UW-O offers to buy Lincoln school

UW-Oshkosh made a $1.48 million offer to purchase the former Lincoln Elementary School from the Oshkosh Area School District. This purchase was an effort to help the University accommodate present and future campus growth.

The Oshkosh school board approved the offer at their meeting on April 28.   Now, the offer has to get approved by the UW System Board of Regents. After the Board of Regents approves it, the proposal then gets sent to the State Building Commissions for approval.  Tom Sonnleitner, Oshkosh vice chancellor of administrative services, said they are expecting the deal will be approved as early as July.

"I'm very confident that this will be approved," Chancellor Richard Wells said.

Wells said that due to the location of campus, expansion is difficult.  He said any property close to campus becomes a high priority property.

"Any property that borders campus … we keep our eye on," Wells said.

If the proposal is approved and finalized, the 52,000-square-foot Lincoln Elementary would become the new location of the University's Children's Learning and Care Center and the Division of Lifelong Learning and Community Engagement.

The CLCC supports the children of students, faculty and staff on campus. The LLCE houses the campus community outreach programs.

An increase in the services the LLCE and CLCC provide have been in demand due to the high rate of non-traditional students that have been enrolling.

"Our master plan all along has said we need to move the Children's Center to a more appropriate location," Sonnleitner said.

Wells agreed and added that the building would work well because the building is already designed for children, so that would mean less renovations and changes would have to be made.

Right now, the LLCE staff is spread out around campus. By moving into the new facility, it would allow their entire staff to be under one roof.

If everything goes according to plan, the LLCE and the CLCC should be moving to the new building around this time next year.

The CLCC is happy with the idea of moving to a bigger location.

"We could use more space," Sandra Kust, director of the Children's Center, said.

Kust said that if they move to the new location, they would look into expanding. She said they have a waiting list of infants and toddlers. She added there would be a possibility of the center being open year round, instead of just when Oshkosh classes were in session.

Both Sonnleitner and Wells mentioned the extra parking that the building can provide would also be beneficial for the LLCE and CLCC, making them both more easily accessible.

Wells explained that this purchase would cost little, if any, to Oshkosh students. The $1.48 million  would be funded by the state, coming from a fund earmarked to purchase high priority properties. He also added that when it comes to renovating the building the funds would most likely come from the state and campus based funds for renovations.

Wells estimates that the entire project, including the $1.48 million used to purchase the building, would cost around $2 million total. This is about four times less than it would cost to build a similar building from scratch.

Having both the LLCE and CLCC in a new, improved location will also free up the space they are currently using on campus. According to Sonnleitner, this space will most likely be used for offices, classrooms and other academic resources.

"Basically, our goal is to turn (the space) back into academic use," Sonnleitner said.

Lincoln Elementary was closed in 2009 and all the students were moved to Reed Elementary in an effort to save resources. The facility has since been sitting empty. The UW Oshkosh Foundation facilitated discussions between the school district and the University about the purchase.

"It worked out really well for us," Wells said.