Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat.
Officials at Belleville Township High School District 201 are preparing for facility improvements that could include renovating two buildings, rebuilding one structure and constructing a new building at the Belleville East High School campus over the next few years to address inefficient uses of space.
Two things are driving the plans, Superintendent Brian Mentzer said at the board meeting Monday evening: enrollment at Belleville East is increasing, and the district has added programs that require dividing space and creating new classrooms.
“It’s a good problem to have, but it’s a problem right now at Belleville East,” Mentzer said. “I don’t believe they have a single, unutilized instructional space on campus. Not one.”
In recent months, the district worked with its engineering and architecture firms — Kaskaskia Engineering Group and Gray Design Group — to identify inefficiencies in the way various spaces are used across the Belleville East campus, which spans 76 acres and consists of 20 buildings plus athletic facilities.
They found inefficiencies in four areas, according to Mentzer:
- Building M, which currently houses maintenance, welding and automotive
- Building I, which was originally a classroom building the district later converted to house band, chorus, and family and consumer sciences
- Building T, a temporary building that once housed the alternative school, which is now located in the Center for Academic and Vocational Excellence, or CAVE
- The basement below the gymnasium locker rooms, which is currently used as fitness centers on both sides
With those findings, the district now has conceptual plans to:
- Renovate buildings M and I so that building I returns primary to classrooms and building M houses family and consumer sciences
- Tear down building T and construct a permanent structure to house welding, machining and automotive
- Construct a new, 30,000-square-foot structure — building U — which would house band, chorus, physical education and a fitness center
How much of those plans become a reality will depend on what kind of funding the district is able to secure for the renovations and expansion.
The district is hoping to use career and technical education funding from the state to fund some of the work, Mentzer said.
The fiscal year 2025 state budget that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed in June included a $10.3 million increase in funding for career and technical education programs. Advocates had pushed for the boost in support after more than a decade of flat funding from the state despite increasing student interest. Many are continuing the push for more funding.
Aside from some of the state dollars for career and technical education programs, District 201 is trying to find a way to fund the improvements at Belleville East that won’t require additional debt, Mentzer said. The district has been talking to state and federal legislators to seek additional funding, he added.
The current Belleville East campus at the corner of West Boulevard and Carlyle Avenue was built in the mid 1960s after the school board approved the construction of a new campus and division of the student body between two schools amid rising enrollment.
Initially, half of the campus was occupied by the Belleville Area College — now known as Southwestern Illinois College — and the newly-created Belleville East occupied the other half. In the early 1970s, however, BAC was forced to move to its current location on Carlyle Avenue as the high school’s enrollment continued to increase.
District 201 has spent about $14 million in recent years on infrastructure, Mentzer estimated at the board meeting Monday evening. That work includes renovations at the CAVE; renovations of the performing arts center, gym, and track and field at each high school; and “building envelope” work like roofing, tuckpointing, and resealing doors and windows. Some of the work has been paid for with federal Covid-19 relief funds.
With the exception of the space needs at Belleville East, the district is in a good position in terms of its essential building planning and construction, Assistant Superintendent Dustin Bilbruck said at the board meeting.
The district has had a five-year rolling plan to ensure that all building needs get addressed, “and the good news is, by the time we get through next summer … if we remain on schedule and nothing else big comes up, we’re done with that piece of it,” he said.
At that point, the district will be able to focus its facility planning on what it wants to do rather than what it needs to do, he added.
Kelly Smits is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
