Residents are leaning to building new school

In the past two months Naperville Unit District 203, with the cooperation of dozens of parent and citizen volunteers, can be proud of the significant and extensive community outreach we have conducted together to "Touch the Future" regarding our facilities.

To date, we have held 34 community engagement meetings and conducted 13 tours led by volunteer staff members from Naperville Central and other schools.

More importantly, we have tabulated more than 754 facilities feedback forms from those who attended our meetings and tours, along with hundreds more from our staff.

As those who were able to attend the meetings or who have reviewed the information on our Web site know, we asked for feedback on three options.

Option A was the task force's recommendation and included a major renovation at Central High School, as well as a centralized Early Childhood Center, and much-needed updates at Naperville North and Mill Street Elementary School.

Option B did not require a referendum and would include using money the district has been able to put aside since the last referendum (and anticipates receiving from the Cantera TIF) to take care of only the most basic facilities needs.

The final choice, Option C, is the same as Option A except it would involve building a new Central High School.

Somewhat surprisingly, there was very strong interest, both from current parents and non-parents, in building a new high school. In fact, only 28 percent of respondents support Option B, the minimal renovation of our facilities.

In contrast, almost 70 percent support Option C (building a new Central), while a slightly less percentage (66 percent) would also support Option A, a significant renovation of Naperville Central.

One of the most frequent comments regarding both Option A and Option C was to not use a "Band-Aid" approach to the problem.

Based on that feedback, the board of education and staff have been working particularly hard in the past several weeks to determine exactly where a new Central High School might be built.

The most logical place for a new Central is on the north end of Knoch Park, which brings us to the current discussion of how to do that.

In the past few weeks we have explored three options, details of which can be found on our Web site, www.naperville203.org. Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages.

All would require agreements with Naperville Park District to use Knoch Park land, and all would require approval from the city council to help fund a new street connecting Hillside and Martin behind the proposed new school.

We also would need approval from the park district and the city council to relocate the garden plots (at a minimum) to other sites around the city, so that the current garden plot area could be used for relocated ball fields and water detention areas.

Again, the discussion regarding issues around the relocation of Central High School would only come into play if the school board wanted to seriously consider building a new Central High School (Option C).

Much of that decision will depend on feedback from the community-wide random phone survey, the results of which should be available in early November.

At this stage, it is critical to continue to explore all options and to continue to receive additional community input. We are working hard to do both.