Moving special-needs preschoolers still on options menu in District 300

An unpopular proposal to move special-needs preschoolers to make room for east-side kindergartners remains on the menu of options Community Unit District 300 administrators are considering to alleviate overcrowding at some schools.

But the idea, which has drawn opposition from teachers and parents and prompted calls for the administration to return to the drawing board, is only one of 14 options before the district.

The administration returned to the school board this week after President Joe Stevens asked Superintendent Ken Arndt, who had recommended the preschool proposal, to be more imaginative.

Arndt presented 14 options for schools east of the Fox River in the short- and long-term -- each option carrying a list of pros, cons and initial cost estimates.

The proposals can be grouped into five broad categories:

• Move children from at-capacity schools, like Perry Elementary School, to other buildings in the district, in some cases, displacing other students and staff.

• Use mobile classrooms to expand capacity at Perry.

• Build a charter school on the district's east side as a complement to the Cambridge Lakes Charter School in Pingree Grove.

• Add on to existing elementary schools, which would absorb excess students from other schools.

• Build a new elementary school on the east side with 2006 referendum money.

District officials say they are leaning toward using mobiles to address the situation at Perry in the short term, although the district has been trying to get away from the unpopular solution.

"The short-term fix will probably be mobiles. The long-term fix will be redistricting and additional space … for the east side," meaning additions or a new school, Arndt said.

Arndt and his staff eventually are expected to make recommendations to the school board about the 2008-09 school year and the long-term, officials said.

Board members said they are pleased with the effort Arndt and his staff have made to be more creative after the board's initial dissatisfaction with the administration's proposals for the east side.

"We're much more pleased with what has been done," Stevens said.