School board members are expected to vote Sept. 27 on a controversial recommendation to shift some attendance zone boundaries within Consolidated High School District 230 to deal with declining enrollment.
A proposal first made by Superintendent James Gay at an Aug. 30 board meeting has been met with resistance by many district residents who say the changes would negatively affect their families and decrease their property values.
Based on that feedback, District Spokeswoman Carla Erdey said Tuesday that Gay has changed some recommendations relating to the attendance zone issue.
He is no longer asking the school board to end an option zone that since 1989 has allowed students from District 118’s Palos South Middle School to attend either Sandburg High School in Orland Park or Stagg High School in Palos Hills. The students are assigned to Stagg, but because of their proximity to Sandburg, they have the option to attend the closer school.
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Ending the option zone would have little effect on enrollment numbers between the schools, but Gay said he raised the issue for the sake of creating consistency across the district.
However, Gay’s recommendation that students from District 146’s Central Middle School in Tinley Park be sent to Andrew High School in Tinley Park instead of Sandburg still stands. Students could pick which school to attend during a three-year transition period but would be required to attend Andrew starting with the 2016-17 school year.
Erdey said Gay added one exception to his recommendation this week that would allow Central Middle School students with siblings who attended Sandburg to also attend the school.
During last week’s meeting, many parents said it was unfair to keep younger siblings from attending the same school as their older brothers and sisters.
Gay has said that without making adjustments to attendance zones, classroom and program offerings for some students would suffer because of declining enrollment numbers across the district.
“Without stabilization in enrollment, the course offerings at Andrew High School will be significantly less than Stagg and Sandburg,” he said during a special board meeting held to discuss the topic last week. “Some courses may be offered every other year or eliminated all together.”
This year, 3,500 students are enrolled at Sandburg High School in Orland Park, 2,378 at Stagg High School in Palos Hills and 2,135 at Andrew High School in Tinley Park. Without any changes to attendance zones, the district expects 3,121 students at Sandburg, 2,314 at Stagg and only 1,807 at Andrew by the 2016-17 school year.
“Our intent is to meet the needs of our students across the district,” Gay said.
A petition with more than 875 signatures of those opposed to losing the Sandburg-Stagg option zone was turned over to the board last week, said parent Khaled Dajani. Another petition protesting the change in attendance zones for children from Central Middle School was also given to the board with about 200 signatures, said parent Cheryl Herrin.
She said she and her neighbors want the school board to reconsider the recommendation and instead offer families the ability to choose which school their children will attend.
“We believe that by allowing the members of those communities to choose, you will have a balance you want to achieve,” she said during last week’s board meeting.
While most parents said their concerns about switching schools are based more on social and emotional connections rather than curriculum equality, a few did point out differences such as orchestra and auto body classes at Sandburg they said are unavailable at Andrew.