Lincoln-Way High School Supt. Lawrence Wyllie answered some questions about expansion costs and got a statement of support from one of the school district’s founders at a breakfast meeting at the East Campus in Frankfort.
About 130 people from a cross-section of the communities that make up the Lincoln-Way attendance area turned out Saturday to hear Wyllie outline data gathered by citizen committees studying the expansion question.
Enrollment is the driving force behind the expansion study, which has school officials pondering whether to enlarge its two campuses–the freshman-sophomore East Campus or the junior-senior Central Campus in New Lenox–or build a third high school in the northeast corner of the district in Tinley Park. Lincoln-Way draws students from Manhattan, New Lenox, Mokena, Frankfort, Frankfort Square and a section of Tinley Park.
“Our enrollment today is 4,348. Our enrollment last year was 4,116,” Wyllie said. “We don’t really see any stopping of this growth.”
With more new students pouring in every year, enrollment is expected to exceed the 5,000-student combined capacity of the two buildings within a few years.
When residents of the Lincoln-Way area formed their high school district in 1951, they were dealing with growth, too, said Al Krusemark of Frankfort, the first president of the Lincoln-Way School Board.
The school had 285 students when it opened and 1,000 students five years later, he said.
Cost will figure into the equation for district residents, who would face a tax increase, depending on the options chosen, including the number of buildings and possible add-ons.
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