Mobile classrooms are popping up in increasing numbers within the St. Charles school district.
The St. Charles School District 303 board on Monday approved leasing 12 of the facilities and buying one of them for the 1991-92 school year.
Leases for five units, which can accommodate two classes each, were renewed from the 1990-91 school year, while seven more leases were being acquired.
For the first time, four of the units will be used at St. Charles High School.
Two additional facilities will be used at Thompson Junior High School, which already had two last year. Lincoln Elementary School will retain the mobile classroom facility it used last year, and Haines Junior High School will keep the two used there.
The Mades-Johnston Center will use two of the facilities, purchasing one. Aside from class space, the facilities will also be used for
administration offices at the center.
The use of four of the units at the high school, with six more being used at the district`s two junior high schools, is a symptom of growth, which district officials are evaluating.
”Growth in the high school is going to happen whether we have other growth in the district or not,” said Supt. John Vanko, evaluating enrollment figures at Monday`s board meeting.
District enrollment was at 8,191 in June 1991, up 274 from the previous year. High school enrollment, at 2,201 students, was actually down 14 students. But enrollment in grades 6 through 8 was at 1,949, up 173 students. Vanko said that the mobile classrooms are not a permanent solution. A facilities committee is studying building needs for the district, and school board officials have repeatedly discussed the need to build more space in the district in the future.
But Vanko said the committee`s report will not be presented until next spring, and the earliest any vote for a bond issue or other action to fund new facilities would come is November 1992 or the spring of 1993.
With at least a year needed to build a new permanent facility, the mobile classrooms are likely to be around the district another three or four years, Vanko said.
Vanko said most teachers he has talked to like the mobile classrooms.
”They`re a little larger than our regular classrooms, and they have better heating and are air-conditioned,” Vanko said. ”The kids really like them on warm days.”
As a short-term solution, Vanko said the mobile classrooms are also cost-effective.
At about $15,000, the classrooms compare favorably with the costs that would come with more busing and teacher hours if the school day was expanded to accommodate the district`s growth, Vanko said.
