They have studied the question from countless angles, but despite months of examination officials at New Trier High School have refused to cross one conspicuous line in discussing whether to divide the prestigious district.
They have resisted talking about the boundary line itself, an issue that incites passion among residents. Administrators and board members have treated the subject a lot like students treat homework: with procrastination.
Officials insist that prematurely raising the topic of how and where a boundary would be drawn, presumably between the New Trier facility and a reopened New Trier West, would only confuse the real issues of education.
Considering that the discussion raises emotional concerns about everything from prestige and property values to religion and childhood friendships, their fears are not unfounded.
But many residents appear to be losing patience with the reluctance among officials to talk about a boundary.
Anxious parents say they cannot consider the idea of two schools unless they know about the line dividing them.
As a result, when the board meets in special session Monday night, at least one member is hoping to put the subject of boundaries on the table in an effort to ease parental concerns. That could mark a turning point in the process.
Some parents simply want to know where their children will be going to school–to one in Winnetka that is the embodiment of traditional North Shore success or to a new school in Northfield with a more uncertain reputation.
“They are talking about two schools out there, but nobody knows who would go to which school and how they will decide,” said Janet Scheier, a New Trier graduate who lives on the west side of Glencoe and is a parent of a high school sophomore and a 7th grader whose future high school is unknown. “How can I support two schools when I don’t know how the division will fall?”
At Monday’s meeting, board member Adair Waldenberg hopes to raise the issue by putting forth a suggested boundary plan in an effort to calm fears that children could be separated from their friends.
The purpose of the meeting is to give board members their first opportunity to air views in public on whether to split the district. Officials in District 203 have been debating how to deal with an impending enrollment boom that is expected to see the number of students jump to 4,200 in the next decade from 3,100 now.
In June, the board is scheduled to select from among four options: expanding the current facility; operating two four-year high schools, which would require a boundary line; creating a freshmen-only campus at the old New Trier West; and creating a lab school at West. New Trier West, which opened as a second high school during an enrollment boom from 1965 to 1985, is used for administrative offices.
Officials over the past months have surveyed constituencies, including parents, students, faculty members and residents, asking their preferences for one of the plans. They have inquired about everything from ideal class size to opportunities for extracurricular activities.
They have avoided the boundary line, essentially leaving the toughest issue for last.
One administrator said choosing boundaries could be so tedious and complicated a process it could take a year to draw a line.
“We’ve estimated a goal of 55 percent of students in Winnetka and 45 percent of them at the Northfield campus, and that can be done any one of a number of ways,” said New Trier Supt. Henry Bangser. “At this point that is all that needs to be known.”
But plenty of parents disagree. If the issue is not addressed soon, according to some, they could lose faith in the school board and refuse to support a school referendum that will be needed to raise money for whatever option is chosen.
At stake, many say, is whether a division will dilute the district’s tradition of academic excellence and whether it will separate youngsters from their elementary and middle school friends. The ongoing debate has made it difficult for people to buy or sell their homes, because prospective owners do not know what is going to happen to the high school district. Other parents raise concerns about a demographic split, saying a divided district could leave most of the Jewish students in the western half and the wealthiest students in the eastern half.
There is not a consensus on even the merits of a one-school or two-school system. In a survey, residents backed each plan about equally.
“This is not a community to settle for a second-rate education for anybody regardless of whether there is one school or two schools,” said Scott Gendell, a Glencoe parent of four youngsters ages 3 to 10 and the organizer of Citizens for Two New Triers.
“Virtually every study that anyone can come up with says that smaller is better, is less stressful and offers significantly more opportunities for extracurricular activities,” Gendell said.
As for the argument that educational excellence would be diluted with two New Triers, Gendell called it little more than “empty rhetoric.”
But for many people in the district, the “real” New Trier is the school that lies near the lakefront–and when asked if they would like their children to go to New Trier West, on the other side of the Edens Expressway, the answer is an unequivocal no.
The boundary question, therefore, is particularly troublesome for some families that live near the middle of the district.
“I want my kids to go to East. . . . We picked this district so that (my kids) would to go that school,” said Nancy Shook of Glencoe, a mother of four students ranging from a 2nd grader to a 10th grader. “And I am afraid that people will look at this and say, `What the heck is New Trier West? . . . They are trying to run a new school off the old established name.’ “
And she wondered, “What will the colleges think?”
The Winnetka campus, which opened in 1901, has a historic sense of place and permanence that the West campus, with its sprawling layout and newer construction, never has attained. New Trier West’s temporary use further contributed to its sense of transience.
Some residents believe that if the West campus reopens, boundary fears could be allayed if the board adopted a policy ensuring existing grade school boundaries essentially would be followed. By doing that, neighborhood children would be kept together through high school.
If the board backs the two-school option, Waldenberg likes the idea of splitting the district along existing elementary lines with students from Glencoe, Northfield and the western portion of Wilmette going to New Trier West and Kenilworth, Winnetka and the eastern side of Wilmette remaining at New Trier.
“I want people to understand that (the school board members) are struggling and want people to struggle with us,” she said. “This will be the most difficult decision I’ve ever made, and there is no right answer. If there was one right answer, you would find me out there jumping on that bandwagon long ago.”
