Former property of Belleville golf legend is getting a new building, built by CAVE students

Belleville Township High School District 201’s Bridges Connections campus — located north of Belleville West High School on property formerly owned by golf legend and Belleville Township High School alumnus Bob Goalby — is getting a new building soon that will be constructed by students from the district’s Center for Academic and Vocational Excellence, or CAVE.

Students with disabilities in Illinois can continue to attend high school through the school year they turn 22. Belleville 201’s Bridges program helps those students to build community connections and acquire job and life skills to reach their individual potential as adults with disabilities.

“The entire program is focused on providing students with the skills that they’ll need when they can’t come to school anymore, when they age out,” Assistant Superintendent for Student Services Melissa Taylor said.

The program usually starts each year with about 70 students between the ages of 18 and 22, Taylor said.

The campus currently consists of two houses — one of which was Bob Goalby’s childhood home — as well as a craft barn, storage shed and community garden. The goal with the new approximately 4,300-square-foot building, Taylor said, is to give the students and staff a place where they can all be together for activities.

“There’s really no gathering space,” she said. “If all 70 students wanted to get together, they couldn’t really do that here.”

Taylor said the Bridges program operates “microbusinesses” with the students, many of which involve cooking. The new building will be equipped with upgraded kitchen facilities.

“They’re cramped for space right now,” Superintendent Brian Mentzer said.

He said the new building will be constructed mostly by CAVE students on the original foundation of a shed that used to be on the property. The district is working with some trade unions to help with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning as well as the plumbing and electrical.

“It’s fairly simple from a construction standpoint,” he said. It will be one story, about 72 by 60 feet and have a barn-like facade to fit in with the other buildings on the property.

Construction will begin soon, once the work of getting the foundation in shape for a new building is complete, Mentzer said. There is one last slab of concrete that needs to be laid in the middle. The district has already purchased all of the other building materials, Taylor said.

The district is hopeful the building will be up and running by summer.

The district is paying for the construction and outfitting of the building with about $250,000 in federal grant money through the U.S. Department of Education’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. Taylor said about $150,000 will be spent on construction, with the remaining money being used on furniture, technology and vocational equipment.

She said Belleville 201 gets IDEA dollars every year, but typically earmarks them for salaries and instructional supplies. With the supplemental IDEA grant money available through the American Rescue Plan of 2021, Congress’ Covid-19 stimulus package, the district was allocated additional funding it decided to put toward this project.

“This is a project that has been on our list for a while. We were hoping for the right opportunity, and we’re excited that we’re able to get it done,” Taylor said.

The “Goalby property”

Bob Goalby’s connection to District 201 dates back to the 1940s, when Goalby was a student and three-sport athlete playing golf, football and baseball at Belleville Township High School, before it grew and split into Belleville West and East.

Goalby then went on to play football at the University of Illinois and baseball at Southern Illinois University Carbondale before joining the Pro Golfers’ Association in 1952. He went on to win 11 PGA titles, including the 1968 Masters Tournament.

Throughout it all, Goalby kept his roots firmly planted in Belleville. In 2017, Belleville West named the athletic stadium turf Bob Goalby Field in honor of him. He had hosted three fundraisers and auctioned off some of his personal golf memorabilia to raise money to give the football fields at both Belleville West and East new life with artificial turf.

Goalby died in January 2022 at age 92, leading to an outpouring of tributes from the community.

“We’re looking at Bob Goalby Field right there,” Taylor said, standing on the almost-finished foundation of what will soon be the newest addition to the Bridges campus, just over 1,000 feet from the field.

“So this connection is — I think for people who have been part of this community and understand the impact Bob Goalby has had — to be able to continue to make this property shine in a really useful way gives us a lot of pride,” she said.

“Him too,” Mentzer added.

“It’s neat to call it the Goalby property. Everybody identifies with that. When you look out, that was a driving range when I was young,” he said, looking over the land to the east of the Bridges campus. “It’s just a really neat use of the property.”

It’s a project Taylor has advocated for years, according to Mentzer.

“This is a long time coming,” he said.