Yorkville School District Y115 chief making plans for new middle school on district’s north side

YORKVILLE – School District Y115 Superintendent Tim Shimp is working to set the stage for construction of a second middle school building.

Shimp reported to the Yorkville School Board on Nov. 21 that the district will receive a developer’s land/cash donation of an 11-acre piece of property on Galena Road just west of Route 47.

Under state law, home builders must provide land or cash donations to school and park systems to help offset the additional costs created by the new residents moving into their subdivisions.

The 11-acre parcel is located on the south side of Galena Road, immediately west of a piece of property that has been designated for the Kendall Area Transportation bus service headquarters and maintenance facility at the southwest corner of Galena and Route 47.

However, Shimp told school board members that this is not the site he is envisioning for the new middle school.

“Eleven acres isn’t even big enough for an elementary school,” Shimp said.

Instead, the superintendent wants to leverage the donation into cash for the district and to use the money toward the cost of acquiring a larger piece of property that can accommodate a middle school building.

Yorkville Middle School is located at 920 Prairie Crossing Drive on the far south side of the city.

Shimp wants to build the second middle school at the north end of the community. The cost will be in the range of $50 million to $60 million, Shimp said. It likely will require passage of a bond referendum.

The expansion plans are being driven by rising student enrollments that are projected to increase by more than 700 students in less than 10 years.

By the start of the 2031-32 academic term, total enrollment is expected to reach 7,455, climbing steadily each year from the current 6,732.

Under the superintendent’s long-range plan, the district’s elementary and grade schools would become K-5 buildings, while the sixth graders would attend one of the two middle schools, along with seventh and eighth grade students.

The second middle school, with an enrollment of about 675, would absorb the sixth grade classes from Bristol Bay, Grande Reserve and Autumn Creek schools.

Meanwhile, sixth grade students from Yorkville Intermediate School and a portion of those from Autumn Creek would attend the existing Yorkville Middle School.

The intermediate school, now a grades four to six center, would become a kindergarten through fifth grade school like the others.

Yorkville Middle School currently serves all the district’s seventh and eighth graders, with an enrollment of about 1,080. The school’s student count, like the new middle school, would be about 675 under Shimp’s plan.

Yorkville Academy, now a center for high school freshman, would become the East Campus of Yorkville High School as a grade nine through 12 building.

Across Game Farm Road, the Yorkville High School building would become the West Campus, also serving grades nine through 12.

The West Campus would have a capacity of 1,400 students, while the East Campus would hold up to 400 students.