AERO and Queen of Peace Reach Agreement on Sale of Burbank Campus
BURBANK, IL.—The A.E.R.O. Special Education Cooperative (A.E.R.O.) and The Queen of Peace Board of Directors, Sinsinawa Dominican Sponsors Council, and Corporate Members of Queen of Peace, Inc., have reached an agreement in principle for A.E.R.O. to acquire the former Queen of Peace High School campus located at 7659 South Linder Ave., Burbank, IL. The negotiated price of the sale of the property is $3.25 million. Picone Advisory Group aided in the negotiation of the sale on behalf of the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.
A.E.R.O. provides special education services to students from 11 member public school districts in the southwest suburbs serving Argo, Evergreen Park, Reavis and Oak Lawn High Schools along with 7 of their feeder elementary districts. Since 1963, A.E.R.O. has provided special education programming and an array of related services to students with physical and intellectual disabilities residing in the 11 member school districts. The member districts have joined together to maximize their resources and provide a full continuum of special education services. Currently, A.E.R.O. owns a building in Burbank and leases a school building and classrooms across the cooperative. The approximately 13-acre campus which includes two buildings, a parking lot and athletic fields, and green space, will afford A.E.R.O. the option to centralize its operations in educating hundreds of students from pre-K through 12th grade as well as young adults through age 22. The purchase of The Queen of Peace School property allows A.E.R.O. to enhance the services that it delivers to the most vulnerable students in its communities.
The Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters opened Queen of Peace High School in 1962 and closed it at the completion of the 2017 school year. The Catholic, all-girl, college preparatory school educated more than 15,000 women over 55 years and had been dedicated to the education and empowerment of young women in an environment that inspired academic excellence in nurturing a culture grounded in the Dominican values of truth, compassion, justice, partnership, and community.
Today, more than 400 Sinsinawa Dominicans continue to preach and teach the Gospel in word and deed as members of the Order of Preachers. Their worldwide Dominican family includes thousands of sisters, nuns, priests, brothers, associates, and laity ministering in more than 100 countries around the globe for more than 800 years.