Lincoln School in St. Charles finds new life as an education space – for teachers

St. Charles School District 303 students, teachers and administrators are enthusiastic about the newly remodeled space in the oldest school building in the district.

Abraham Lincoln School in St. Charles underwent major renovations this summer to transition to housing the Transition Program and collaborative space for educators after a 95-year run as an elementary school.

After the end of the 2023-24 school year, renovations began to convert the building to house the Transition Program, a special education program that supports students ages 18 to 22 in developing skills for employment and independent living.

The work included ADA and safety improvements, updating floors, bathrooms, finishings and remodeling classrooms throughout the first level of the school for the Transition Program’s needs. The school’s gymnasium also underwent a complete remodel to become collaborative work space for educators and house school board meetings.

Executive Director of Facilities Amanda Stuber said the new and improved gymnasium provides a flexible work area with enough space for administrators and educators to use it however they need. The space has room for up to about 130 people at a time.

The main benefit the gymnasium’s remodel provides the district is space for Professional Learning Communities to operate. PLCs are collaborative groups of educators and administrators.

Superintendent Paul Gordon said the district has never had a dedicated space where all PLCs could work at the same time. The PLCs had previously been bouncing around between different district facilities like the Haines Center and the auditorium at St. Charles East High School when students weren’t using them.

“This is just a dedicated space for learning, for collaboration and for educators to come together and really be able to grow their skills and their knowledge together,” Gordon said. “It really is a beautiful area for us. It just gives us flexibility.”

The school board will meet for the first time in their new space in the former gymnasium of Lincoln School Monday night, Dec. 9.

The Transition Program was the first to occupy the new space, moving in just before the start of this school year on Aug. 14. Head of the Transition Program Anne Federici Dragosh said the space is perfect for their needs.

“Oh my gosh this is such a gift,” Dragosh said. “It is the most perfect space for us, because we were kind of bursting at the seams... Now we have these nice, purposeful learning spaces that are really conducive to learning.”

Dragosh said the environment is more suitable and the new layout fits their needs well, especially for the students with disabilities. She said the students who were in the program last year when it was housed at the Haines Center absolutely love the new space.

“We have all the space we need right now,” Dragosh said.

The former library of the school was remodeled to become the Transition Program’s “Day Room” which includes a full-size kitchen and the Creative Threads headquarters, a screen printing workshop where students design and make custom clothing.

The Day Room is large enough for all 42 of the Transition Program students to congregate and learn at the same time.

Gordon said in addition to the space being designed and built specifically for the Transition Program’s needs, the new location being closer to downtown is perfect for students who often work at local businesses during the week to develop life skills and independence.

The new location is also right across the street from the library, which houses the Daily Bean, a coffee shop run by Transition Program students.

“The facility itself is really serving the needs of our students in many different capacities,” Gordon said.

The renovation also included demolishing one of the school’s playgrounds to construct a parking lot and transforming the former kindergarten room into a new office space for educators.

The school’s second floor classrooms and basement underwent safety improvements but were not part of the remodel and remain vacant. Stuber said there are no defined plans for those spaces yet, but they it’s nice to have with some extra room to grow.

“Overall, we could not be more pleased with the construction. ... They just did phenomenal work,” Gordon said. “We’re very pleased with the transition center over at Lincoln. It’s doing exactly what we intended it for. It’s a great space for students and for our staff.”