the possibility of tearing it down.
McClure came before the District 301 school board this week to ask if the building could be spared.
“We offer an important service,” McClure said. “We have cared for over 600 children in the Plato Center facility. We prepare them for kindergarten. We were awarded the Silver Circle of Excellence.”
McClure said there is a lot of space in the building that could be utilized for sports and other local activities.
“The building does need repairs, but our rent is enough to cover the day to day expenses,” McClure told the board. “Invest in the building as an investment in the community.”
In addition to McClure, Lacy Foy-Vargas came before the board this week in an effort to save the building.
Foy-Vargas is a teacher at St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 and lifelong resident of Elgin. She said she once attended Plato Center Grade School and was one of the first students to graduate from Central High School.
Foy-Vargas said her daughter currently goes to the See Saw Day Care Center in Plato Center.
“I was so excited to take my daughter to that building,” she said. “It is a special place.”
Polowy said that the building’s capital expenses over the next one to three years would cost $568,000 and include roof replacement, masonry repairs, boiler replacement and parking lot repair.
“Since we are the landlord,” Polowy said, “we would have to budget for that if we were to keep the building.”
Polowy said the district did offer to sell the building to McClure but was turned down.
During the school board meeting this week, Polowy recommended terminating the day care center lease on the Plato Center building after this year, emptying the building, relocating the garage on the premises, and demolishing the building. He said the district would continue to maintain the school’s baseball fields and the parking lot.
The school board will have to vote at a future meeting on whether or not to follow the recommendation to tear the building down.
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter.