Residents of the Tri-Cities need no reminders of the population growth that has taken place in their communities in recent years. The evidence is everywhere: on the roads, in the fast-sprouting subdivisions to the west, and especially in the schools.
Surging enrollments have meant plenty of work for construction teams, as existing schools throughout St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia are expanded and new ones are built. The growth also has meant new issues for administrators and teachers, already confronting the challenges of keeping pace with technological development and the new Illinois State Learning Standards.
In Geneva Community School District 304, which has four elementary schools averaging 600 students each, one middle school with 1,100 students and one high school with 1,200 students, growth has been particularly explosive.
In 1990, the K-12 district served a little more than 2,500 students. By the start of the school year just ended, that number had skyrocketed to 4,600.
As a result, construction has been inevitable. Plans are under way to open another elementary school within the next year and a half, said Jane Gazdziak, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
“And we’re in the middle of the largest school construction project in the history of Geneva: Geneva Community High School is being doubled in size,” she said. “They’re adding new classrooms and a huge competition gym the size of three average gyms.”
With this expansion, she added, each of Geneva’s schools will have been renovated or expanded within the last six years to improve the educational experience for students.
The passage two years ago of a $35.6 million referendum proposal, the largest in the history of Geneva schools, has made possible the expansions of the high school, Harrison Street Elementary School and Geneva Middle School. The money also has gone to fund technology upgrades in all schools. Today, Gazdziak said, the elementary schools have two networked computers in each classroom and five to six networked computers in each library, in addition to computer labs.
In the middle school, each classroom boasts two or three networked computers, and the library has about 10 computers. In the high school, the goals are to have soon five networked computers in each classroom and to add three additional computer labs to the existing three. Each networked computer offers Internet access, Gazdziak said.
The new Illinois State Learning Standards also have been a focus of school administrators in Geneva.
“What we’ve done is taken the Illinois State Learning Standards and the national standards in some areas and examined how well our curriculum lined up with them,” Gazdziak said. “In most cases, we were already meeting, or in some cases exceeding, the standards.”
As subject areas come up in the district’s curriculum renewal cycle, administrators examine the elementary, middle and high school curricula to determine whether it is timely, meets the needs of students and meets the state standards, she added.
“This year in elementary and middle school it was science and health, last year it was reading and language arts,” Gazdziak said. “This year in the high school, it was social studies and math, and last year other social studies courses and English.”
She added that the district is “proactive” in encouraging teachers to pursue advanced degrees.
“About 60 percent of our teachers have master’s degrees, and half by the end of the summer will have two master’s degrees,” she said. “The fact that they’re learning the most current methods and best practices is reflected in the quality of the curriculum.”
In St. Charles School District 303, growth also has been swift. The district has nine elementary schools, with a 10th to open this fall. In addition to three middle schools, the district will have two high schools by this fall with the opening of St. Charles North High School.
Susan Klipp, the K-12 curriculum coordinator for District 304, said the district has anticipated the growth.
“We’ve been studying the demographics for a number of years and have just readjusted our boundaries to compensate for new growth,” she said, adding that the two schools added 10 years ago, Fox Ridge Elementary and Ferson Creek Elementary, are now filled to capacity.
New Library Resource Centers, or LRCs, as the district calls them, were added to four elementary schools two years ago and are being added to two more elementary schools, she added. The LRCs offer computers with Internet access, CD-ROMs and video- and audiotapes, as well as books and magazines.
As for the Illinois State Learning Standards, Klipp said the district anticipated them long before they were introduced in 1997.
“We had aligned to the national standards,” she said. “So when the new Illinois Learning Standards came out, there was a good alignment already.”
The real issue for the district, she added, is not alignment, but implementing the standards every day in the classroom.
“That means continued staff development and working with teachers to choose the best materials to implement the standards,” Klipp said.
The district’s curriculum-renewal process ensures that every subject’s curriculum is regularly reviewed.
“This year, for instance, new curriculum was chosen for 7th- and 8th-grade math to help students better meet the Illinois State Learning Standards,” Klipp said. “Sometimes, it’s not a matter of changing the curriculum, but of strengthening teacher development. You’re trying to make sure you’re providing a curriculum and staff development that ensures students of reaching the Illinois State Learning Standards.”
She added that the district’s strategic plan, developed by teachers, administrators and community members, is the “guiding tool” that governs curriculum staff development, as well as decisions regarding school construction.
“It’s the heart of what we do here,” Klipp said.
The growth story is no different in Batavia, where Janet McAlpin, assistant superintendent for K-12 curriculum and instruction in Batavia Public Schools District 101, reported: “We’ve just continued to grow and grow and grow.”
As proof, she cites statistics that indicate 12th-grade enrollment in the district, which was 265 in 1994, will surge to 434 in 2004.
The district, which is made up of five elementary schools, one middle school and one high school, now has 5,400 students. That number is projected to jump to 6,100 by the 2004-05 academic year.
A $26.3 million referendum question passed in April 1999 has generated funds that will build two elementary schools in the district, McAlpin said. The funds will also finance the addition of classrooms to the middle school and an expansion of Gustafson Elementary School.
All these projects are expected to be completed by the fall of next year. The referendum question money is being devoted to construction rather than technology expenditures.
“We had two commissions that met in 1998 and 1999,” McAlpin said. “They recommended that bond money not be spent for hardware or software, but did recommend that some funds go for advanced internal structuring” anticipating technology developments to come.
The growth also has required redistricting. “In trying to keep up with the growth, we knew we would have to redraw the boundaries of the school district (so that) each elementary school would have approximately 500 students,” McAlpin said. “We finally completed that very painful process in early April, after a series of forums in the fall to hear the public’s input, and school board meetings in February and March of this year.”
To allow for smooth transition, the district is willing to examine case by case situations of students who, for example, have spent years at the same elementary school and would have to transfer for their final year of elementary education to another school, she added.
On the curriculum front, McAlpin reports that the district began to develop new standards at least a year before the introduction of the Illinois State Learning Standards, using national standards as guides.
Once the state standards came out, McAlpin said, “we sought to see if we were aligned, and where we weren’t, we made changes.
“We’re working very hard to keep curriculum, instruction and assessment aligned with the standards,” she added. “It’s always a work in progress, and as the state makes changes, we’ll make changes. But you have to make some district decisions (regarding standards) as well as to what makes sense and what’s good for the kids.”
The “tremendous investment of time and effort,” McAlpin said, that has gone into curriculum alignment in Batavia will have payoffs down the line.
“It’s very difficult, but does offer wonderful opportunity for equality in instruction,” she said. “We’ll know the same standards are being covered across the district.”
