Popular Naperville college-style campus may be expanded
Charles Bibbs gets passionate when he talks about the benefits his college-like campus has provided to senior students at Indian Prairie District 204.
“What better way to prepare them than to let them navigate a day-to-day routine that’s different from that regimen of the bell ringing and someone poking you and telling you where you have to go,” said Bibbs, lead administrator of the Frontier campus, adjacent to Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville. “You need to come and see (students) interact with one another on a daily basis.
“Come to the Frontier Campus and watch your sons and daughters mature right in front of your eyes. Watch them complete the task that you think, ‘Oh my goodness I have to be there; I have to be that helicopter parent.’ No, you don’t. You can release them. What a great preparatory place to be your senior year.”
The Frontier campus program has been so popular that by the 2012-2013 school year, District 204 officials hope to expand it to include more high school seniors. District officials are working on how that might be achieved and plan to give the school board their recommendations this fall.
Call it college with a safety net. This year, 513 students are taking college courses at Frontier taught by College of DuPage staff or District 204 teachers approved to teach college curriculum.
Just like college students, Frontier students use block scheduling. Classes are taught Monday through Thursday with Fridays taken off or used for extra help.
Beside giving students a feel for what college is like, the program also gives them college credit because it runs in partnership with the College of DuPage.
“They have been partners from the very beginning and have worked well with us,” Superintendent Kathy Birkett said.
Those credit hours can translate into real savings for families because they can be transferred to future colleges. Frontier students also get a break on price by paying $195 per class taught by a COD teacher, rather than what they would pay as college students. During the five years the program has been running, Bibbs estimates the courses offered at Frontier would have cost students $352,000 at College of DuPage, $1.9 million at University of Illinois and $2.4 million at North Central College.
The biggest downside to the program is its location near Neuqua on Naperville’s far south side. That forces students at Aurora’s Waubonsie Valley and, next year, Metea Valley high schools to take shuttle busses before and after school to the campus. While students used to be able to commute back to their home schools in the middle of the day, the district eliminated those shuttles to save money.
About 80 percent of Frontier students come from Neuqua, said Linda Rakestraw, assistant superintendent secondary leadership services.
“It’s an issue of access,” she said.
In the coming months, district officials will consider different options: keeping the Frontier campus; moving the program to the three high school buildings; opening a second location closer to Metea and Waubonsie.
“Really the issue is how do we replicate what we’re talking about,” said Mike Popp, director of school improvement and planning. “How do we get students legitimate college credit and ... the ability to practice being in college?”