It's too hard to answer this question without more information. It probably won't sell and probably can't be rented without major renovations. What will it cost to demolish? $350,000-500,000? Can the land be sold and for what? It's probably not a good idea to let it sit as a unused building. Remember the mall at Rt 38 and Randall. It's just been an ugly empty lot for more than 20 years.

If it can be demolished and made into a simple school park for what it cost to maintain for 4- 5 years, it probably makes sense to do it.

Thanks to Tim Moran & Mark Grosso for forcing a decision on this issue. Since this building is owned by a government entity, I believe it must be offered to all other government agencies before anything is decided (as was the case with the old 6th street school). I might be wrong on this point.
This building no longer functions as a school and the district offices already are located at the old 4th street school. In reality, within the last 10 years, the pre-school program was moved out of the 4th street school and relocated to the middle school south at a cost of several million dollars. The 4th street school has plenty of room for the district offices so there was never a need to spend moving those offices to Coultrap.
The Coultrap building has served it's purpose and unless a for-profit business is willing to purchase it and pay property and hopefully sales taxes, the building should be torn down. A school is a building and while people may be attached for emotional reasons, there is no reason for this structure to remain standing. The time to save it would have been in 2007 by spending $10 million in renovations instead of a brand new school at Williamsburg. That wasn't an option because we were told something had to be done with Coultrap before the proposed high school expansion could happen. Now the community has neither, maybe Coultrap should have been renovated and remained an elementary school. Sometimes when you go for it all, you lose most of it.

When Palatine opened a new high school back in the 70's the city took over the building and converted it into a Police Station and village offices. Having been remodeled and added on to since the original building was built in the 20's, the old section between the newer and Cutting Hall (the school theater) was torn down. The newer section - built in the 60's - still remains and is still in use. Perhaps the same could be done for the Coultrap building. Maybe a developer, say Shodeen, could gut the inside and convert it to apartments or condos. Even the White House, in the late 40's or early 50's, was completely gutted and the inside rebuilt. Better to look at a lot of different ideas before settling on the one to tear it down.

Should we tear down the old Courthouse building on 3rd St. in Geneva?
After all, it is probably even older than Coultrap. Why doesn't it need many thousands, even millions(?) of repairs, due to it's age?
Or, better question to me: Why weren't Coultrap's aging issues repaired as they began too occur? It's called maintenance where I come from, and we have had a huge maintenance budget in Geneva School budgets for years. We could afford to build multiple school bus garages west of town, and buy other properties for future "needs", yet we could not afford to keep up the maintenance on Coultrap?
This whole situation makes me wonder who is really responsible for allowing this historic old school to decay like this. More questionable judgment regarding those who direct and operate our District 304 finances!
Unless changes are made in the makeup of both the Board and the maintenance folks in District 304, I see little hope of us ever digging out from under one blunder after another, financially!
Let's all stop being defensive and begin to act like we have intelligent plans we can follow to prevent future disasters.
Another question that bothers me, I see huge estimated costs for repairing Coultrap in articles about the Board's investigations. Have we really gotten truly competitive bids on this, or are we just favoring certain builders without questioning others for their recommendations?

Fred Cregier

Interesting! Almost evenly-split opinions on whether to demolish the Coultrap building.

Maybe the library should relocate there

Because of it proximity to the high school it should be renovated and utilized by the high school again. It has 2 gyms could move the workout center there many offices could be moved there to free up valuable High School space. You could move 4 th and 6 th streets offices into one building. at half the maintenance cost and then tear those facilities down or sell them. I believe because of its location it is better to be used than 4th or 6th street schools. Beside the high school is land locked its not like they would sell the property outright anyway. We might as well force them to deal with it. Unless your telling me the bricks and too old to support a structure??? Note to Europe tear down all structures 100 years old! Signed Geneva School Board!

Rudy

I agree with Rudy, the high school needs the space. It cannot grow any further and Coultrap could be used to support the high school. I don't think anyone can develop on that land. Apartments would not be a good use for the space, so perhaps we need to look into what can be done to convert the land to used space.

The Fox Valley Career Center should be relocated to Coultrap. Its closer for thr schools to get to as opposed to Kaneland. Remodel coultrap and move fvcc there!

Is there any possibility of forming a trusted objective entity which can investigate the building itself, our future options, and then lay out the alternatives for the community -- without D-304 interference?

At this point, anything to do with money/facilities coming from D-304 Administration or Board has zero credibility, thanks to the, shall we say, "lack of clarity" on the issue of the school referendum, and the resulting massive debt.

We've been burned before by this bunch.

A very interesting poll. So far, 56 say demolish Coultrap and 51 say don't.

One has to ask first if the building (or part of the building) is listed or can be listed on the historical register. As with the old Community Hospital, they could not remove the entire hospital and one remaining part still stands on 2nd Street. Does the building stand in one of Geneva's historical districts? Is there a historical plaque on Coultrap? Also 12 years ago, the school board created a plan to incorporate Coultrap back to a part of the High School, housing 9th and 10th grades and using the field between schools for parking and possibly a pool. Why doesn't someone entertain that idea instead of just tearing down the building.

Coultrap does not sit in any historic district. This is a strange situation because the property is owed by the school district but the school district is not a business, or at least doesn't want to be viewed as one. Thus, the school district is actually the community and we pay the administration to maintain our assets. I like Jack's idea, why not set up a community task force, independent of the administration and school board and explore all options. How do we know the quotes provide last Monday are accurate? Who verified them, does anyone remember where they came from?
This building has sat vacant for 3 years, another year to find the right solution isn't too much to ask. If no financially viable solution is available then we have the option to tear down. We do not have the millions of dollars needed to get this building back up to speed and the board does not want to use it as an attendance center. Dr. Mutchler has made that clear many times, even to the point of saying the city will not allow it to be used as an attendance center. Though no one from the city will verify that statement.

GHS was built on a land lock area and the Coultrap land is necssary for an over due High School expansion. Coultrap is too old to save.

Once again Folks the deviance of the School District and Board has brainwashed everyone. The cost to maintain this "old horse" is $ 70,000. The School District is approximately 325 million in DEBT...YES, DEBT... IN THE RED...so now you want to SPEND MORE OF OUR TAXPAYER'S MONEY! Come on you cannot complain your property taxes are high and then want an old building to be renovated. Dump the building and sale off some of this real estate to pay down this DEBT......stop spending. Start using some common sense here not emotion.

Sell the 4th street property for development of housing stock that increases the tax base (in a higher tax area; as is 6th street) and use the proceeds to contribute to the renovation of Coultrap so that it does not end up as a parking lot smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

The high school expansion plans shared with us 2-3 years ago showed that the newer back half of Coultrap was to be demolished and turned into a parking lot with the older portion being renovated. Why change the plan now unless they never intended to stick with it then.

If no decisions have been made about what to do with the old school property after demolition, I can see the future and it's a parking lot.

I'd like to see that space turned into a Natorium. Geneva doesn't have an indoor pool and the high school deserves a space where they can house a swim team and offer swimming based classes. Then get the park district involved and rent it out for parties an open swim as well as offering aquatic classes, leasing it to other swim teams (think River Rats) and you'd made back your money. Lots of Genevan's are playing lots of money to out their kids in winter lessons, swim at other pools for fun in the winter and swimmers on swim teams swim for other clubs in the winter. I don't see a way to get houses on the land of the high school and apartments that close to the school could be grounds for lots of trouble (in our old town apartments near the high school made getting drugs into the right hands much easier). The land will most likely need to be reused for purposes that help the town and the high school. An indoor pool seems like the right answer to me. Add some sports training facilities and some district offices and let go of the 4th street building for condos or private offices.

The school district should not spend ANY money on properties that are unnecessary, they should just sell it AND the fourth street property. What are they thinking spending any money that doesn't directly benefit our children in these times. Especially with the whole referendum debacle.