DuPage County plans to spend $4.1 million on a former public elementary school in unincorporated Lombard to create a new education center at a site that already includes a food pantry.
The county's Finance Committee gave consensus approval by a show of hands Tuesday, Oct. 13, to move forward with the purchase, according to committee meeting minutes. The building would become the DuPage Regional Office of Education's Center for Student Success.
Amber Quirk, DuPage County's regional superintendent of schools, presented the proposal to the committee. The ROE's current Center for Student Success operates in Aurora under a lease that expires June 30, 2027. The county's Procurement Division helped the ROE find a real estate broker to search for a new location, and that search identified the shuttered Lombard school.
The deal is not final.
The committee's show of hands signals consensus to proceed, not a formal vote. The minutes do not describe what additional approvals are required.
The financing plan splits the $4.1 million cost in two. The ROE has budgeted $2.1 million toward the purchase. The remaining $2 million would come as a county loan drawn from General Fund Reserves, repaid through grant-funded lease payments over 10 years.
That structure reflects a legal constraint: the ROE can spend its funds on leases but not on property purchases. DuPage County would own the building throughout the lease period, and ownership would be re-evaluated when the 10-year term ends.
The site also includes the Lift Market food pantry. How the pantry would operate alongside the education center is still being discussed, according to the minutes. The minutes do not identify the school by name, its address or the district that previously operated it.
The property purchase was one of several items the Finance Committee addressed during the Oct. 13 session, which Paula Deacon-Garcia chaired. The committee also approved budget transfers, equipment purchases and grant appropriations.
