Early Childhood Center To Open In Bellwood...

Due to the leadership of Board President Tommie Miller and the SD88 Board of Education, the Proviso Herald reports that a school that has been closed for seven years will reopen next week to house Bellwood School District 88's growing preschool population.

Lincoln Primary Early Childhood Center, 3519 Wilcox St., Bellwood, will open Sept. 22. The school was closed in 2001 due to a termite infestation.

The school will house about 130 students ranging in age from three to five-years-old along with 25 faculty and staff members.

Gwen Frasier, director of personnel and day-to-day business at School District 88, said the school never reopened because the district's preschool population was spread out among the districts other schools, but now things have changed.

"We've had steady growth to the point where we can offer the same early childhood program throughout the district," she said. "The need was to have a site in Bellwood."

The termite problem at the school was corrected, but Frasier said other repairs had to be done to open it up to students due to the lengthy closing. "We did the flooring, put in new carpeting, painted, put in new windows," she said.

The district also put up new fencing, landscaped the property and paved the parking lot, Frasier said.

Prior to opening up the school to the public a short program will take place at 10 a.m. Parents and students will have an opportunity to take a tour of the school and meet the teachers and administrators following the short program.