Residents in southwest suburban Consolidated High School District 230 are not monolithic in their opinions about dealing with growth and aging schools, but they seem nearly unanimous on how not to solve the problems.
The hundreds of residents who attended 16 community meetings held over the last month gave a thumbs down to a proposal to build a school for freshmen only.
They also offered a tepid response to a plan to build a fourth high school without renovating facilities and improving programs at the district’s current high schools.
School board members took those opinions to heart when they decided during a board meeting Monday to toss out those proposals and pare the future option list from eight down to five–four of which include a bond referendum proposal. The decision was made after board members perused the list compiling residents’ feelings.
“The people have spoken, and they haven’t been shy,” said Supt. Timothy Brown. “We heard a lot of opinions and I think the process has served us well.”
The hundreds of residents who had given their opinions represent a fraction of the 100,000 registered voters in the district, so school officials plan to send questionnaires to many–or possibly all–district residents asking them what they think about the five proposals.
Once those results are compiled, the school board hopes to decide by June which option works best and how much, if anything, it will cost.
If it costs money, school officials must start lobbying taxpayers for support for a bond referendum proposal.
Since January, school administrators have been developing plans to deal with the district’s soon-to-be-overcrowded high schools: Sandburg in Palos Township, Stagg in Palos Hills and Andrew in Tinley Park. School officials said each school has outdated science labs, limited computer technology and a lack of performing arts space.
As the area continues to attract large subdivisions, school officials expect their enrollment of 7,100 students to climb by 20 percent by 2007.
Those issues are not new to District 230. During the past 10 years, officials have added classrooms at Andrew and Sandburg High Schools, changed attendance boundaries to balance out crowding problems and talked with Moraine Valley Community College about using space at the Palos Hills college.
Jim Sibley, district spokesman, said, “We’ve been able to keep up by managing our district in a fiscally conservative manner. But now we’re looking at a huge influx of students and older facilities that may not be able to handle it.”
District 230 spent $8,300 per pupil in 1996, nearly 15 percent less than the state average of $9,741 spent per pupil in comparable high school districts.
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To deal with the problems, school officials have spent the last month floating eight proposals. All but one involve asking voters to approve a bond referendum proposal ranging from $20 million to $118 million.
After tossing out some of those proposals, school officials decided to ask voters about these options:
– Building a fourth high school at 108th Avenue just south of 159th Street in Orland Park and renovating and upgrading technology at the three existing high schools. Estimated price tag: $118 million.
– Renovating and expanding existing high schools and improving technology at all three. The estimated price tag ranges from $63 million to more than $80 million, depending on the size of the expansions.
– Staggering school arrival and departure times to create more space. That would cost nothing.
– Building an outdoor sports complex that could include soccer fields and/or baseball diamonds at the district’s vacant land at 108th Avenue. That proposal likely would be needed if large school expansions eat into athletic field space at the three high schools. The price tag has not been determined; the idea came out of Monday’s meeting.
Each of the proposals has received negative and positive reviews from the community. Some residents disagreed with any plan that would increase taxes. Others said it was about time the district upgraded schools and programs.
Residents seemed most concerned about three issues: cost, the possibility of redrawing attendance boundaries, and equity among each school’s facilities and programs.
The plan to build a fourth high school received mixed support, with residents living near the proposed site voicing the heaviest support.
Residents in the other communities seemed worried about equity issues.
The proposal to remodel existing facilities seemed to sit well with many residents, although some voiced concern that it was a temporary solution and would only delay construction of another school.