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A Charter School of Your Own is Latest in Home Amenities

Posted on: Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Aug. 22--The standard subdivision amenities used to be Olympic-size swimming pools, golf courses and bike trails. But in a dramatic shift, a developer in Kane County proposes to lure home buyers with an $18 million charter school within easy walking distance.

On Monday, Community Unit School District 300, based in Carpentersville, will discuss what could be the first charter school in Illinois built by a developer. School board members will consider whether to give the developer more time to answer their financial concerns about the school or possibly pass on the proposal.

Cambridge Homes, based in Libertyville, wants to build a school for about 1,000 pupils in kindergarten through 8th grade in its new subdivision near Pingree Grove in the northern part of the county.

The developer said the public school is part of a quality-of-life package that home buyers want, and future residents said it's an undeniable draw. But the plan, which state officials said is the first of its kind in Illinois, has drawn fire from some board members, who fear the school could divert dollars from other campuses in the district.

That could create disparities within school districts where charter schools are built in wealthier subdivisions, said Denise Cardinal, spokeswoman for the National Education Association, a Washington-based union that represents 2.7 million education workers.

"That's one of the things we object to in charter schools, is charter schools that drain taxpayer dollars from [other] publicly funded schools," Cardinal said.

The idea may be new in Illinois, but developers across the country are offering to build schools themselves rather than pay impact fees to the districts. The fees help offset the effect of development, including paying for new schools.

In about a dozen communities in Florida, California and other fast-growing states, developers are including charter schools in subdivision proposals.

"It is pretty unique, although not unheard of," said Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, a non-profit association that oversees the schools. "It does seem that it's a possible win-win situation for the school district and the developer."

In many of Chicago's suburbs, school districts cannot build schools fast enough to accommodate growth, said Richmond, formerly of the Renaissance 2010 project, Mayor Richard Daley's effort to turn around failing Chicago schools.

Driving the local proposal is the unrelenting pressure of suburban expansion in District 300, officials said.

Cambridge Homes views the charter school proposal as a solution that would enable families in its subdivision to send their children to a school within walking distance, said company Senior Vice President Jerry Conrad, who is part of the group overseeing the charter school.

"We approached the Pingree Grove community on the basis that we are developing a community, not just a subdivision," Conrad said.

In May the school district hired a financial adviser to oversee borrowing more than $185 million for the next three years to build a high school and three elementary schools. But that's only if voters approve building the schools. The board is considering asking voters to authorize the sale of bonds for that purpose in March.

The district had a $26 million deficit with a $141 million budget for the 2004-05 school year.

Susie Kopacz, vice president of the school board, believes the charter school would cause the district to take money from other campuses.

"The community should know it's a wonderful proposal and the school district would never turn down a good proposal if it was to benefit everyone," she said. "When it cuts deeper into our financial woes, it's not a wise decision."

State education officials, however, said each district can negotiate how much money it allocates for charter school students, within state guidelines.

District 300 officials plan to consult with lawmakers this week about whether they can be flexible in how they use school funds, said chief financial officer Cheryl Crates.

Although Cambridge Homes' proposal is unique for a developer in Illinois, some Lake County residents opened a charter school in the Prairie Crossing subdivision in the late '90s. But unlike the Pingree Grove proposal, that school set up in an existing building, and the initial backing came from residents.

The Kane County charter school may be built for pupils in the Cambridge Lakes subdivision, but state law requires the district to allow any student to attend.

The developer plans to build about 2,650 homes that cost $180,000 for a townhouse to $300,000 for a single-family home.

The district's developer impact fees are not enough to cover the cost of building new schools, and waiting for voters to approve bonds would force newcomers to bus their children to schools several miles away, Conrad said.

Impact fees in the Pingree Grove area typically are $3,000 per house. But Cambridge Homes cut a deal to pay only $975 per house, Crates said.

The developer wouldn't put up money for the school but is serving as a kind of facilitator for the project. Cambridge Homes is working with Northern Kane Educational Corp., which would oversee construction of the school and manage its finances. American Quality Schools, which runs several charter schools in Chicago, would hire the teachers and develop a curriculum.

Conrad said he is negotiating with Pingree Grove officials to issue bonds for the school, which the educational corporation, not the village, would be obligated to repay. A similar financial plan is being considered with the Illinois Finance Authority, he said, though neither agreement is locked down.

If approved by district officials, the school could be completed by fall 2006.

Dan and Cristina Sarullo attended a recent board meeting to learn more about the proposal. They are moving in March from Vernon Hills to Cambridge Lakes. Dan Sarullo said he would prefer to send his 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son to a school nearby.

"I don't know all the details of the financial stuff. I don't know all the details of how charters work," Sarullo said. But "based on what was said at the meeting, about the charter, why wouldn't I want my kids to go there, a couple blocks away, compared to another school that's overcrowded that's 7 miles away?"

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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