U-46 candidates talk mobile classrooms

Six candidates are seeking three seats on the Elgin Area School District U-46 school board. They are challengers Kevin Echevarria, Gary Percy and Ed Stade, and incumbents Joyce Fountain, Donna Smith and Dale Spencer. At a recent interview with the Daily Herald, candidates sounded off on a number of issues, including the number of mobile classrooms in the district.

Q. The Kane County Regional Office of Education has tasked districts to have a plan in place to reduce the number of mobile classrooms. Is this feasible? There are nearly 90 mobile classrooms in use in U-46 this year.

Echevarria: At the end of the day we need mobiles. And we're going to have to fight against this. We need to communicate with the county that this is the hardship we're going through, this is the reality of it. We need to work with you to be able to use these. It's not just our district, but every district out there has a space issue. We need to communicate the message that you know what, this is unrealistic.

Fountain: There are a lot of factors that go into students being successful. And reducing the amount of mobile classrooms certainly is one of them. We have to make sure we create educationally sound and conducive learning environments. But you are challenged with the complexities. Class size is a good strategy to increase academic achievement. But now this goes against getting rid of mobiles quickly.

Percy: Unfortunately there aren't any easy answers. Reduce class sizes, you need to put those kids someplace. Lincoln Elementary in Hoffman Estates, where my daughters attend, is getting new mobiles for next year already, and that's a new school. There do you build more buildings? Buy more land? Hire more teachers if you lower class sizes?

Smith: You know we do that every year. We try to eliminate mobiles. The problem is next year we're reducing class size. You reduce class size, you need more space. It's going to be a never-ending battle. Will we be able to do it someday? Hopefully, but you have to be realistic about it. ... We're doing a facilities study right now. Hopefully that will give us direction and help us plan for the future.

Spencer: We need to be cognizant of the big picture of the future. The boundary issue, we don't like to say the "b" word. But we've held up some new (class size) initiatives. How do we achieve that class ratio and not have mobiles at the same time? This facilities study, what will it say is in store for the district? A couple years ago, we were considered a fast growth district. Now we've mellowed out. It won't stay like that forever. It's going to be tremendous and I think we need to brace for it. Do we make further renovations to schools? Do we buy additional land? Do we build additional elementary, middle schools? We need to regain public trust to even consider asking for a referendum. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Stade: I don't know how they're going to lower class sizes without mobiles. Mobile classrooms aren't great, but I think they're a good alternative rather than making the schools bigger right now. There are districts out there that built schools several years ago that our now sitting empty. The population diminishes. What's more, U-46 can't afford to be out building right now.