May 21, 2024
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Lincoln-Way School District 210 OKs plan for Lockport Central students to use Lincoln-Way North campus

By Judy Harvey
Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort is seen shortly before it opened. The school was built after a 2006 referendum passed to accommodate an expected influx of students that never came. Now, district leaders are considering shuttering one of Lincoln-Way's four academic buildings to deal with financial problems.

Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort is seen shortly before it opened in 2008. (Shaw Media)

The Lincoln-Way High School District 210 Board on Thursday approved an intergovernmental agreement with Lockport Township High School District 205 to allow students, faculty and staff to use Lincoln-Way North while Lockport’s Central Campus remains closed for repairs.

Lockport’s Central Campus has been shut down for a week after a ceiling collapse.

The agreement allows District 205 to use the now-vacant Lincoln-Way North in Frankfort for three months with the ability to extend the contract monthly as needed.

District 210 closed the North campus in 2016, only eight years after it opened, because it was not needed after enrollment projections by the district failed to pan out.

District 205 serves students in Lockport, Crest Hill and Homer Glen.

District 205 will pay District 210 for the initial cost related to getting the building running and all costs associated with operating and maintaining the building during the time District 205 students and staff will be occupying it, according to a release from District 210.

There also will be a 15% indirect administrative fee.

“This IGA allows the students of Lockport to return to in-person learning, while also avoiding any negative financial impact on District 210,” District 210 Superintendent Scott Tingley said in a statement released on the district’s website. “We know how important it is to have students in class every day, so Lincoln-Way is happy to be able to help District 205 during this difficult time.”

The District 205 board approved a similar resolution at a special meeting Tuesday.

Parents gathered in the Porter Room at LTHS East Campus to hear the board's plan for Central Campus students at the Nov. 7 emergency meeting.

Parents gathered in the Porter Room at LTHS East Campus to hear the school board's plan for Central Campus students at the Nov. 7 emergency board meeting. Central Campus closed Nov. 2 following a ceiling collapse in an unoccupied classroom. (Jessie Molloy)

Central Campus in downtown Lockport normally is a freshman center, and District 205 said freshmen will continue with remote e-learning as they have been since the building was closed Nov. 2 at least through the middle of next week.

District 205 released a statement Wednesday noting that the goal is to have those students begin in-person learning Wednesday, Nov. 15, at Lincoln-Way North.

“Over the next few days, we are continuing to work with our Central Campus staff to allow them time to be able to relocate their classroom items to Lincoln-Way North High School, and we will continue to work on a couple of schedule modules for Central Campus,” District 205 said in a statement posted on its website. “While we allow time for our staff to relocate to Lincoln-Way North High School, we anticipate having one day of no instruction.”

Special education CCC students who also attend Central Campus have been going to class at the Lockport Township building just down from Lockport’s East Campus on Farrell Road. Those students will remain at that building and not go to Lincoln-Way North.

The 114-year-old Lockport Central Campus continues to be inspected and evaluated for structural soundness and for repairs deemed necessary before students and staff could safely return. That process could take multiple months, District 205 administration said this week.

Students who normally attend Central Campus have been out of the classroom since Nov. 2, when a collapsed ceiling was discovered in a classroom early that morning. No one was in the room at the time of the incident, which district officials said happened overnight.

Students were sent home early Nov. 2 as a precaution and while engineers, architects and fire personnel could inspect the structure.

Since then, District 205′s 900 freshmen have been doing e-learning on their normal class schedule. East Campus serves sophomores, juniors and seniors, and district officials said there is not enough space there to easily take in freshmen as well.

District 205′s enrollment is more than 3,800.

Third-story classroom in Lockport Township High School Central Campus after the plaster ceiling collapsed.

Third-story classroom in Lockport Township High School Central Campus after the plaster ceiling collapsed. (Provided by Alicia Doroniuk)

A hybrid schedule was considered, which would have allowed freshmen and upperclassmen to attend East in person on alternating days and be online on their off days, as well as a split schedule, in which half the students would attend in person from 6 to 11 a.m. and the other half would attend from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

It was determined that the hybrid scheduled would pose a potential problem qualifying for state in-person attendance requirements, and the split schedule was deemed too disruptive for all students’ schedules and for extracurriculars.

Jessie Molloy contributed to this story.