No baby boom is good news for Dist. 303

Aside from the crop of kindergarten students coming in the 2009-10 school year, babies won't be booming in St. Charles Unit District 303.

A new study of birth trends and attendance zones told school officials pretty much exactly what they wanted to hear Monday - the district won't be getting much larger any time before 2012.

If anything it will shrink a bit, except for a one-year bubble of kindergarten students coming next school year. Even that bubble pops by about third or fourth grade, leaving the school district roughly the size it is now.

At worst, the district would grow to about 15,800 students. At best, the district shrinks to about 11,700 students by 2012.

The district currently has about 13,500 students. Middle and high school populations will most likely see a slight increase, but that growth will be offset by a dwindling elementary student body. Those results will be checked against an investigation of how any new residential housing growth in the district may impact the population in the near future.

If the district's projected shrinking numbers hold up, that's good news for school officials as recommendations from the Summit 303 process will push the district toward trying to shrink class sizes as soon as feasible.

District staff is already forming teams to examine that potential and all the other goals the community told the district it would like to see put in place.

Those include changes such as all-day kindergarten, a magnet program for gifted students and the introduction of foreign language programs at the elementary and middle school levels.

Superintendent Don Schlomann said of everything to come out of the summit process, he's most excited about changes to the district's program offerings.

"While I'm interested in facilities, I'm probably more interested in these programs," Schlomann said. "We need to be able to accept change much more rapidly. We need to step it up a little bit and be prepared to move forward much more rapidly than we have in the past."

All of that - as well as a potential $294 million tax increase to revamp or rebuild all of the district's schools - must still be approved by the school board.

The board will examine that issue at its next board meeting Tuesday, Jan. 20. Joining the school board for that examination will be Mike Vyzral, its newest member, who fills the seat vacated by Bob Lindahl until the April election. Vyzral plans to run for a full term in the seat.