Student enrollment in Elgin-based School District U-46 is predicted to surge by 4,500 youths, to 38,500 by the fall of 2002, an advisory committee told school board members Monday night.
Because of the anticipated growth, the Enrollment and Facilities Committee placed five elementary schools on a watch list, saying those schools require immediate action to relieve overcrowding.
The five schools are Bartlett, Prairieview and Sycamore Trails Schools in Bartlett, Fox Meadow School in South Elgin, and Wayne School in Wayne. In five years, total enrollment in the schools is expected to zoom by 1,581 pupils to 3,970, a gain of nearly 40 percent.
Thirteen other elementary schools and all of the district’s middle and high schools should be “closely monitored” to see how the increased population affects them, the committee warned in its report.
“The district is growing, and we have to find ways to accommodate that growth,” said Larry Paris, co-chairman of the Enrollment and Facilities Committee.
“It could require mobile classrooms or new schools or boundary changes. The (school) board members will have to come up with a solution.”
The committee also recommended that administrators consider buying land for a future middle school between Bartlett and South Elgin.
Land to build elementary schools should be also acquired in the southwest part of the district–specifically, along Randall Road in Elgin–as well as the southeast and north central parts of the district, the panel said.
The committee also recommended the district hire an outside firm to do a space audit of school buildings and recommend how classrooms can best be used. The firm also could determine which structures could best be added onto.
Housing starts throughout U-46 are pushing enrollment figures up, Paris said. The committee is tracking construction in 53 subdivisions–21 of which are in Elgin.
