The Lincoln-Way High School Board voted Thursday night to split the traditionally one-school district into two rather than three separate four-year high schools.
More Top Picks Best Bamboo Drawer Dividers
Population pressure is behind the school expansion plan. With total enrollment already standing at more than 4,300 at the district’s freshman-sophomore campus in Frankfort and junior-senior campus in New Lenox, school officials predict the growing student body will exceed the two campuses’ combined capacity of 5,000 within a few years.
The school board’s vote pretty much paralleled the results of surveys taken at a series of community meetings held in late August and early September.
People who attended the five meetings and filled out questionnaires came out almost 2-to-1 in favor of enlarging the two existing schools instead of building a third high school at 191st Street and Harlem Avenue in the northeast corner of the district.
Opponents of the third high school site said the location was too far away and too close to busy highways.
The two-school scenario is also less costly than the three-school plan, supporters said.