Public forums to explain proposed elementary-school boundary changes in Elgin School District U46 have been postponed. But a district official said Monday they should begin by mid-September, possibly with a few changes to what a committee of citizen volunteers recommended in July.
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The district’s citizen advisory council was planning five or six public information meetings in late August and early September. But Roger Wallace, co-chairman of the council’s enrollment and facilities committee, said district CEO Tony Sanders asked Chief Operating Officer Jeff King to look at some other factors before having the meetings.
“It won’t be much longer at all,” Sanders said Monday. “We have not had a board (of education) facilities committee meeting to look over this, and I asked Mr. King to look into a few issues, especially (with regard to schools) on the west side of Elgin.”
Sanders said the reconsideration of those unnamed issues “might or might not” result in changes to what the advisory panel agreed to recommend in July.
Sanders said he expects the forums to be scheduled within the next two weeks.
The enrollment and facilities committee has been meeting for more than a year to redraw attendance boundaries to relieve overcrowding at several elementary schools. The proposal drafted by summer’s end would move an estimated 845 children and would affect 19 of the 40 elementary schools.
It would also convert Illinois Park Early Education Center on Elgin’s northwest side back into a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade elementary school to relieve overcrowding at nearby schools.
The changes would go into effect in fall 2016.
Committee members and King decided in July that they would explain the proposed changes at five or six public information meetings, with each meeting dealing with a proposal for one related set of schools. For example, residents from all schools involved in the Illinois Park reopening would be urged to attend the same meeting.
The boundary change proposal still has a number of steps before implementation. After public comment, the proposal would move to the citizens advisory council officers and membership for approval. The proposal would then go to District U46 administrators and finally to the board of education, which has the final say.
Because of the need to plan for staffing next school year, administrators have said the plan must be finalized no later than January.
Talks will begin later this year about changing attendance boundaries for high schools and middle schools, and possibly closing an underused elementary school or converting it into a magnet school. Those changes likely would not go into effect until fall 2017 or later.
King has said that children going into sixth grade in fall 2016 probably will be allowed to attend their original school for that final year even if they live in an area assigned to a different school.