New D131 Education Center To Have Therapy Spaces, Art, Music Studios

AURORA, IL — East Aurora School District 131 broke ground on its new education center that will serve as a hub for students by providing opportunities for growth, development and advancement, officials said.

The new Resilience Education Center, a two-story, 30,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building, will be located at the district's former administrative building, 417 Fifth St. It's slated to open ahead of the start of the 2023-24 school year, officials said.

Secondary students will be the ones to primarily use the space for after-school activities, city officials said. The center will have rooms for a slew of activities, floor plans show. They include:

• An e-sports lounge
• Learning stairs
• Therapy spaces
• A kitchen studio
• A cafe
• Study rooms
• A TV studio
• A music studio
• An art studio
• A dance and yoga studio
• Break-out rooms

"As we really work to get students socially and emotionally well, we had to think differently, because our young people are resilience," East Aurora School’s Superintendent Jennifer Norrell said during the groundbreaking ceremony. "That is the reason this concept came to mind in our planning."

Notable District 131 graduates, including Mayor Richard Irvin, Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross and East Aurora School Board President Annette Johnson, attended the ground-breaking ceremony in early August.