The Wheaton-Warrenville District 200 Board is preparing to make one of the most controversial decisions it has faced in the last 18 months: whether to move forward with a referendum question asking voters for more funds to expand and renovate the district’s two high schools.
In addition, Supt. Gary Catalani recently raised the possibility that the district may consider also asking voters to increase its educational fund, for which the biggest expenditure is teacher salaries.
The referendum decision is looming for the board because a district task force is expected to issue a report with recommendations about the size and programming of the “high schools of the future.”
Even before that report’s completion, Wheaton North High School Principal Ralph Heatherington and Wheaton Warrenville South High School Principal Charles T. Baker have cited consultants’ enrollment projections that show the buildings are above capacity or facing an imminent space crunch.
“Without even thinking about the future, both high schools are overcrowded,” Heatherington said. “We’re not as bad as Wheaton Warrenville South is, but we’re getting there. If the enrollment projections are anywhere close to accurate, we’ll both be over capacity in the next few years. At some point, that has got to be dealt with.”
Heatherington noted that Wheaton North’s capacity is about 2,000 students and its current enrollment is about 2,025, with projections for a total enrollment of 2,355 by the 2005-2006 school year.
He pointed out that school enrollments as a percentage of total capacity do not take into account specialized classrooms. Those classrooms limit a school’s ability to achieve full capacity because they can’t be used every class period.
Given that school consultants typically recommend an 85 percent usage rate for high schools, the magnitude of Wheaton North’s overcrowding is significant, Heatherington said.
At Wheaton Warrenville South, Baker said the current enrollment is 2,290, which puts the school’s usage rate at 95 percent.
“We’re making it this year, but there are some crowded conditions, some larger class sizes and a much tighter scheduling dilemma,” he said. “Next year will be our crunch year, and we will literally no longer have the physical space to accommodate the current program.”
Heatherington and Baker declined to say how they think the board should solve the overcrowding issue. Wheaton North was expanded in the early 1990s after a referendum proposal was approved.
Wheaton Warrenville South has undergone three expansions since being converted from a middle school to a high school in 1992.
“We can deal with it in a number of ways,” Heatherington said. “We can go with split schedules, decreasing programs, mobile classrooms or additions. But how this is dealt with is not up to me.”
Catalani said the only way the board can finance additions to the high schools is by going to voters, who approved ballot questions for building expansions in 1987, 1991 and 1999 but rejected two others in 1997 and 1998.
“I have not made it a secret that, if we are going to add on to our existing two high schools, that’s going to require a referendum,” he said. “We already know we are short on space.
“And the preliminary report from the group of the task force that is dealing with academic requirements showed that they’re not going to recommend reducing academic requirements. They’re going to recommend increasing them. And if we’re already short on science labs and we increase the science requirements for graduation, we’re going to need more science labs,” Catalani said.
No price has been mentioned yet for any high school work, although depending on the task force’s recommendations and the board’s decision, the cost likely would be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Catalani noted that the final decision on a referendum question is up to school board members.
Board President Bob Davis said a referendum question “hasn’t even been mentioned at the board table” yet. He and the board eagerly await the task force’s final report, he said.
“The whole point of this task force is that our programs should drive our facilities, and obviously our facilities need some work,” said board member Rosemary Swanson. “Before making any decisions, we want to wait and make sure our future programs drive our future facilities.”
At a teacher orientation in late August, Catalani made a brief reference about the “possibility” of seeking an educational fund increase.
The district last increased its educational fund tax rate after a successful referendum question in 1987, which was its first such success in more than 20 years.
Catalani said the board has not discussed a possible increase, which would be linked to coming negotiations with the teachers union. Those talks formally begin early next year, although informal negotiations have taken place since last year, he said.
Catalani said he is trying to make Wheaton and Warrenville residents understand the concept of schools as “community learning centers.”
By opening its doors and expertise to the entire community, he said, the district can more effectively appeal to residents who have been skeptical in recent years.
“If we are willing to support whatever our community needs, then if we need to go out for an ed fund referendum and a construction referendum, people won’t be able to say that we only come to them when we need money for a referendum,” Catalani said.
