Dennis parents call for new school, as new magnet school contractor approved

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — DPS61 administrators are moving forward with a temporary home for Dennis Lab Schools students and staff. But there is now a growing call from parents to tear down the buildings, and construct a new campus.

"The history of Dennis can be remembered through the symbology of the monarch, we don't need a deteriorating century-old facade for that," Parent Nick Crim told DPS61's Board during a special open meeting Monday.

Dennis students are slated to attend class at Garfield Learning Academy (GLA), and in modular classrooms on the GLA campus. But some parents are now asking the district to keep students there until a new campus can be built.

"Now it is time for the hard process of creating a winged butterfly of a new building. Demolish the old building, or find a new location, but don't dump more money into repairing old buildings that don't serve the needs of a modern school," Crim added.

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Other parents are focused on more immediate concerns, like the late start to the school year for Dennis students, and what this means for their academic success.

"Because they're starting school multiple weeks behind their peers, it just doesn't make any sense to have them do state and national testing, especially because their test scores will not in any way be valid compared to their test scores last year or to the scores of their peers this year," Dennis parent Kaitlin Glause told the board.

DPS61 administrators said they are waiting to hear back from the Illinois State Board of Education about pushing back the start date for Dennis students. The department would need to approve a September 5th start date before the district can formally notify parents.

Teachers are also concerned about getting materials and furniture out of their old classrooms, after an OSHA complaint shut down access to any staff.

"The OSHA complaint comes a day late and a dollar short. The environmental problems that exist in that building did not happen overnight. Teachers and support staff have been working at that building for years now and have already been exposed," Amy Dobrinick, a parent of a Dennis Teacher, told the DPS61 Board during public comment.

While the future of Dennis Lab Schools is still unclear, the district is moving forward with a general contractor to build the new American Dreamer STEM Academy. The Board voted 3-1 to approve a Champaign general contractor to build the new school.

"You're just under $33.5-mil, total project budget. The original estimate for that was just over $37-mil, so it's about $3.5-mil under the project budget," BLDD staff told the DPS61 Board.

The new magnet school must be complete by January of 2025 per federal guidelines. The school is being constructed with federal COVID money.