A proposed Indian Prairie District 204 school boundary map unveiled Monday includes a provision that gives some students the option of not changing schools when the map goes in effect in the 2022-23 school year.
Students who will be going into fifth, seventh or eighth grades and high school sophomores, juniors and seniors can be “grandfathered” into their current school for the time they have remaining until they graduate to the middle school or high school, district officials said at Monday night’s School Board meeting.
Parents and students will be required to make a decision quickly on whether to take advantage of the grandfather clause because the district needs to do a lot of restructuring before the start of the next school year in August 2022, Superintendent Adrian Talley said.
“Decisions made impact course selections, staffing at the schools, and creating schedules at the middle and high schools,” Talley said. “Parents have to be clear about what they want for their children.”
Transportation will be key in the grandfathering process, Chief School Business Official Matt Shipley said.
“We have some of the best in the business looking at this and I know they will be spending much of their Christmas break looking at this,” Shipley said. “But at this time, we are still evaluating what transportation options we can provide with the grandfathering options.”
Board member Susan Demming lauded district officials for working with consultants RSP and Associates and a district-appointed committee to develop a plan that addresses one of the hardest aspects of boundary changes for students — changing schools.
“Unlike many times we have gone through this, I am really pleased with the grandfathering strategy the administration has come up with,” Demming said. “I really appreciate that concern and consideration for the social emotional welfare for our students.”
The proposed school boundary map has been several months in the making and melds the two final concept plans from the volunteer boundary committee. The goal is for the school board to sign off on a final boundary map at its Jan. 10 meeting.
The latest proposal calls for:
All Neuqua Valley High School students to be housed in the main building on 95th Street in Naperville within the next three to five years. The freshman campus will be converted for other district uses;
Students who live in the future Lincoln at City Gate complex near Route 59 and Interstate 88 will go to Brookdale Elementary School, Granger Middle School and Metea Valley High School;
Students who live in the residential developments to be built near the Fox Valley Mall on Route 59 will attend Owen Elementary School, Hill Middle School and Metea Valley High School;
Redrawn boundary lines for middle schools that feed into high schools will mean all three high schools will have an enrollment of about 2,700 students in the future;
Eight of 21 elementary schools will have broken feeder patterns. That means that when a class is ready to graduate to the next level, they will be divided and sent to two different middle schools;
Three of seven middle schools will have having broken feeder patterns in which a graduating class will be divided and sent to two different high schools.
Under the proposal, about 1,500 students in elementary school, 1,300 in middle school and 350 in high school could be moving to new schools, depending on how many choose to remain at their current schools until graduation.
The goal of the changes is to reduce overcrowding in some buildings, increase usage at others and address future enrollment declines.
Among the most controversial concepts would have had Builta, Clow and/or Graham elementary schools closing, something parents opposed and was nixed from consideration.
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“It had to be more than just numbers,” RSP CEO Robert Schwarz said at Monday night’s meeting. Committee and public input helped them in reaching that conclusion, he said.
Not everyone was satisfied that their concerns had been addressed. In particular, residents in the Ashwood Heights and Ashwood Pointe subdivision object to Scullen Middle School students being split between Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley high schools.
Dozens rallied outside the district offices Monday, chanting and carrying signs with messages like, “Don’t break the feeder system.” Several also spoke at the board meeting.
“I am not here today for myself,” Vanshika Kapoor, a sophomore at Waubonsie Valley, told the board. “I am here today for my community and my younger sibling, who could be going through the same torture that I went through breaking friendships (when her middle school class was divided between two high schools). … I plead with you to take the kids’ mental and social health into consideration.”
Parents with students attending Graham, Fry, Clow, May Watts and Owen schools also were at the meeting, with some voicing objections to different aspects of the tentative final map.