Needing a new home

About this series

As Naperville Unit District 203 gears up for a possible referendum in February, it is seeking community input on three possible plans to renovate its facilities. The Daily Herald has taken an in-depth look each Friday at the three facilities or programs it has deemed priorities. We have already examined issues at Naperville Central High School and Mill Street Elementary.

The early childhood program in Naperville Unit District 203 needs a home, officials say.

The school district is legally required to offer the program to preschool-age children who have special needs. Finding space for them has been a challenge, and the district has deemed it one of its top facility concerns.

But unlike other facility issues that have multiple solutions on the table, district officials say there is only one workable option for the program -- building an $11 million early childhood center.

Early childhood

Early childhood has been an often misunderstood program in the school district. Some assume it is merely a preschool program.

But program director Jeannie Matula said that, by law, the district must offer these services to students once they turn 3 if they previously had been receiving services from the state.

The children may have any one of a variety of special needs, such as language, cognitive, physical, social or emotional issues, and may enter the program at any time during the year.

Last year, 260 children were in the program, including about 110 "typical" peers who pay tuition. It does not include an additional 100 itinerant children who come in for services once or twice a week.

This year, 247 children are in the early childhood program, but Matula expects that to grow by about 40 students throughout the year. Five years ago there were only half as many students in the program.

"As the children that have special needs turn 3, we have to provide for them, and there aren't any acceptable excuses like sorry, there's no room," Matula said. "It's just not something we can say."

Problems

In District 203, the hub of the early childhood program is at Elmwood Elementary, where it uses five classrooms scattered throughout the building.

The program also uses two classrooms at Beebe, two classrooms at Maplebrook and two at River Woods. Last year there was one classroom at Meadow Glens, as well, and Matula said she will likely have to add at least one classroom somewhere this year as more students come into the program.

She said having the program spread out around the district -- and around Elmwood itself -- presents numerous challenges.

One problem is that a certain type of assistance may be available only at one site, so in some cases a child from the south end of the district may need services at the north end and spend an hour on the bus each way to school. Still others in the all-day program may be in one school in the morning and another in the afternoon.

Because the program uses what few spare rooms are available, some teachers have set up office spaces right in the classrooms, and so they can work one-on-one with students or in small groups, many of the classrooms have dividers to provide privacy and prevent distractions.

Using spare classrooms at an elementary school also means young students are using facilities designed for older children such as playground equipment. Only Elmwood and Maplebrook have playgrounds meant for young students, and Matula said the other schools' equipment poses a safety risk.

Bathrooms at the schools also are meant for older students, so there are stools in the bathrooms at Elmwood to help early childhood students reach the sinks and toilets.

Bathrooms are also a problem in that only two of the five classrooms at Elmwood have bathrooms in them. Because some early childhood students are still in diapers, teaching assistants must block off a bathroom from other students in order to change a diaper. In the meantime, that leaves the classroom teacher with no assistants.

For teachers, being spread out among several buildings means they have a harder time collaborating and some also must travel to several buildings during the day.

"You do need that staff support, sharing ideas … if you have a problem, going across the hall and sharing with the teacher what your issues are and getting ideas," Matula said.

"It's just a part of teaching, and not having that and having that kind of isolated situation is really one of the drawbacks."

Matula said there is also a disconnect among the families of children with special needs, unlike in other districts where there is a parent association just for these families.

The good news, Matula said, is that she feels the program really does make a difference. The majority of early childhood students will go on to a regular kindergarten class, though with varying levels of support.

"I really do feel that we could be working on improving the program if we weren't spending as much time as we are dealing with the hand we're dealt with the facilities," Matula said.

"We really could be concentrating on what we could do to improve our program. And we certainly try to do that, but it's kind of forced to take a second seat to, 'where is the next class going to go.' "

Options

The district has put together three options for dealing with its most immediate facility needs. All three include building a new $11 million early childhood center, which could be built on property the district owns near Huntington Estates off Naper Boulevard.

"We've just outgrown the space. We can't go back," Matula said. "The reality is we can't keep running the program this way, squeezing in wherever there happens to be space. That's really not fair to the children."

Even though there is only one option being discussed for early childhood, which of three district-wide plans it ultimately would be part of is still up for grabs.

Plan A is based on the recommendations of the district's facilities committee and calls for a $72 million major renovation to Naperville Central High School and an $11 million renovation to Mill Street Elementary, and addressing issues at Naperville North such as the depth of the pool, locker rooms, traffic and synthetic turf on the football field, and addressing security issues at Prairie and Ranch View elementaries and Washington Junior High.

Plan B is the least expensive option at $22 million to $46 million. It includes minor renovations to Central and Mill Street Elementary and redrawing boundaries around Mill. North's pool and pool locker room still would be addressed, and it would have synthetic turf installed. Security would be taken care of at Ranch View, Prairie and Washington.

Plan C is a $158 million to $168 million option that calls for a complete rebuild of Naperville Central for $130 million to $140 million. This would likely be part of a larger project to reorganize the city and park district groups that use the Caroline Martin Mitchell property where the high school is located. The rest of this option follows Plan A.

Taxpayer impact

If the district plans to spend more than $59 million, it will need a tax increase via a referendum that likely would occur Feb. 5. Therefore, plans A and C each would require a hike in property taxes.

Plan A would cost the owner of a $331,117 home (as of 2006) an additional $76 a year for the next 20 years. Plan C would cost that same homeowner $187 to $206 more a year for 20 years.

Even if the district chooses plan B, which would not require a tax increase, it will need a referendum for voters to give their OK to building the early childhood center.

The district has been seeking feedback from residents as to which plan they would support through community engagement meetings and school tours. It will begin a phone survey in early October. The school board plans to make a decision in November as to which plan to pursue.

For details or to view the district's presentation online, visit www.naperville203.org and click on "Touch the Future."