Cambridge Lakes Charter School loses 100 students

Enrollment at the Cambridge Lakes Charter School dropped roughly 100 students - or about 20 percent - this year, according to the latest enrollment data from Community Unit District 300.

Meanwhile, enrollment at the two elementary schools closest to the charter school - Gary D. Wright and Gilberts - jumped by nearly 200 and 150 students respectively, District 300's six-day enrollment report shows.

School officials said a number of factors, including development west of Randall Road, are driving these trends, but one undeniable piece of the puzzle is parents transferring their kids out of the charter school and into nearby schools in the district.

Gilberts Principal Jeff King said while the largest number of transfers came from the charter school, these were only a small fraction of the growth at his school.

"There's a lot of challenges ... to hire new teachers and get them acclimated and trained," King said.

The principal said the school has 12 additional teachers this year and two new programs to accommodate children with special needs.

Hampshire Middle School Principal Jim Wallis said about 45 students from the charter school transferred into his building this year.

"The charter school's huge," Wallis said. "It bumped us up a lot."

With about 20 additional students from new attendance boundaries, the middle school has roughly 650 students this year, still well below the building's capacity of about 1,000.

Melissa Pappas said she transferred her three children from the charter school to Wright Elementary and Hampshire Middle School.

"The lack of information and how poor it was run last year - I just didn't want to go through that again," said Pappas, who lives in Hampshire Township.

Parents complained of inadequate communication from the charter school last year, while school administrators have fought teachers' efforts to unionize.

A charter school spokesman said he could not comment on why enrollment dropped at the school but said Cambridge Lakes was trying to increase community involvement this year.

Charter school officials, including Principal Karen Behrns and Larry Fuhrer, executive director of the corporation that runs the school, did not return calls seeking comment.

District 300's enrollment numbers also show the effect of attendance boundary changes at the high schools, which were supposed to shift students from more-crowded schools in the east to the new Hampshire High School.

Both of the easternmost high schools are still at or near capacity this year, with Dundee-Crown at roughly 2,520 and Jacobs at about 2,450.

Hampshire High School, meanwhile, only has about 880 students - roughly 230 more than last year, according to Principal Chuck Bumbales. Its capacity is about 2,500.

Most existing students at Jacobs and Dundee-Crown who had a choice to move to Hampshire High elected to stay.

Jacobs Principal Michael Bregy said he expects his school to remain at about 2,400 students for the next two to three years.

"We've maximized our usage, but we're not in danger of not having a classroom," Bregy said.

Bumbales said he expects his school to grow by between 100 and 150 students annually because his freshman classes are much larger than the senior classes they are replacing.

"It allows you to offer more elective courses," Bumbales said. "The more students you have who are able to take a class, the greater chance you have over time to offer that class."

Carpentersville elementary schools Perry and Golfview - two of the most crowded east-side schools - had about the same number of students this year, but that should change after this year's planned additions at Golfview and Parkview elementary schools are complete.

Overall, District 300 grew by about 500 students this year to roughly 20,000.

During District 300's campaign for its 2006 tax increase, officials said the district would have about 24,000 students this year - a difference officials have attributed to the housing downturn.

The district's most recent enrollment study predicts moderate yet steady growth during the next decade.