Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Lease School topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District 186 proposes long‑term lease with UIS for 29‑acre South Side elementary
Summary
Superintendent Gill presented a request to lease roughly 29 acres of University of Illinois Springfield land for a consolidated South Side elementary; the site would remain tax‑exempt under UIS ownership and the change requires voluntary detachment by Chatham‑Glenwood School District and a regional superintendent filing.
Superintendent Gill told the school board that Springfield School District 186 has asked the University of Illinois Springfield to enter a long‑term lease on about 29 acres near the UIS softball fields and Barker Park to site a consolidated South Side elementary school.
Gill said UIS is not interested in selling the parcel but would consider a long lease “probably somewhere around 100 years” so the district could construct a school. He stressed that the land, while owned by UIS, is tax‑exempt and that building on leased, university‑owned property would not change local property tax revenue: “So nobody would be losing any money nor would we be gaining any money in this process,” he said.
The proposal would require the adjacent Chatham‑Glenwood School District to voluntarily detach the acreage into District 186’s boundaries. If the board approved the district request, the next procedural step would be an uncontested petition for annexation/detachment filed with the regional superintendent of schools, Shannon Furholtz, Gill said. Board members in attendance and district officials said Chatham asked detailed questions and that District 186 was “wait and see” pending further discussions.
Proponents described several expected benefits: easier access for UIS student‑teachers, opportunities for university‑district partnerships (for example, possible speech‑and‑language programming tied to Chancellor Janet Gooch’s background), and relief of facility needs on the South Side through school consolidation. District officials said they had checked the site for buildability and noted no structures currently occupy the land.
Board members and administrators cautioned that the change would be complex: it hinges on a voluntary detachment by another district, a lease agreement with UIS and subsequent filings with the regional superintendent. Superintendent Gill and Trustee Miller said they would continue discussions with Chatham and UIS; no final board action on boundary change or lease terms was taken at the meeting.
The board’s discussion also included procedural and community concerns raised at a prior Chatham board meeting; those questions, Gill said, were “hard, but good,” and the matter remained under consideration.
What happens next: District 186 staff said they will continue discussions with UIS and Chatham officials and, if the parties agree, file the uncontested petition with the regional superintendent. No lease or detachment was approved at the Dec. 1 meeting.
