Report on community priorities coming to District 204 school board
The biggest question asked during a series of "Engage 204" meetings in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 was the last, school board President Mike Raczak said.
At the fifth and final community input session, the topic was the budget and how it should be spent. The question for participants after an administrator presentation was one of priorities, asking them to rank eight improvements the district could pursue.
The options were:
• Decrease average class size to 24 from 27 for $16.7 million a year.
• Bring teacher salaries to the middle of comparable districts for $7.5 million a year.
• Complete all deferred maintenance projects for $10 million.
• Update locks and intercoms for $2 million.
• Bring capital maintenance spending to the recommended level for $4 million a year.
• Complete elementary air conditioning for $7 million.
• Lease space for alternative high school and transition-to-adulthood program for students with disabilities for $1.2 million a year.
• Add mental health professionals and instructional coaches for $4.2 million a year.
Raczak and other members of the board are set to hear a parent committee's presentation on these priorities during a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Crouse Education Center, 780 Shoreline Drive, Aurora. The committee also will report about other topics discussed during the eight-month process of seeking resident feedback, including enrollment, academics, facilities and the state of the district.
"I think it was a great process," Raczak said about the Engage 204 meetings, which began in November and typically attracted between 150 and 170 participants. "I think it provided an opportunity for the community to participate and give feedback."
Feedback, though, was widely varied. That's why the school board convened a committee of parents to review, condense and explain the thoughts of participants about how the district should choose its next goals.
"I will be interested to see how the parent committee interprets the results," Raczak said.
The Engage 204 process concludes as the district is facing challenges including changing enrollment that may require boundary shifts, school crowding at some buildings and large class sizes in some grades. Meanwhile, the district is operating on a $322 million budget, after making $40.8 million in cuts between 2010 and 2014, and has seen state funding as a percentage of its budget decrease from nearly 15 percent in 1997 to 12 percent this year.
At the final Engage 204 session in March, Chief School Business Official Jay Strang told attendees the district could begin budgeting to address these concerns, but it will be up to residents and the school board to decide how to pay for such improvements.
"I'm glad we had input into what the community perceived as their priorities," Raczak said. "We need to assess what our community said. We're still a district with limited resources."
Indian Prairie serves students in portions of Naperville, Aurora, Plainfield and Bolingbrook.