District 300 should put practicality ahead of popularity with proposals
There's just over a week left to offer your feedback on the middle and high school boundary proposals in Community Unit District 300.
The school board is scheduled to vote on one of the attendance boundary committee's three recommendations Jan. 28.
Until then, you can express your concerns and preferences by e-mailing district spokeswoman Allison Smith at allison.smith@d300.org.
But the board, I'm told, may already be close to a decision Saturday afternoon.
The board's work session Saturday morning is the first time board members will discuss in-depth the merits and pitfalls of the proposals.
Board members insist they haven't made up their minds yet, despite rumors to the contrary, and I'm inclined to believe them.
No board member has yet expressed to me his or her support for one of the recommendations.
Among residents, though, it seems proposal 10 continues to be the favorite, although the district hasn't yet posted residents' comments from the final public hearing.
This shouldn't be surprising; proposal 10 moves the fewest students of the three plans.
But while it may be a popular, if obvious, choice among parents, board members should keep in mind that while proposal 10 may avoid some pain in the short term, the plan may not be painless in the long run.
The community members who prepared the proposal noted its shortcomings in its report to the school board.
Among these, Dundee-Crown and Jacobs high schools would still be crowded, while Hampshire Middle School would reach capacity in three years.
Board members have said they want to redraw the middle and high school attendance boundaries without having to revisit them in the near future.
If they truly wish to have boundaries that will accommodate the population pressures throughout the district for the next few years, they may need to look to proposals 3 or 6.
Parents should also keep in mind that board members have said they're open to tweaking any of the three proposals and won't necessarily accept or reject any of them as-is.
But if board members choose to customize one of the proposals, they must tread with caution to ensure fairness and not be seen as favoring one neighborhood over another.
If there's one thing that parents have come close to uniting over, it's their preference for grandfathering -- keeping kids and families in schools they're already slated to attend.
Parents should be heartened to hear board members are still willing to give serious thought to the idea.
But again, board members must keep in mind that the most popular choice is not always the wisest.
While some form of grandfathering may be possible, in its extreme form, the idea would conceivably alter the enrollment numbers at each school to such a degree as to make the boundary proposals useless.