The Dunlap school district plans to replace the Wilder-Waite Grade School on Peoria’s north side with a new, larger facility in anticipation of a need for greater capacity.
A proposal set to go before the Peoria City Council at its regular meeting on Tuesday calls for Dunlap Community School District 323 to build the two-story, 80,000 square-foot school building on the back portion of the current school grounds.
“The existing Wilder-Waite building is the oldest in our district,” said Assistant Superintendent Matt Andrews. “While it continues to meet the needs of students now, just in terms of growth across the district — not just within Wilder-Waite’s boundaries as they currently are — it’s just needing additional space for elementary students.”
Andrews said the school board already has approved issuing $44 million in bonds to cover project costs. The new school would be able to serve more than 700 students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
“We’re needing a building that make sure that we’re able to address all student needs within the academic day,” said Andrews. “With that, we’re looking to see what we can do to realize the potential growth that will happen — with existing and proposed subdivisions within our boundaries — and then how we can maximize our efficiency and make sure that we have room to grow, so that we’re not as full as we are now at each of our elementary buildings.”
According to the council agenda memo, the plans include an outdoor playground and basketball court, a landscaped courtyard, and a nature discovery garden. An area in the southwest corner of the property would be designated for a future solar panel site.
Since the property is currently zoned for single-family residential, the council will consider two options for a special-use permission. City Manager Patrick Urich said the Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval.
“I think that there were some special conditions that were added pertaining to fire access, handicap accessibility, a multi-use path that they want to put on the property,” said Urich. “Then there were some other issues that we had with regards to the condition of the streets.
“It’s currently kind of in a township-rural cross section, and we’d like it be brought up to the city street standards. So that’s something that the council is going to have to decide on what they want to condition the property with.”
The school district also is considering three options of what to do with the existing Wilder-Waite building. One plan calls for demolishing the facility, while another would demolish everything except the current gymnasium. An alternate path would be to keep the building in place for district support services.
“We want to honor the fact that that is a seminal building within our district. We, of course, want to honor the fact that it is and continues to be a point of pride,” said Andrews, noting the current plan is to keep the Wilder-Waite name for the new building.
“While it may not necessarily be meeting our needs as an elementary building now, we do have other needs. So we want to make sure that we’re taking a look at all of those potential options, seeing what’s feasible and what could be useful, both in the short term and in the long term.”
Andrews said the district anticipates seeing construction begin as soon as mid-March, with completion targeted for the summer of 2027 so the project can move in ahead of the 2027-28 academic year.
