Because of scheduling conflicts, Kaneland Middle School 7th graders will stay at the middle school as 8th graders next year, the School District 302 Board of Education said.
But this year’s 6th graders might find themselves next door at Kaneland High School in August 2008, the board said.
“We found some scheduling anomalies between the middle school and the high school and between grades at the middle school that we didn’t have time to deal with before next school year,” said Assistant Supt. Tom Runty.
“Sharing staff that teach 6th, 7th and 8th-graders proved to be a problem that would take a lot of time to figure out.”
District officials had considered moving the 8th grade into an empty corridor at the recently expanded high school to ease a space crunch at the middle school.
The pupils would have had classes on a different schedule to avoid sharing hallways with , and would have been segregated from them.
But lower-than-expected increases in next year’s 6th- and 7th-grade class sizes will free two extra classrooms in the middle school for the 8th grade to use, Runty said. Officials also are considering renting mobile classrooms until a second middle school can be built just off Illinois Highway 47 between Elburn and Sugar Grove.
That construction, however, depends on voters approving a bond proposal in April to finance the estimated $54 million project.