In a surprising development, the Berkley School District has announced they have reached an agreement to purchase Cana Lutheran Church, which sits at the corner of Henley and Catalpa next to the student parking lot, for the purpose of converting the building into being used for the BHS robotics program and the Adult Transition Program (ATP).
This comes as a surprise to many, as voters approved a $88 million bond proposal last summer, which paved the way for the robotics team to be housed at the new Berkley Education Athletics and Recreation (BEAR) Complex, which is set to begin construction early next year. But robotics will now be housed in the Cana building, which will be purchased and renovated with the district’s annual operating budget. The space in the BEAR Complex building formerly earmarked for robotics will now be repurposed for other athletic facilities.
In a letter to the community, Berkley Schools superintendent Scott Francis said, “The original plan for the 2023 Bond dollars was to build the robotics spaces as part of the new fieldhouse across from Berkley High School. While we knew this would be an exciting new space for Robotics, we still needed to secure a temporary location for Robotics. The opportunity to discuss the Cana purchase presented itself last fall while we were seeking a temporary location. We believe after meeting with our construction team and the coach that the Cana location will be a wonderful fit for Team 247.”
As for ATP, which provides education services to adult students in the district with special needs, the program will move from the current facility they share with CASA in Oak Park’s NOVA Academy into the Cana building by 2026, bringing the program back into Berkley Schools boundaries. The building will provide a space with lots of amenities for ATP such as having its own floor of the building with classrooms and a kitchen as well as being close to downtown Berkley and BHS.
Renovations on the building will begin as soon as the district closes on the property, beginning with the robotic spaces first as they will move in by the end of 2024 when their current building in the trash lot will be demolished. In an effort to avoid displacing the church’s congregation, Berkley Schools has agreed to lease a portion of the building to them for the next 18 months, after which the district will gain full use of the building and will renovate the space occupied by the church to move in ATP by the beginning of 2026. Regarding the sale, Cana Church pastor Ron Strobel said “This is not the end of Cana. We will still provide worship services to the community, just as we’ve done for the past 70 years before the sale of the church building. We are grateful that Berkley Schools will provide us space while we seek an alternate location, and we are happy the building will continue to serve the Berkley community.”
