Superintendent backs mobiles for east side

Mobile classrooms have become a familiar sight in Community Unit District 300 -- and that's not about to change.

Superintendent Ken Arndt on Monday recommended mobile classrooms to accommodate additional students at two crowded east-side schools.

Arndt's proposal would house two classes at Golfview Elementary School and four classes at Perry Elementary School in mobile units starting in the fall.

"We need to provide some kind of temporary solution so class sizes are more manageable," Arndt said.

Although the district is trying to rely less on mobile classrooms, Arndt has said since last year that mobiles would be the most likely short-term fix for crowding on the east side.

While making his recommendation, Arndt noted the opposition of administrators and staffers in east-side schools.

Board President Joe Stevens suggested he was leaning against using mobiles.

"I am really not happy with Perry having mobiles, even if it means moving kids around a bit," Stevens said.

Last year, Arndt proposed moving kindergartners at Perry to the deLacey Family Education Center, displacing special-needs preschoolers.

But that option was taken off the table after it drew strong opposition from parents and teachers at both schools.

Under the proposal Arndt presented Monday, the district would not buy new mobiles but would move three from Hampshire Middle and High School to the two Carpentersville elementary schools, which already have hook-ups for mobile classrooms.

The new Hampshire High School is set to open in the fall, and without the high-schoolers, there will be plenty of room for Hampshire middle-schoolers next year.

Each mobile unit, which contains two classrooms, would cost the district an estimated $75,734 to lease and install.

Arndt recommended one mobile at Golfview and two at Perry, for a total estimated cost of $227,202.

Under the proposal, the cost would be covered by impact fees -- paid by developers to help offset the impact of development.

The school board did not vote on the proposal but most likely will at its next meeting at 7:30 p.m. on April 28 at the district's central offices.

The mobiles are not the last word on east-side crowding. They are intended only to be a one-year solution, and a committee of administrators and east-side principals is working on a long-term solution to be presented to the board sometime in May.