CEO Tony Sanders will propose big changes to the Elgin School District U46 elementary school boundaries change plan on Tuesday, including not converting Illinois Park into an elementary school after all, building additions onto three schools and pushing toward offering full-day kindergarten at every school in the district.
Rather than relieving overcrowding at several schools on Elgin’s northwest side by converting Illinois Park Early Learning Center back into an elementary school, the changes would include building an addition to nearby Highland Elementary School, as well as additions to Coleman Elementary School on Elgin’s northeast side and Laurel Hill Elementary School in Hanover Park.
Working with Chief Operating Officer Jeff King and a hired demographer, the enrollment and facilities committee of the District U46 Citizens Advisory Council has been working for more than a year to redraw elementary attendance-boundary lines. The committee originally drew up scenarios that would have shifted boundaries among about half of the district’s 40 elementary schools. But then that was adjusted in early summer to a plan drawn by King and the demographer based on the advisory committee’s suggestion to convert Illinois Park back into an elementary school rather than using it for preschool and kindergarten classes.
However, Sanders had said Monday that public forums on the plan that were to have begun two weeks ago had been postponed because he had asked King to review some “concerns” about Elgin’s west side schools. On Thursday the district announced that a special meeting of the board of education’s facilities has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to hear a proposal from the administration. And in his weekly message to the U46 community on Thursday, Sanders revealed a general outline of what he will propose at that meeting.
Sanders said that as he had thought further about the plan to convert Illinois Park, “I grew more concerned.”
“First, Illinois Park was closed in 2004 because it was built at the busy intersection of McLean and Wing streets, which is not prime for an elementary school,” Sanders said. “Second, if it re-opens as an elementary school, we will continue to struggle to find space to hold pre-K classes.”
So, Sanders said, he asked King “to re-review the proposed changes to see if we could develop a scenario that would 1) keep Illinois Park as a pre-K center, and 2) allow us the opportunity to provide full-day kindergarten for all beginning as early as 2016-2017.”
“Next week, the Board of Education’s Facilities Committee, which will include representatives from the E&F Committee, will be presented a proposal that does exactly what I asked of Mr. King. It keeps Illinois Park as an early learning center and it provides us the ability to offer full-day kindergarten for every student,” Sanders said.
“This proposal would require us to build additions on three existing elementary schools (Highland, Coleman, and Laurel Hill), and still move forward with some boundary changes that would affect fewer students than what had originally been proposed (901 students affected versus 1,134).”
The proposed changes were to go into effect in fall 2016. To make that deadline, a final decision would have to be made by the board of education in January. It remained unclear whether the new proposed revamp from Sanders and King, if it becomes the final plan, could still be implemented by next fall.
Roger Wallace, co-chair of the CAC Enrollment and Facilities Committee, said Friday that “the key to the new proposal is adding classroom space to three buildings.”
“In the discussions I have had during E&F meetings, with the district, and with many parents and community members regarding all-day kindergarten (ADK), there was always an overwhelming interest and support in providing this for all students in our district,” Wallace said. “During the first few months of 2015, E&F worked with the district and demographer on a feasibility study for ADK at all schools. But it was readily apparent that with the current schools’ capacities, there would not be enough classroom space at several schools. Since putting an addition on a building is not something that is in E&F’s Guidelines, ADK at all schools was not something E&F could support.”
“The presentation next Tuesday will answer a lot of questions, but without knowing the details, I am very happy that Tony asked Jeff to look into the feasibility of building additions,” Wallace said. “If the Board of Education does agree to move forward with this proposal, it will make ADK a reality for all our kindergarten students, and any subsequent boundary adjustments will be much easier and better for the students and communities, both short and long term. Everyone will win.”
The special board of education facilities meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Room 251 of the Educational Services Center, at 255 E. Chicago St., Elgin.
