Dist. 300 endorses grandfathering idea

The Community Unit District 300 school board eased the fears of many parents and students Saturday when it decided to allow kids currently in high school to remain at their school after boundary changes this fall.

The district plans new attendance boundaries for the middle and high schools. Many parents had expressed concern their kids would be moved, pulling them away from friends and course offerings at their old schools.

The board also decided to allow current seventh-graders to remain at their middle schools.

But students who choose to stay at their middle or high school even though they no longer live within the school's boundaries will have to find their own transportation.

The board reached agreement on "grandfathering" and the attendance boundaries during a work session Saturday morning.

The board plans a final vote on the boundaries Jan. 28.

While endorsing grandfathering, board members noted the difficulties it would pose for the district.

"That's going to dilute the impact of the plan we ultimately select," board President Joe Stevens said. "We've in effect done nothing for a couple years."

If all current students chose to stay, Jacobs would have 240 more kids and be over capacity, Dundee-Crown would have 76 more kids and be near capacity and Dundee Middle School would have 38 more students, according to district estimates.

Many of these students, however, will attend their new school, and the full impact of grandfathering won't be seen until students decide which school to attend.

The board selected proposal 3 for high school boundaries out of the three plans recommended by the district's attendance boundary committee.

The attendance boundary committee selected the three proposals out of the 10 plans the group initially drafted.

Proposal 3 would move about 300 students from Jacobs High School to the new Hampshire High School opening in the fall. It also would shift about 90 kids from Dundee-Crown to Jacobs.

District officials said proposal 3 would do more than proposal 10 to ease crowding at Jacobs and Dundee-Crown and ensure there are enough kids at the new high school to support the same class offerings.

"We'll be able to offer the classes quicker (at Hampshire High School) under proposal 3 than proposal 10," Superintendent Ken Arndt said. "We want to make sure our kids have the same opportunities they have now."

Students from anywhere in the district who want to attend the new high school would be allowed to as long as this doesn't push Hampshire's enrollment too high.

If they live outside Hampshire's attendance boundary, however, they will have to find their own transportation.

For the middle school boundaries, the board settled on proposal 10, which would move about 115 students from Dundee Middle School to Hampshire Middle School.

Board members said they supported proposal 10 because all of the kids in Gilberts would attend the same middle and high school -- both in Hampshire.

The board set aside the third option -- proposal 6 -- at the outset of Saturday's work session because none of the board members said they supported the plan.

You can view the three boundary proposals online at www.d300.org/web/attendanceboundarycommittee.html.