Elgin School District U46 board members voted 5-2 to approve a property tax levy increase, then began tiptoeing further into controversial issues such as starting full-day kindergarten, building additions onto three schools and changing elementary school attendance boundaries.
The board scheduled a special meeting on Dec. 7 to begin talking about the kindergarten, additions and attendance-boundary issues in depth, with a final decision on those expected to be made at the regular Dec. 14 meeting. But several board members this week discussed the kindergarten idea and several members of the public commented on the most controversial part of the boundary changes – the move of Herons Landing subdivision in Bartlett from Nature Ridge School, which is across the street from the subdivision, to Liberty School in Bartlett.
Board members endorsed the administration’s plan to increase the operating tax levy enough next year to raise the maximum amount allowed under the state tax cap law, but also to abate some of the tax automatically levied to make bond payments in an amount designed to make the overall tax load unchanged from this year’s.
The board approved the operating levy increase by a 5-2 vote, with Jeannette Ward and Cody Holt voting “no.”
Ward said that although the overall tax load would remain unchanged, raising the operating levy would allow that to keep growing in future years on a compound basis under the tax cap rules, while abating part of the bond tax would be only for this year.
A proposal endorsed by the administration and citizens advisory council calls for full-day kindergarten to be offered in all elementary schools starting in 2016, additions to be built onto three schools and attendance boundary and program-moving changes that would affect about 1,000 students at about half of the elementary schools.
Ward said she opposes full-kindergarten because the cost of adding that would not be recovered via increased state aid for 17 or 18 years. “If we now introduce new programs, costs continue to increase. Taxpayers are having difficulty grappling with paying for the current programs of U46,” she said.
Ward added that “there is disagreement about the effects of full-day kindergarten.” She cited an article in the Huffington Post that said the federal Head Start program has caused no significant improvement in preschoolers’ skills.
Ward also noted that the full-day kindergarten program planned for U46 is described as a “play-based curriculum.”
“I agree that 5-year-olds should not sit in a classroom for six hours a day and therefore a play-based curriculum is appropriate,” Ward said. “However, if the curriculum is ‘play,’ then it is really high-quality babysitting at taxpayer expense.”
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During the public-comment time that followed, teacher Garrick Balk took exception.
“I for one am not a high-priced babysitter, nor are my colleagues,” Balk said. He called Ward’s comment insulting to early-childhood teachers and said, “Mrs. Ward, I suggest you get a little more detailed in your research beyond an article in the Huffington Post.”
Holt said he hasn’t made up his mind whether to support the kindergarten proposal, Board Member Traci O’Neal Ellis said she supports the idea and Board Member Phil Cosello said he thinks it should be left in the coming year’s budget but canceled if district finances go sour. Other board members did not say how they stand.
U46’s administrators have stated that according to academic research, children who attend full-day kindergarten have better results in the following grades than children who don’t, especially if they come from an underprivileged family.
Nature Ridge parent Bev Jaszcurowski said overcrowding there is already projected to go down without any boundary changes. Jaszcurowski said it could be solved by moving special-education students or dual-language students out of the building rather than shifting all of Herons Landing’s regular students.
Herons Landing mother Nancy Blondin read a letter from her sixth-grade daughter that said she felt sorry that her younger brother would be separated from his friends at Nature Ridge.
Ellis said she will ask the administrators on Dec. 7 to explain why they think Herons Landing has to be moved. “I’m looking for depth of analysis beyond ‘I’m going to lose my friends,'” she said. “Obviously the answer to that is that you will make new friends at the new school.”
Roger Wallace, co-chair of the enrollment and facilities committee of the citizens advisory council, said that group chose Herons Landing to move to Liberty because children from there already ride buses to school, while children who attend Nature Ridge but live closer to Liberty have to walk.
CEO Tony Sanders said dual-language programs should stay at Nature Ridge because more than half of the students in that program live in Nature Ridge’s own attendance area. He said some rooms used for special education couldn’t easily be converted into regular ]classrooms.