U-46 CAC members defend their plan

In response to an article about mobile classrooms and facilities study in U-46:

Mobiles are a fact of life in School District U-46. Some have issues with them, and that is their right. As members of the Enrollment and Facilities committee while boundaries were being discussed in 2004, our goal was to eliminate as many of these mobiles as we could.

It is difficult for us to read "the demographer and CAC made some wrong assumptions" regarding enrollment and space issues. Jeff King, the director of operations for U-46, made this comment first in 2006, only to show up in an article again this summer.

We can attest that the subject was brought up numerous times. However, we were instructed by the demographer and school administration that we should only concern ourselves with the number of students.

Our goal was to create neighborhood schools, an admirable goal. We voiced many concerns including areas that were hard to predict because of mobility and turnover of students. King could not have known what the CAC "assumed" because he was not involved with E and F in 2004. He could not have known about the times we brought up some glaring inadequacies in the demographer's report.

We did look very closely at capacities. Using the best projection models we know of, we did our best to accommodate the students. We were told not to worry about "programs" even though we thought this might affect capacity.

As administration lowered classroom sizes at individual schools to meet the needs of the students, additional space became necessary. This is when the mobiles started moving back in.

As citizens who want to make a difference in the education of the children in our district, we know how important boundaries are, we feel we did our best with the information we had and the guidelines we were given. If administration had slowed down and addressed our concerns, maybe things would be different. Eliminating all mobiles was not something any of us could have promised, but that certainly was our goal. What administration did, after our recommendation was presented, was not an assumption we could have made.

Angela Ackmann, Elgin

Debra Rome, Streamwood

Lynn Ward, Bartlett