The Glen Ellyn District 41 Board of Education approved two measures Monday night to address facilities issues in the district.
Members approved almost $3 million in funding to remove portable classrooms at Churchill Elementary School. They also supported a resolution to continue studying full-day kindergarten options.
The board planned to vote Monday night to begin implementing full-day kindergarten in the district, but Superintendent Paul Gordon said a vote most likely won’t come till December . The administration and the next Board of Education will need time to study the available options. Three spots on the board could change after the April 7 election.
Gordon said a vote to implement full-day kindergarten would likely coincide with a board decision to issue a bond referendum to finance the necessary facilities upgrades.
In the meantime, district staff will engage educators and members of the community to further explore a full-day kindergarten program, Gordon said.
If it is implemented by the next board, the district will primarily examine two funding options to provide classroom space, both of which would require voters to support a bond referendum.
The two options are the construction of an early learning center for pre-K and kindergarten students, or a new K-5 elementary school, both of which would be built on the site of the old Spalding Elementary School property. The two options have an estimated price tag ranging from $21.7 million to $23.6 million for the early learning facility, and up to $30 million for the K-5 school. The K-5 school option would require the district to redraw school boundaries to shift students to the new school.
Before the vote, outgoing board Chairman John Kenwood pressed the board to consider a third option that would expand existing facilities in the district. It would not have as high a price tag, although it would still need community support from a bond referendum. Modifying and adding additional classrooms to the existing schools have estimated costs of $14.9 million to $16.5 million. Kenwood said he thought it was a mistake to not include this option, but said he would still support the plan to bring full-day kindergarten to the district. The resolution was unanimously supported.
Gordon said the new construction options are preferred by the administration, but added that, if enough members of the community supported the cheaper option, the next board could put that to referendum, which would likely be in spring 2016. If voters approved it, construction could begin that summer.
The board also unanimously supported a $2.7 million to $3 million construction plan at Churchill Elementary School. The plan will add four new classrooms to the building and remove the controversial portable classrooms that were brought in 11 years ago. The financing for the construction project will come from existing district funds.
Those four classrooms are in addition to a project to add five new classrooms to Churchill, which is part of a $15 million program to remove 16 portable classrooms from the district’s elementary schools.
Before the board voted Monday, several parents urged the members to support the plan.
Kristin Travers, a district parent with children at Churchill, decried the portable classrooms at the school as unsafe environments. Travers said the heat went out in the portables last week when Glen Ellyn was experiencing sub-zero temperatures, and the children had to work in makeshift classrooms in the school.
“Daily life in the portables is less than ideal,” Travers said.
Twitter: @TribLocal
More Top Picks Best Steel Toe Shoes Under 100