Volunteers are being sought for a committee that will be charged with drafting a new Indian Prairie District 204 school boundary map starting in July.
RSP and Associates CEO Robert Schwarz, whose company has been hired by the district to guide the remapping process, laid out a timetable for the school board Monday on how input will be gathered and evaluated to determine how enrollment in overcrowded schools will be reduced and underused schools increased.
The committee’s first two meetings are set for July 7 and 21 at Still Middle School in Aurora, Chief School Business Official Jay Strang said. Another six will be scheduled.
The goal would be to have a new map ready for approval in January and in place for the Naperville/Aurora district by the start of the 2022-23 school year.
“We try to find at least two representatives from every school,” Strang said. “We’ll ask the principals and individuals from (the Indian Prairie Parents’ Council) and some of our parent leadership groups to nominate and select some folks so we have a balance of voices across the district.”
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Historically, boundary committees have had 55 or more members representing schools, families, and civic and professional groups, he said.
Schwarz said the meetings will ultimately lead to public forums later in the year at which families can provide feedback.
“I think those are the most important because that’s where we hear how this plan may look and the public’s response to that,” Schwarz said. “We still have time after those public meetings to make any changes that maybe take us in a different direction.”
A survey RSP sent to the school board was designed to determine members’ preferences on the criteria used to redraw boundary lines.
The results show board members:
Support a “complete feeder” system in which students from one school all advance to the same middle and high schools;
Prefer keeping students in neighborhoods at the same school;
Do not want to build new schools or additions, and leaned toward no new spending for school operations;
Want the new school boundaries to remain in place 10 years or longer;
Support finding ways to limit the time students spend on school buses;
Cited demographic considerations as their top boundary criteria from among 10 choices.
In general, board members said their chief priorities would be that the new boundary map anticipate future district changes, improve educational opportunities at each school and become a part of long-range planning for the district.
When board member Supna Jain said she struggled with prioritizing choices in the survey, Schwarz stressed the results do not finalize anything and that “give and take” will occur at the committee meetings.
“That’s why we’re embarking on this, right?” he said. “We’re not just doing this because the board or administration is saying we want to move kids around to different buildings. We have to tell the story of why are we doing this?”