Shabbona Middle School in Morris may have closed as a school in 2016, but it’s still in use and highly maintained thanks to agreements Morris Elementary School District 54 has with both the Morris Hospital and Joliet Junior College.

Morris Hospital’s Jeff Brodbeck led a tour of the facility during District 54’s annual State of the District address, showing how what used to be classrooms, libraries and computer labs are now filled with hospital employees that have jobs that can be done remotely.

“The partnership with Shabbona has been important to us because, as you know, the hospital has been under construction for a good five years,” Brodbeck said.

Brodbeck said in that time, the hospital expanded its emergency room to three times its previous size, and operating rooms are much larger than they were before. Moving jobs that can be handled off-site is part of what made that possible.

The hospital’s patient accounting team, finance team, marketing, administration and medical records have all been moved to inside the former middle school.

Parts of the old school still remain: There are multiple gyms still used by the school district and some portions of the hallways are lined with the same lockers formerly used by students. More has changed, though. The old library is filled with cubicles, and what used to be classrooms is now the home to patient records and financial documents.

Morris Elementary Superintendent Shannon Dudek said it’s been a long time since the public has gotten to see what the inside of Shabbona school looks like.

“These are community buildings,” Dudek said. “I want to be really clear, we have community buildings and they’re not exclusive to just us.”

Dudek said it’s common for school districts to shutter a building that then goes to the bottom of the list as far as maintenance goes. Thanks to Joliet Junior College and the Morris Hospital, that doesn’t have to be the case with Shabbona Middle School.

“In Morris, thankfully, we have great partners that can come and take a space we don’t have a need for other than the gymnasiums,” Dudek said.

Dudek said the next step for the former school will be to rework the parking so it finally makes sense.

The last class of students graduated from Shabbona Middle School in May 2016.