Therapeutic day school relocating to Arlington Heights

A private therapeutic day school for students in grades 6-12 is relocating from Niles to Arlington Heights.

New Hope Academy plans to move into an office building at 3250 N. Arlington Heights Road, just south of Dundee Road, before the start of the 2017-18 school year in August, according to Brandy Larrance, the school's executive director.

The school, founded in 2000, educates students with special needs from 35 suburban school districts, including Northwest Suburban High School District 214, Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211, and school districts as far as Gurnee, Naperville and Yorkville.

There's 65 students enrolled at the school's location at 6289 Howard St. in Niles, but the school plans to increase enrollment to 80 with the move to Arlington Heights, Larrance said.

New Hope will occupy 18,000 square feet of the 73,000-square-foot, multi-tenant office building, which is now about two-thirds vacant. The school would include 12 classrooms, an art studio, gym, cafeteria, staff lounge and offices.

The village board this week approved a land use variation that allows the school to move in.

New Hope plans to install new landscaping before occupancy.