Parents want Dist. 300 'jewel' school as-is
Emma is a bright-eyed, cheerful little girl with long brown hair and a button nose.
During the Community Unit District 300 School Board meeting Tuesday night, Emma, wearing a pink dress and purple headband, braided her mother's hair and played with her "Beauty and the Beast" doll.
After Emma's parents addressed the school board, her dad lifted her to the microphone.
"Thank you," she said.
Before she entered the deLacey Family Education Center, Emma couldn't even do that.
Emma is autistic.
"Receiving that diagnosis was like losing a child," said Dawn Hinton, Emma's mother.
When she started at deLacey, Emma could only speak four or five words.
"Now, she speaks in sentences. She's one of the most social kids you'll ever meet," Hinton said.
Emma's parents joined many other parents and teachers from deLacey Tuesday night in urging the school board to not move the at-risk preschoolers to another building.
Their concern arose from a proposal the District 300 administration made last month. To address crowded elementary schools on the district's east side, the administration suggested moving kindergartners from Perry Elementary School, the site of last night's meeting, to the deLacey center.
Under this proposal, the special-needs preschoolers at deLacey, a building designed specifically with these children's needs in mind, would be moved to one or more buildings in the district until the district has a long-term solution to the overcrowding.
Board members and the District 300 administration Tuesday said the deLacey proposal is only one of about 10 possible solutions and that the board is far from reaching a decision on the issue.
"(This option) is one of many options that are being looked at," board President Joe Stevens said.
Superintendent Ken Arndt said he has met with the deLacey staff and will meet with the staff at Perry next week.
"We are not anywhere close to deciding on an option," Arndt said. "It's really a decision that can't be made until all of the facts are known."
And the board has expressed a desire for more facts. After Arndt offered the deLacey proposal last month, Stevens asked the administration to study all of the options more closely and report back to the board on their cost and feasibility.
Though a decision is at least weeks away, parents insisted deLacey be taken off the table.
"This little girl, who has gone through deLacey, this little girl now has a life ahead of her," said Tony Bellino, Emma's father. "DeLacey is the jewel of District 300. … Don't chop it up into little diamonds."