Two vacant Belleville schools repurposed for Christian and special needs students
The old Belle Valley School South in Belleville is being converted into a 65,000-square-foot facility for Christian education and worship after sitting vacant for eight years.
An organization known as Korea International Christian School English Corp. bought the building and about 20 acres of land for $625,000 in 2018, according to St. Clair County records. It’s operating locally under the name Belleville Christian School.
Goals include serving the community, raising Christian leaders and facilitating foreign exchanges for students and teachers in the United States, South Korea, The Philippines and other countries, said the Rev. John Chung, who moved to Belleville in January to take the job of director and oversee a $300,000 renovation.
“We have a lot of students from outside of the United States who want to come,” he said last week. “They want to experience American culture, and they want to learn English.”
Last year, the organization also bought a complex of 12 apartments on Belle Valley Drive for $620,000 that it plans to convert into dormitories.
Chung had hoped to get an occupancy permit for the former South building at 1901 Mascoutah Ave. in time for fall semester, and he already had arranged for a small Christian school in Caseyville to move into one wing. But renovations involved major work on plumbing, heating and air-conditioning, and the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays.
“We’re almost done,” he said.
Belle Valley School District 119 operated Belle Valley North, an elementary school, and Belle Valley South, a middle school, for decades before constructing a new campus at 2465 Amann Drive for all grades. They moved in 2012.
The district sold the North and South buildings in 2013, said Business Manager Joan McKay. St. Clair County records show that H&S Properties bought them for $260,000 each.
“That was the end of our involvement,” McKay said.
In 2016, Metro East Transit District of St. Clair County, now known as St. Clair County Transit District, bought a strip of land behind the former South building for $40,000 from H&S for an extension of the Orchard Loop Trail, said Managing Director Ken Sharkey.
North ‘stable’ after mine subsidence
Belle Valley North made headlines in the mid-2000s, when it was discovered that a 20-year-old addition was sinking due to subsidence from the former Ell-Rich coal mine, and it was pulling on the rest of the building at 100 Andora Drive. Officials said the problem was largely solved when they demolished the addition.
H&S Properties, the current owner, couldn’t be reached for comment this week.
The company has rented portions of the building in the past seven years, according to neighbors in Chenot Place subdivision. In 2016, Abundant Life Ministries tried to make it home. A current tenant is Elite Scholars STEAM Academy.
This spring, H&S began leasing space to Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative, which contracts with 23 school districts to provide diagnostic and instructional services for special-needs students. BASSC later decided to buy the building for a price that’s still being negotiated, said Executive Director Jeff Daugherty.
“It’s a great building still,” he said. “We conducted an engineering study of the entire site because of the previous mine-subsidence issue to help us determine whether or not we were really interested in purchasing the property.”
The district’s engineering firm worked with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on the study.
“The structure has been very, very stable, honestly, since about 2009,” Daugherty said. “... “There’s no guarantee, but the assessment tells us that it’s pretty close to a low level of risk.”
The building is being used for the cooperative’s Pathways program, which had grown out of its facility on Green Mount Road. The program serves about 160 students with significant emotional and behavioral needs from throughout the region.
The former North building has been renamed Pathways Elementary School. BASSC plans to construct a gymnasium, install a new roof and air conditioning and renovate the kitchen, playground and bathrooms.
“The classrooms inside of the building are in terrific shape, and there’s 24 of them,” Daugherty said. “So it’s a really good long-term solution for our growth. It’s centrally located, right in the middle of all of our districts. It’s easy for transportation purposes. We’re very, very excited about it.”
BASSC plans to continue renting space to Elite Scholars STEAM Academy.
Legacy was set to move this summer
Earlier this year, Chung invited Legacy Christian Academy in Caseyville to become the first tenant in the former Belle Valley South building, occupying one wing with classrooms, offices, a library and nurse’s station.
Legacy Principal Anita Gajewski was thrilled.
“Caseyville has been very good to us, but Caseyville isn’t growing,” she said. “We thought when Interstate 255 shut down and people had to go through Caseyville ... We had our sign up. We thought people were going to see us and want to bring their children here. Then COVID happened, and people weren’t driving.”
Gajewski co-founded Legacy 27 years ago. The school was serving more than 100 students when it moved into the former St. Stephen Catholic School building in Caseyville from a Fairview Heights church in 2003, she said. By last fall, enrollment had dropped to 36.
St. Stephen is only partially air-conditioned, and it doesn’t have a gym. The former South building has two.
“It’s wonderful,” Gajewski said.
Legacy hosted eight Korean students sponsored by Belleville Christian School for an English camp just before COVID-19 hit.
Legacy’s teachers started packing in May to move to the former South building in June, Gajewski said, but plans fell through when Chung learned that more work had to be done before he could get an occupancy permit. Legacy was going to stay in Caseyville for another year until this month, when only 13 students signed up for fall classes.
Grajewski decided to take a year off with hopes that the coronavirus is under control by next summer and that Legacy can attract students from Scott Air Force Base and surrounding communities to its new location.
“We have prayed and prayed and prayed about it,” she said.
Funded by tuition and donations
Chung, 54, came to the United States from South Korea more than 30 years ago to study abroad and ended up staying. He served as a Korean Presbyterian pastor before moving from California to Belleville with his wife and three children in January.
“I’m very happy that I have a job in here, (to) serve community but also kids,” he said. “... I have decided that this is my ministry.”
The original Korea International Christian School in South Korea was accredited by the American Association of Christian Schools from 2012 to 2017, when its affiliation ended, said Jeff Walton, the association’s executive director.
The KICS system is now part of the World Organization of Christian Schools, also based in Belleville, Chung said. Schools are funded by tuition and donations from churches and individuals.
The Belleville Christian School website presents a visionary image of what it may someday become with representative photos of students, teachers, classrooms and dormitories, as well as information on philosophy, curriculums from Bob Jones University, tutoring, after-school programs and scholarships.
In practice, Chung plans to build the program gradually, starting with grade-school instruction through Legacy and expanding into high-school classes.
“We just teach them, encourage them, equip them to be global Christian leaders,” he said.
Websites of both the World Organization of Christian Schools and Belleville Christian School include introductions from Executive Director Don Cabbage, although Chung said he’s no longer involved due to health issues. Cabbage is a Texas-based deaf educator and author who has helped establish Christian schools in South Korea.
The World organization board was attracted to Belleville because it’s a small city close to St. Louis and because the former Belle Valley South building sits on more than 20 acres of land that would allow room for expansion, Chung said.
In recent months, contractors have been painting, cleaning and installing new carpeting, Smartboards and desks, in addition to plumbing, heating and air-conditioning work.
Chung said other Christian schools have expressed interest in renting space, as well as churches that might like to hold services in one of the building’s two gyms. At one time, the larger gym was used by a youth select basketball team called Illinois Hoopville Warriors.
“The vision that we have right now is to serve the community,” Chung said. “We have a lot of people who want to use our facility.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
