District 300 notes

DesksonParade: A new public art project, DesksonParade, is being organized by the District 300 Foundation and underwritten by a variety of individual and corporate sponsors.

Local artists were invited to submit proposals that demonstrate their imagination and artistic talent to transform an old 1960s school desk into a work of art.

Proposals will be juried and the winning artists will be given an old desk to paint or resurface. Completed desks will be displayed in the community next spring and auctioned off online till April 30.

Money raised will support the foundation's grant program, which redirects the funds to local schools.

If you are interested in being a sponsor, visit DesksonParade on the foundation Web site at www.D300Foundation.org for specific information.

Boundary proposals meeting today: The Community Unit District 300 Attendance Boundary Committee has voted to send three proposals to the public and the school board for changing middle and high school boundaries.

During a public meeting on Nov. 28, 43 committee members cast votes to select the group's three favorite proposals from among the 10 scenarios they had developed this fall. The three proposals are only recommendations. No decision has been made about new boundaries. That decision rests solely with the school board.

On Nov. 29, the district mailed out letters to all households that are being considered for a possible change of middle and high school attendance boundaries. Among the three different proposals, a total of about 1,400 households are being considered for possible changes.

Committee members who worked on the three most popular proposals will present them in detail to the public and the school board during the next board meeting at 7:30 p.m. today at Lake in the Hills Elementary School, 519 Willow St.

Detailed maps of the three proposals will be available for public viewing on or before Dec. 10, as follows:

• Online: Go to www.d300.org and click on the "Attendance Boundary Committee" resource button on the right.

• In person: Maps will be displayed in the lobbies of the District 300 Central Office and Algonquin Middle School, Dundee-Crown High School, Dundee Middle School, Hampshire Middle/High School, Jacobs High School, and Westfield Community School.

The school board will welcome comments from the public about the proposed changes. At each of the public hearings, residents may have their comments tape-recorded, with an official transcript of the comments to be provided to all school board members before the board votes on new boundaries. District 300 officials will be available at the hearings to try to answer individual questions. The hearings are scheduled as follows, and residents may attend whichever date and location is most convenient. No appointment is necessary. Drop-ins are welcome.

• Dec. 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Dundee-Crown High School annex/media center, 1 Charger Country Drive, Carpentersville

• Dec. 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Hampshire Middle School gym, 560 S. State St., Hampshire

• Jan. 12 from 9 a.m. to noon at Jacobs High School media center, 2601 Bunker Hill Drive, Algonquin.

The board will vote on which proposal to adopt (as a whole or modified) in late January. The deadline for the board vote is the board's regularly scheduled meeting at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 in the Carpentersville Middle School auditorium. The new boundaries will go into effect in July 2008.

The Attendance Boundary Committee's selection of the top three proposals culminated nearly three months of meetings, all of which were open to the public. The volunteer committee was made of parents, general taxpayers, union representatives, and principals from across District 300. The majority of the members began serving in 2006, when the committee developed proposed changes to District 300 elementary school boundaries.

In developing their proposals for changing middle and high school boundaries, the committee broke into 10 small groups. They studied and discussed factors such as current and future enrollment, transportation, safety, special education, legal issues, socio-economics (such as free/reduced lunch figures) and impacts on the community.

The district needs new middle and high school boundaries because of current enrollments and future projected growth. District 300 gained more than 470 new students this school year, and a recently updated survey of the local villages indicated that nearly 14,000 additional housing units have been approved in District 300 to be built over the next several years. The vast majority of those are in the district's western corridor.

Dundee-Crown and Jacobs high schools were recently renovated to include several additional classrooms. In the fall of 2008, a newly constructed Hampshire High School, located in the district's western corridor, will open with the same capacity as the district's other high schools (2,500 students).

Between those projects and plans to expand and/or renovate the classroom spaces at Dundee Middle School, Hampshire Middle School, and Westfield Community School, it was necessary to redraw the middle and high school attendance boundaries. The only middle school not directly affected by these proposed changes is Carpentersville Middle School.

For details, visit www.d300.org or call David Scarpino, associate superintendent, at (847) 426-1300, ext. 310.