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Change in Law Helps Preserve Historic Schools
New changes to a state law aim to help save historic schools in Illinois from being torn down.
This week, Governor Quinn signed an amendment to the state's school construction law.
A-third of buildings in Springfield school district 186 date back to the 1930's or earlier.
District spokesman Pete Sherman said, "We hope to keep them around for a long time, so any incentive that we would have to keep them in great shape, the better."
Now there's a new incentive. A change to state law, now provides state funding for historic schools to be rehabilitated. The previous law only allowed funding for aging schools to be replaced.
"The real issue here was we had a public policy that said the state will only invest if you throw away the old building and replace it and we think it's not fair to history, it's not fair to development and this is good public policy," Mike Jackson with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said.
It's too late for 97-year old Enos School. Sherman says it will cost less to build a new school, than repair the current one.
Plans are already in place to break ground on a new Enos Elementary before the end of the year. When it's finished, the current building will be torn down.
A few years ago, the school board talked about building a new Springfield High School on the city's west side.
"It's an aging structure and to bring it up to expectations of a modern 21st century high school is not possible," Sherman said.
Plans of building a new Springfield High are on hold for now.. But if they start again, the current one - which was built in 1917 - would possibly be used for administrative offices rather than be torn down.
"There's a lot of value in preserving historic buildings," Sherman said.
Change in Law Helps Preserve Historic Schools
New changes to a state law aim to help save historic schools in Illinois from being torn down.
This week, Governor Quinn signed an amendment to the state's school construction law.
A-third of buildings in Springfield school district 186 date back to the 1930's or earlier.
District spokesman Pete Sherman said, "We hope to keep them around for a long time, so any incentive that we would have to keep them in great shape, the better."
Now there's a new incentive. A change to state law, now provides state funding for historic schools to be rehabilitated. The previous law only allowed funding for aging schools to be replaced.
"The real issue here was we had a public policy that said the state will only invest if you throw away the old building and replace it and we think it's not fair to history, it's not fair to development and this is good public policy," Mike Jackson with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said.
It's too late for 97-year old Enos School. Sherman says it will cost less to build a new school, than repair the current one.
Plans are already in place to break ground on a new Enos Elementary before the end of the year. When it's finished, the current building will be torn down.
A few years ago, the school board talked about building a new Springfield High School on the city's west side.
"It's an aging structure and to bring it up to expectations of a modern 21st century high school is not possible," Sherman said.
Plans of building a new Springfield High are on hold for now.. But if they start again, the current one - which was built in 1917 - would possibly be used for administrative offices rather than be torn down.
"There's a lot of value in preserving historic buildings," Sherman said.
