The long-debated elementary-school attendance boundary changes in Elgin School District U46 were endorsed overwhelmingly Thursday by U46’s full Citizens Advisory Council membership. Only two schools’ delegations voted against the plan, with 35 schools voting “yes” and the other 16 not being represented at the meeting.
Though only the boundary changes come under the purview of the citizens council, which is made up of volunteer parents and residents, the plan also depends on building additions to three school buildings, offering full-day kindergarten classes to every family in the district, and moving some special program classes, such as English as a second language, from one school to another.
The only hurdle still remaining before the proposals would go into effect in fall 2016 is perhaps the biggest one: the District U46 Board of Education, where at least one board member has indicated she may oppose spending money on the building expansions and that she philosophically opposes the idea of sending children to kindergarten all day rather than leaving them at home with their parents half the day.
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Thursday’s vote was done on a one-vote-per-school basis, with the delegation from each school, ranging in size from one to five members each, caucusing to determine how each would cast their joint vote. Unlike votes taken previously on the plan in the council’s enrollment and facilities committee and executive committee, the full advisory council’s members were not given the opportunity to vote on separate parts of the plan. Each school had to cast a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote on the plan in its entirety.
The only “no” votes came from the groups representing Nature Ridge School in Bartlett and Century Oaks School on Elgin’s northwest side.
The Nature Ridge parents oppose moving Herons Landing subdivision from their school’s attendance area to that of Liberty School in Bartlett, which is farther away from Herons Landing than Nature Ridge. A parent from Nature Ridge told the council that the enrollment committee’s projections show Nature Ridge’s current large enrollment dropping in future years and that Liberty already has too many children.
Roger Wallace, co-chairman of the enrollment and facilities committee, said administrators plan to make room at Liberty by moving several ESL classes from there to underused Prairieview School in Bartlett.
The Century Oaks parents oppose the plan because they said it does nothing to reduce high enrollment at their school.
“We’ll still have a double-wide mobile classroom, and we’ll still have art on a cart,” rather than a dedicated art and music classroom, parent David Marsh told the group.
No one from the council brought up other controversial issues that have emerged in past discussions: a recommendation that this year’s affected fifth-graders should not be “grandfathered” and allowed to attend sixth grade at their original schools; the lack of relief for Otter Creek School along the Elgin-South Elgin border, whose student load is expected to swell to 106 percent of capacity by 2019; and the move of 226 students from Lincoln School in Hoffman Estates to three schools on Elgin’s east side.
One parent asked whether the administrators and committee had considered moving sixth grade to the middle school level, as many area school districts do. District CEO Tony Sanders said that would increase expenses because it costs more to hire teachers leading a succession of rotating middle school classes than it costs to hire one teacher to lead a room full of elementary students.
Sanders said Board of Education members will not talk about the boundaries when they meet Monday because that meeting’s agenda already has been published. He said the board might schedule a special meeting Dec. 7 to talk about the issue, which would allow the board to make a final decision at its meeting Dec. 14 — the only board meeting now scheduled in December.
The boundary changes would be the first in District U46 since 2004.
Wallace said the proposed changes would reduce the number of students at six of the eight schools that have or are expected to have more than 85 percent of their capacities utilized. The changes also would reduce the student load at two of five schools identified as being on a “watch list” to possibly become overcrowded.
He said the changes are expected to eliminate the need for 28 of the district’s 35 mobile classrooms.
The committee has said before that it would be difficult to move students away from Century Oaks because it is at the northwest corner of the district and adjacent schools also have too many students. Administrators hope to remedy crowding at Otter Creek by shifting some special magnet classes rather than changing general boundaries.
Next, the administration, demographer and enrollment committee will look at possible boundary changes for middle schools and high schools. They also may consider whether to recommend closing one or more underused elementary schools or converting one into a magnet school. Those changes would go into effect in fall 2017.
Sanders and his administrative cabinet have proposed building new classrooms onto Highland School on Elgin’s northwest side, Coleman School on Elgin’s northeast side and Laurel Hill School in Hanover Park.
The proposed boundary changes would shift:
*107 children from Nature Ridge to Liberty.
*226 children from Lincoln School to Coleman, Lords Park and McKinley schools on Elgin’s northeast side
*116 children from Channing School to O’Neal, Garfield and Huff schools on Elgin’s central east side.
*44 children from Harriet Gifford School to Lowrie School on Elgin’s southwest side.
*177 children from Hillcrest School to Highland School on Elgin’s northwest side.
*Four children from Otter Creek School to Harriet Gifford, because of a busing issue.
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For the complete recommendations, go to www.u46cac.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/EF-Bounary-Study-Phase-I-Final-Report-2015-10-20-_-DRAFT.pdf.