Reject Dist. 300 Plan 6, support Plan 10

As a member of the ABC Boundary Committee I can attest to the amount of time and effort put into these proposals.

However, my purpose is to speak of my strong opposition to Plan 6 and my overall support for Plan 10.

I do not doubt that the original consulting report was put together with professionalism and solid statistical modeling. However, since that time, the real estate market has dropped, the mortgage industry is in shambles, building starts have stalled, some developments have been completely shelved and court battles are potentially looming for a developer who declared bankruptcy.

While the data show that growth is forthcoming, it is primarily in the western portions of the district. I continue to hear that Hampshire High School cannot open with less than 1,000 students because the opportunities would not be equal to that of Jacobs or Dundee Crown.

I disagree with this statement for the following reasons:

There is no reason the district could not pool resources to provide Hampshire students with the same opportunities for a relatively short-time period until the student population exceeds 1,000 students.

Clearly, busing students from the eastern portion of the district so that the new school can open with the artificial and arbitrary number is a poor decision.

Plan 6 uses the Fox River as a primary boundary, but using the river as the border only creates more geographic tension. History clearly shows this is a failed model.

Public speakers at the Dec. 10 meeting spoke against Plan 6 and specifically cited the issue of their children having to spend significant amounts of time on a bus going to and from schools further west.

Plan 6 also is a public policy and public relations disaster in regard to diversity.

I support Plan 10 for the following reasons:

It maintains our current attendance boundaries while still allowing for growth out west and the opening of the new high school with over 850 students.

While allowing for growth, it does not disrupt families with unnecessary student transfers. In my view, transportation concerns and issues are minimized.

It does not use artificial and controversial borders such as the Fox River. It maintains the current level of demographics and diversity.

The plan is based on a more realistic assessment of the data, which appears to significantly over-estimate the level of growth.

The numbers presented on the night of the actual ABC voting show there is not a significant overcrowding issue either at Dundee Crown High School or in the eastern middle schools.

Of importance is that out of the final five proposals considered by the ABC, three out of the five did not change the demographics or diversity of the district.

Two of these five proposals made it to the BOE.

We should not be in favor of plans that further split our communities, decrease diversity, and disrupt the lives of many families simply so that Hampshire High School will have 1,000 students on opening day.

Reject Plan 6 and adopt Plan 10 for the future success of School District 300.

Timothy R. Fisher

Algonquin