City Council Approves Transfer Of Land For New Westinghouse High School To Public Building Commission Of Chicago

The Chicago City Council today approved an ordinance that conveys the main parcel of land for the new Westinghouse High School to the Public Building Commission (PBC) of Chicago. The PBC is managing construction of the new West Side high school.

The project is part of Daley’s “Modern Schools Across Chicago” program. The land is located directly east of the existing Westinghouse, 3301 W. Franklin Blvd., and is bounded by Spaulding Avenue on the west, Kedzie Avenue on the east, Franklin on the north and the Chicago & Northwestern Railway on the south. Students in the current Westinghouse building will not need to be relocated during construction. Construction is expected to start in the spring.

The new Westinghouse High School will be the first of its kind in the Chicago Public Schools. It will house both a new selective-enrollment college prep school and a new vocational education magnet high school under the same roof. Each school is expected to serve about 600 students when the schools open in 2009.

“The new school will carry on Westinghouse’s proud tradition of providing quality job training to its students,” Mayor Daley said. “And the college-prep school will add more available slots to what is one of the Chicago Public Schools’ most sought-after programs.”

Mayor Daley’s $1 billion “Modern Schools Across Chicago” program will bring 24 new schools and three major high school renovations to the city over the next several years. The program is a partnership with the Chicago Public Schools, primarily funded by city Tax Increment Financing (TIF) dollars and CPS bonds.