June 2, 2024 11:55a
(WGTD)----Two side-by-side, soon-to-be vacant schools in Kenosha Unified would appear to be prime candidates for demolition.
Although KUSD isn't commenting quite yet, documents prepared for this week's Kenosha Plan Commission meeting show that the city is preparing to demolish McKinley Elementary and KTEC West, formerly McKinley Middle School.
The buildings are located two blocks west of the Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood--a site that once was home to auto manufacturing.
Demolishing the buildings would create nearly 10 acres of open space--enough for a park and single-family homes.
Plan commissioners Thursday night will be asked to recommend approval of a tax incremental financing district that would fund the demolition--estimated to cost over $5 million.
A spokesperson for Kenosha Unified declined to comment, saying that the two buildings are part of a broader package of property dispositions that has yet to be finalized.
As part of the district's downsizing plan, McKinley Elementary is slated for closure at the end of the school year while KTEC West's enrollment will be moving to the existing Lincoln Middle School. Lincoln's enrollment will be dispersed to the district's remaining middle schools.
McKinley Elementary opened in 1950 while McKinley Middle is over 100 years old.
Rollin Pizzala represents the area on the Kenosha City Council. He said most of the neighborhood's residents support the project, saying they'd welcome relief from the traffic jams in the neighborhood's narrow streets that are created by parents picking up and dropping off their children.
One resident, however, said the buildings should be preserved for historical purposes while another homeowner was afraid that construction would put cracks in her basement foundation. She also didn't like the idea of newer homes springing up across the street from her older home, Pizzala said.
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