Dist. 300 in session with new faces, places
If you need any evidence of what Community Unit School District 300 did with the money it received from two voter-approved tax hikes in 2006, consider this: About 1,000 students and staff members started school Thursday in a new building.
Thursday was the first full day of school in the district, one of the latest starts in recent years because of the spate of construction financed by the 2006 tax increases.
There are two new elementary schools, more than 100 new teachers, a newly privatized bus contract, eight new principals, 40,000 new textbooks and significant upgrades to two high schools.
Complicating these changes were August's flooding and a power outage Thursday afternoon.
In short, there were more than enough opportunities for things to go wrong on District 300's first day.
But aside from normal first-day jitters and the expected challenges of dealing with all the changes, the first day of school was a success, administrators said.
"It's been a challenge, but I think we've had a very good beginning day," Superintendent Ken Arndt said. "I wish to commend and compliment the hundreds of people who worked around the clock … to get the schools ready."
About 280 students at the new Gary D. Wright Elementary marked their first day by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while their namesake, retired Hampshire Elementary School Principal Gary Wright, raised the flag.
"It truly was a great effort between the community, the teachers and the students," Wright Principal Don Wicker said of the work leading up to the first day of school. "It was just an outstanding day."
The district's other new elementary school, Gilberts Elementary School, marked its first day by releasing 700 burgundy and gold, biodegradable balloons, one for every student and staff member at the school.
"There's all kinds of challenges, but people pitched in, and everything went smoothly," Gilberts Elementary Principal Jeff King said.
King and Wicker join six other new principals who started in the district because of several retirements at the end of the last school year.
This is the first year the district is using a private contractor for buses. School officials said there were some issues getting kids to school on time but that Thursday was an improvement over previous years.
"Hopefully, tomorrow we'll be better," Wicker said.
Students and staff at Dundee-Crown High School noticed some changes Thursday, including new science labs and landscaping.
Renovations at Jacobs High School, including a new competition gym and auditorium, are still in progress and are expected to be completed by the end of this month.
A server outage shut down District 300's Web site Thursday morning. The site was out for much of the day.
District 300 was unaffected by power outages that left 1,400 ComEd customers in Algonquin, Carpentersville and West Dundee without power Thursday afternoon, Arndt said.