New schools, slowed growth finds District 301 with plenty of space

The children are coming, the children are coming.

It was the message Central Unit District 301 officials sent to voters in 2004, 2005 and up until they endorsed a $34 million referendum in March 2006 to build a pair of new schools and a high school addition.

Yet it turns out the children didn't come as fast as district leaders initially expected.

The cooling off of the housing boom has persuaded district leaders to delay another bond referendum originally planned for 2008. It would have generated funds for the district's fifth grade school and second high school.

Moreover, the housing slump has left the new Country Trails Grade School and Prairie Knolls Middle School, which both opened in August, lacking for students.

Using the district's average class size of 25 students, Prairie Knolls is 52 percent full with 387 students. Country Trails is just 25 percent occupied with 165 District 301 students.However, Country Trails also houses 35 other children from the Northern Illinois Association's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program who require smaller class sizes, Superintendent Brad Hawk said. With their addition to the school, 21 out of the school's 25 classrooms are in use, meaning 84 percent of the school is occupied, Hawk said. Those children aren't included in the district's enrollment numbers. This reversal of fortune for the once space-strapped district means different things to different people.Some parents enjoy smaller class sizes and want things to stay as they are.Prairie View Grade School parent Kathy Quinn, for example, says the opening of Country Trails has freed up space at Prairie View, translating into a class of 17 students for her second-grade daughter, Teresita. Quinn admits she's envious of Country Trails because it offers air conditioning and even smaller classes, but is thrilled the new grade school has taken pressure off Prairie View."I'm very, very pleased," she said.At the same time, there are those who say the school board should mothball both new schools and send the students to other schools that can handle them, and only activate the news schools once more kids arrive on the district's doorstep, school board member Rose Diaz said. Diaz, who was elected in March, says she brought up the scenario to the school board, but that her peers didn't take it seriously.Board President Laurie Kling did not return phone calls seeking comment. And because the district financed the $34 million bond question in a way that will cost voters $77.2 million over the course of the loan, Diaz says officials should be receptive to even more cost-saving ideas. "I want everyone to be happy about the situation," Diaz said. "And you're not going to be happy if you're looking at an empty school and saying, 'Look at where all my money went.'" 'It's not an option'The majority of students at both schools came from boundary changes the district instituted this school year, Hawk said.At Country Trails, 145 kids relocated from Prairie View and 20 students moved from Howard B. Thomas Grade School. Roughly 400 kids from Burlington Central Middle School were assigned to Prairie Knolls Middle School, Hawk said. After transferring instructors from existing schools to the new ones, the district hired two new teachers to work at Country Trails and five others for Prairie Knolls, Hawk said.Experts say that though the growth has tapered off, there's no reason to believe it won't pick up later. And because new students are constantly enrolling in the district, a proposal to mothball or consolidate the new schools is not on the table, Hawk said. "It's not an option," he said. "We still see approximately anywhere from 20 to 25 new homes each month, so there still are additional students we may see during the end of the year."Growth 101Typically, housing construction ebbs and flows, and in Kane County some areas will see a quick spurt while it takes other portions time to catch up, said Jack Pfingston, a senior analyst with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which tracks growth in Kane and six other counties.This random activity makes it difficult to predict the next wave of families and students, he said."In high growth areas, school officials are walking a thin line here. Are we going to spend now and be prepared or are they ready to take the barrage from parents when there aren't any classrooms left?"Between 2000 and 2006, roughly 7,000 people moved into homes on Elgin's far west side, Pfingston said. There's no evidence that suggests the current housing slump will translate into a crash in Kane County, he said. "(Elgin) told us they're going to grow to about 168,000 people by 2030, so you can see they have a lot of room to grow," Pfingston said.According to the 2000 census, 94,784 residents called Elgin home. The city's current population estimates are 105,327. Officials are now holding a special census to see how much Elgin has truly grown.Though the housing market has suffered this year, the area west of Randall Road is still booming, said Jerry Deering, Elgin's director of community development, noting that builders will construct roughly 700 homes in that area by the end of 2007. Being creativeHawk says he bases student enrollment predictions on information he receives from the city of Elgin and the 31 developers who bought land in the district. He then updates those figures quarterly.The kids may not be here now, but all you have to do is drive around the district to know the schools will be needed in the future, Hawk said.Prairie Knolls was opened to help ease crowding at Burlington Central Middle School, which used six mobile classrooms for the past two school years, he said.Officials opened Country Trails because there were plans to use 21 out of its 25 classrooms, Hawk said. The school board budgeted a total of $311,000 for utilities at both schools -- that's $147,000 for Country Trails and $164,000 for Prairie Knolls, Hawk said. The actual costs may turn out to be lower, he added. By opening the schools, Hawk says the district saves roughly $186,900 this year -- money it is not spending on the six mobile classrooms and their traffic barrier at Central Middle. In the interim, officials have come up with new ways to collect and save money. The district leases 11 classrooms to the 90 children in the Northern Illinois Association's Deaf and Hard of Hearing program.The two-year deal, which began this year and that the district may extend, adds $400,000 to district coffers. That money covers the use of materials and some staff time, in addition to classroom space."We're doing a regional service by hosting it and also helping the taxpayers of 301," Hawk said. The superintendent also is awaiting $209,000 in state money reserved for fast- growing school districts. But until Springfield agrees to a budget, that money's on ice.To save on other costs, the district has reducing heating and cooling to the 15 empty classrooms in the new schools, Hawk said. Between them, Country Trails and Prairie Knolls and Central Middle also are sharing 28 teachers including, computer, library, art, music and special education instructors. "We maximize our staff to the hilt," Hawk said.