Dist. 300 looks at overcrowding

The principals of crowded schools on the east side of Community Unit District 300 now have a say in how that crowding will be addressed.

District 300 has formed an Eastside Study Committee made up of those principals to propose solutions to the school board.

"They are the ones to best identify the problems and possibly come up with some solutions," board member Monica Clark said.

Perry and Golfview elementary schools on Carpentersville's east side are all out of space, and the administration has twice come to the board with a list of options for addressing the crowding in the short and long term.

One of these options -- shifting Perry kindergartners to the deLacey Family Education Center -- met with strong opposition from parents and teachers and prompted board members to call on the administration to be more creative.

Some board members have proposed building a new elementary school on the east side with bonds voters approved in 2006, but this would do little to address the problem in the immediate future.

Superintendent Ken Arndt has said the district will probably have to use mobile classrooms to house students at crowded schools next year.

"Everybody wants to have some kind of solution to next year," Clark said.