An alternative school associated with Maryville Academy is planning a move to a former Niles elementary school that two years ago was being considered for housing.
The Niles Planning and Zoning Board on March 7 voted to recommend a special-use permit allowing Maryville Jen School to operate at 6935 Touhy Ave., the former Niles Elementary School South, located east of Milwaukee Avenue.
The recommendation will go to the Niles Village Board for final approval on March 22, said Nathan Bruemmer, village planner.
Jen School is currently located at 1150 N. River Road in Des Plaines. It provides special education services and vocational education for students ages 14 to 22 with “academic, emotional, behavioral or intellectual challenges,” according to the school’s website.
Nelia Bernabe, a spokeswoman for Maryville Academy, said the relocation is part of Jen School’s plans to expand its curriculum and the number of students it serves. The school is looking to expand from eight classrooms to 10 and add six classrooms for career technical education, according to information from the village of Niles.
Currently, the school has 32 students enrolled, but is targeting a population of up to 100 students, the village said.
“The hope is once we move to Niles, we should be able to go full-blast in attracting more students who generally attend mainstream high schools,” Bernabe said. “At Jen School, they will be able to learn new skills — technical skills and things like that.”
Maryville Academy plans to purchase the former South School building in Niles and the sale is contingent upon approvals from the village, Bernabe said. Renovations will be made to the building, with a goal of opening in late summer 2023, she said.
South School, which has been vacant since 2019, is owned by Niles School District 71. Between 2000 and 2019, it was leased to a private, alternative school for students with special needs.
District 71 Supt. John Kosirog said the district last fall reached an agreement to sell the South School property to Maryville Academy for $2.5 million.
“The purchase price is approximately $500,000 over the previous development offer that fell through at the beginning of the pandemic,” Kosirog said, referring to a plan that would have converted the school into 48 rental apartments and added a second, four-story 33-unit apartment building to the south.
A second developer also stepped up with plans to demolish the nearly 100-year-old school and construct multiple, multi-family buildings on the site, but that project also failed to proceed, a village official said.
Both apartment developments had sought economic incentives from the village of Niles through a Tax Increment Financing District, said John Melaniphy, director of economic development. That TIF district has since expired.
Kosirog said the proposal for Jen School will have “a very limited additional impact on the neighborhood” because the building was previously used for a similar type of school.
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“The District 71 board felt that this agreement was in the best interest of the District 71, the village of Niles, and the neighborhood,” he said.
Jen School was founded in 2007. Its students come from communities throughout the Chicago area, Bernabe said.