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News
Enrollment plan anticipates third high school : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisEnrollment plan anticipates third high school
| Includes recommendation to re-open East View Elementary
| by Lyle R. Rolfe
| 1/28/2010
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An advisory committee's plan on how to deal with student enrollment when Oswego High and Oswego East high schools reach their enrollment capacity was formally presented to school district board members Monday evening.
But no action will be taken on the plan for several weeks, Superintendent Dr. Dan O'Donnell said.
The plan was presented by Todd Colvin, associate superintendent for administrative services.
He had conducted several meetings with a 28-member advisory committee during November and December before they came up with a recommendation. It had been presented to the board's growth and finance committees, but not to the entire board until Monday.
O'Donnell said the advisory committee recommendation will be rolled into a five-year plan being prepared by the administration.
"There are so many moving pieces to the plan that have to work together," he said, noting that East View Elementary School that was closed for renovations at the end of last year, will be needed in 2011-12 as an elementary school again.
The new Murphy Junior High in Plainfield's Grande Park subdivision, was completed in 2008, but was never opened because housing construction came to a virtual halt.
It will now be brought into the picture because the advisory committee recommended using Murphy as an interim solution until a third high school is built, he said.
Colvin said it will be needed as a junior high when the new high school opens because of growing enrollments at Traughber Junior High in Oswego.
New boundaries will have to be created for all three high schools and Murphy Junior High next spring to go into effect for the 2011-12 school year, he added.
In the past, school boundary changes have been made on recommendations of volunteer committees, administrators and resident comments. This time, Colvin is recommending the district hire an outside agency that specializes in school boundaries.
O'Donnell said they hope to have the five-year plan ready to present at the second board meeting in February.
Colvin said they are planning to open a third high school in the 2014-15 school year. Although a site had been purchased for the school, officials said they are continuing to look at other possible sites because the present one does not have access to needed utilities. It is a 121.5-acre parcel purchased in 2008 on the south side of Ill. Route 126 between Schlapp and Grove roads in Kendall County.
He said the present maximum capacity of the two high schools is 4,800, and noted that conservative projections are that they will have 5,000-5,400 high school students by 2014-15.
The present projections show 2,200 students for each high school with predications of 2,460 students in 2011-12 for Oswego High and 2,200 at East.
In 2012-13, Colvin said they are projecting 2,570 for Oswego High and 2,210 for East. In 2013-14 they believe the numbers will be 2,550 for Oswego High and 2,225 at East.
"There will be internal problems in the two high schools in the next few years if we do nothing," he said, adding that the predictions are conservative.
This year enrollments grew by more than 700 students even though all new housing development came to a halt more than a year ago. The present homes are occupied by young families with children who will be entering the schools each year for some time.
Colvin said it will be necessary to re-open East View as an elementary school in 2011-12. He said the former Traughber Junior High is fully occupied by various public agencies with multi-year commitments, so without building new facilities, it will be necessary to bring the new Murphy Junior High building into use as a temporary high school.
He said the committee looked at various other solutions including year round school, having a freshman center, a specialized program center, adding onto Oswego East, and using flexible class schedules, but they all presented cost and feasibility problems.
The final recommendation was to determine boundaries for the present and third high schools by 2012 and send a high school class a year to Murphy until the third high school opens. This would fully utilize all existing district facilities, Colvin said.
He said they would send the freshmen living within the boundary for the third high school to Murphy for the 2012-13 school year. The following year, 2013-14, this class would become sophomores and a new freshman class would be added.
In 2014-15, when the third high school would open, the two classes from Murphy would move in as sophomores and juniors along with a new freshman class. He estimated they would have 1,200 students in the new building at that time.
Murphy would then be used as a junior high as originally intended.
"In 2015-16, there would be three, four year high schools with between 1,200 and 2,200 students each, with their own programs and identities with plenty of room for future growth," he said.
Colvin said these recommendations also would be the most fiscally responsible ones.
He said the recommendations will be posted on the district's web site so residents can comment on them before they go to the board for action in February.
Board members disagree
on enrollment projections
Board President Lynn Cullick said she would like to hold community forums on the plan before the board votes on it.
Board member Mike Scaramuzzi commented that he would like the five-year plan to include a financial plan, "...not just from a budgetary standpoint, but from a tax bill standpoint."
Board member Laurie Pasteris objected to the plan saying Colvin's future enrollment projects are too high. She said she did not see either high school having an additional 200 students by 2013-14.
She said she could see growing kindergarten enrollments, but noted that it would be some time before these students would reach high school.
"I see this as a jump on something that the taxpayers are not ready to pay for," she said.
Board member John Graff disagreed with her saying that by next year Oswego High will be at 2,500 which is 105 students over capacity and it will continue to grow.
He said the learning environment is better if they stay below capacity but Pasteris said she disagreed adding that they could go 200 over capacity and not feel any effect from it.
She said there were 32 students in the original classrooms at Oswego High and said they can handle more students now that they have been enlarged.
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