Despite opposition from parents of about 570 pupils who could be forced to change schools, the Community Consolidated School District 21 Board of Education has decided to redraw district boundaries.
The vote by the board last week aims to ease overcrowding at Whitman Elementary School in Wheeling.
The Wheeling-based district considered five proposals that ranged from taking no action to expanding Whitman. About 800 pupils attend the school.
“All available classroom space is taken up with home rooms,” Principal Ralph Cook said Monday. “We don’t have a music room or an art room and we’re doing such things as doubling up in the gym. It’s not so much a number as how we’re using the space.”
The boundaries, which have yet to be determined, will be announced at the next board meeting April 18.
Board President Phil Pritzker said pupils at five of the district’s nine elementary schools would be affected. Under the proposal, 139 pupils would leave Whitman. Sixty would go to Field Elementary School in Wheeling and 79 would go to Twain School in Wheeling. About 150 pupils from Twain would be moved to Field.
About 200 pupils from Field would be moved to Longfellow School in Buffalo Grove. Eighty-two pupils from Twain would be moved to Tarkington School in Wheeling.
District officials said about 250 pupils in the largely Hispanic Piper Lane area in Prospect Heights would remain at Whitman.
“My kids walk to Whitman. Now they’re going to be bused. It’s just not fair,” Robin Breezee said.
Despite parent complaints, the board is prepared to move forward with redistricting, Pritzker said.
