Belleville High School District 201 buys Kings Point to expand vocational programs
Belleville Township High School District 201 has purchased the Kings Point facility in Belleville for a new vocational and alternative education center.
Superintendent Brian Mentzer said the district has been looking for a supplemental site to expand career and technical education opportunities for more than four years.
“We have been expanding our CTE offerings over the last several years,” he said. “We’re at a point now where we’ve outgrown our space. … The need that is being presented by our students is exceeding our ability right now to effectively provide programming for all of them.”
Kings Point was built as a tennis club and fitness facility. It offers an outdoor swimming pool with concessions.
The 100,000 square-foot facility at 7645 Magna Dr. in Belleville was sold to District 201 for $1.25 million, which was covered by grant funding Mentzer attributed to State Representative Jay Hoffman’s work to support the project.
Kings Point will be open through Labor Day, managing partner Michael Riley said.
Mentzer said the district estimates renovations will cost between $4 and $4.5 million, a portion of which will be covered by grants.
The Vocational & Alternative Education Center and Athletic Fieldhouse should be in full operation for the fall of 2022, he said.
Belleville 201 partnered with local businesses, the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, the Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois, Southwestern Illinois College and local trade unions to focus on local workforce development and expansion.
Initial offerings will include culinary arts, carpentry, construction, automotive technology, welding, metal fabrication and machining, and there are future plans for a business center and a technology, robotics and automation center. Mentzer said adult education could potentially be another service provided at the facility.
The new facility will focus on advanced programming, mostly for juniors and seniors, Mentzer said. Entry-level coursework for freshmen and sophomore students will still take place at their respective high school campus. The Kings Point facility is within eight miles of both Belleville East and Belleville West High Schools.
That advanced programming will likely see students moving toward some sort of accreditation outside of a high school degree. Already, Mentzer said some CTE programs are aligned with SWIC’s, and they’re working on further aligning programming.
SWIC received $7.5 million in state funding in May to build a new manufacturing academy in Belleville.
“This is about focusing on community from a student perspective, to try to help them try to have practical, work-based skills that they can make a livelihood with,” Mentzer said.
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 6:00 AM.