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Gazette Chicago Children of Peace expansion continues
The first phase of the Children of Peace School expansion has been completed. The school for both deaf and hearing students now sports a new playground, a safer drop-off area, and a children’s garden.
After negotiating for years with the Illinois Medical District (IMD) commissioners and suggesting appropriate compromises to alleviate their concerns, officials ultimately left the school’s design unchanged from the plan the IMD commissioners approved a year ago.“
We are delighted,” said the Rev. Patrick Pollard, as he indicated the school encountered no opposition from the City or the IMD during the construction process’s first phase.
“The plan is the way we imagined it a year ago,” he continued, noting the school even improved the plan when it “put grass and trees where there had simply been concrete.” Also, “the whole campus is now more secure.” Pollard, pastor of Notre Dame de Chicago Parish, hopes this is the last winter Children of Peace students will have to face the cold as they move between classes.
The first phase’s completion signals the start of a second phase: a nearly $4 million fundraising campaign so the school can build a connecting structure between two freestanding buildings. That structure will provide two classrooms and a library, chapel, and lunchroom.
So far, the second phase plans have not changed from the school’s proposal a year ago, and Children of Peace has lined up “donors and people who are willing to raise money, said Fr. Pollard. School leaders are asking teachers, students, and parents to help obtain all the funds necessary to make the school improvement vision a reality.
The school is planning a formal ribbon cutting ceremony this spring to celebrate completing the first phase and commencing the second.
“It’s too difficult to say when we’ll raise the funds” for the second phase, Fr. Pollard said. “But we hope it’s not too long before we can put the shovels in the ground and start digging.”
The school, located at 1900 W. Taylor St., enrolls more than 30 deaf students as well as 200 hearing students; it is the only Roman Catholic elementary school for the deaf in Illinois. The second phase plans would allow a gradual increase to 350 students. For information, call (312) 243-8186.
The first phase of the Children of Peace School expansion has been completed. The school for both deaf and hearing students now sports a new playground, a safer drop-off area, and a children’s garden.
After negotiating for years with the Illinois Medical District (IMD) commissioners and suggesting appropriate compromises to alleviate their concerns, officials ultimately left the school’s design unchanged from the plan the IMD commissioners approved a year ago.“
We are delighted,” said the Rev. Patrick Pollard, as he indicated the school encountered no opposition from the City or the IMD during the construction process’s first phase.
“The plan is the way we imagined it a year ago,” he continued, noting the school even improved the plan when it “put grass and trees where there had simply been concrete.” Also, “the whole campus is now more secure.” Pollard, pastor of Notre Dame de Chicago Parish, hopes this is the last winter Children of Peace students will have to face the cold as they move between classes.
The first phase’s completion signals the start of a second phase: a nearly $4 million fundraising campaign so the school can build a connecting structure between two freestanding buildings. That structure will provide two classrooms and a library, chapel, and lunchroom.
So far, the second phase plans have not changed from the school’s proposal a year ago, and Children of Peace has lined up “donors and people who are willing to raise money, said Fr. Pollard. School leaders are asking teachers, students, and parents to help obtain all the funds necessary to make the school improvement vision a reality.
The school is planning a formal ribbon cutting ceremony this spring to celebrate completing the first phase and commencing the second.
“It’s too difficult to say when we’ll raise the funds” for the second phase, Fr. Pollard said. “But we hope it’s not too long before we can put the shovels in the ground and start digging.”
The school, located at 1900 W. Taylor St., enrolls more than 30 deaf students as well as 200 hearing students; it is the only Roman Catholic elementary school for the deaf in Illinois. The second phase plans would allow a gradual increase to 350 students. For information, call (312) 243-8186.