When Maria Battaglia reflects on her days as a high school student in Mt. Prospect, she summarizes her experiences in two words: intense and rigid.
As an average student, Battaglia remembers fondly how her teachers at Prospect High School took great care to ensure she absorbed each daily lesson.
“I was very fortunate to attend school in Mt. Prospect,” she said. “It was a great experience.”
Now, some 16 years later, Battaglia, 33, finds herself raising a family in Crystal Lake. Even though her children, ages 4, 7, 8 and 10, are being taught in a different school system-and some of the teaching methods have changed-overall she feels her children are getting as good an education as she did.
“The kids don’t get homework now, but I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Teachers need to be more flexible today,” she said.
Battaglia is among the 52 percent of parents who said in a recent Tribune poll that McHenry County schools are as good as or better than the highly touted schools they left behind in the northwest suburbs.
Since 1986, the largest proportion of new McHenry County homeowners-28 percent-have pulled up stakes from communities in the northwest suburbs, according to the poll.
Consider that 27 percent of these parents said McHenry County schools are better than northwest suburban schools, while 25 percent said the schools were about the same. Only 10 percent of the respondents said McHenry schools aren’t as good as their northwest suburban counterparts, while 38 percent said they didn’t know which schools were better or worse.
But for anything McHenry County schools may be lacking educationally, the overall experience is worth a move, respondents said. Nearly half of all respondents, 290 parents of school-age children, said the problems facing McHenry County schools were minor in comparison to the improved overall quality of life they enjoy.
That’s a feeling that carries over into the classroom, where parents said they believe their children are safer from crime in their new schools, away from disturbing problems that often plague many urban and larger suburban schools.
“The schools here are certainly not perfect, but they do offer a slower pace and pleasant environment for education,” said Robert Skiba, 42, who has lived in Algonquin with his wife and three children, ages 8, 11 and 14, for nearly two years.
“There’s less of the negative influences in our schools-like gangs and drugs-than you would find in lots of other schools,” said Skiba, who has lived throughout suburban Chicago and most recently in Evanston.
Parents also ranked McHenry County schools high in several other critical areas, such as involvement from parents in the schools, competent school counselors and teachers, and in setting high standards and expectations for students.
Still, the northwest suburban schools are considered the model, because they rank nearly as high as North Shore or DuPage County schools in standardized test scores.
In Buffalo Grove, for instance, where 88 percent of the Buffalo Grove High School juniors took the ACT, a standardized college entrance exam, the average score was 23.1. At Barrington High School, 76 percent of the juniors took the ACT and racked up an average score of 23.5.
The highest ACT test scores in McHenry County were recorded in Crystal Lake Central High School, over the same period, where the average score was 22.9, with 70 percent of the students taking the test.
Some parents insist that increasing the spending per pupil at their respective schools would bring their children up to par with those in their old suburban Chicago districts.
Most elementary schools in McHenry County spent between $3,000 and $5,000 for a year of education per student, while spending at some northwest suburban districts nearly doubled that amount, according to data from the 1994 Illinois state school report card.
In Schaumburg, $7,000 per student is spent; Mt. Prospect spends $6,918 per child; while $8,105 is spent in Evanston.
Many McHenry County school administrators admit they have their work cut out for them before the critical opinions held by some parents begin to change.
In order for that to happen, however, taxpayers must be willing to fund schools at a higher level or risk seeing districts rupture from countywide enrollments that are expected to hit a record 44,000 students within two years, administrators said.
As it stands, prospects for more school funding aren’t exactly promising.
Residents in the largest McHenry County communities, such as Crystal Lake and Woodstock, have consistently shot down one tax-hike referendum after another, even though the funds are needed to build new schools to alleviate overcrowding.
And currently, the authority for municipalities to levy and collect one encouraging revenue stream-developer impact fees-remains tied up in lengthy court litigation.
“We aren’t the best-financed schools. As a whole, however, we offer a tremendous value to families and a comfortable atmosphere they desire,” said Donald R. Englert, regional superintendent of schools in McHenry County.
Englert added, however, that it may take years before McHenry County schools reach the funding level of many schools in suburban Cook County districts.
That’s not altogether good news to Woodstock District 200 Supt. Joseph Hentges, who is responsible for fostering the positive school climate that students need to flourish.
