District 203 tidies up boundary changes
Naperville Unit District 203 officials have begun a little housecleaning to tidy up boundary changes for coming school years.
Interim Superintendent Dan Bridges recommended the board of education officially make high school boundary changes slated for 2013-14 consistent with the elementary and junior high school changes already approved by the board in March.
If board members accept his recommendation in two weeks, they officially will allow recently graduated eighth-graders to attend the high school they would have attended before the coming boundary changes. All other junior high students, including incoming eighth-graders, will attend the high schools designated by the new boundaries.
The move also would finalize the transfer of about 76 junior high students from the East Moser Highlands neighborhood to Kennedy Junior High School and Naperville Central High School.
School board President Mike Jaensch said it always was the district’s intention to allow students graduating from eighth-grade this spring to attend their originally designated high school. But if the board made the decision official before the students graduated, it would have endangered their eligibility to participate in Illinois High School Association Athletics for a full calendar year.
“We decided to do it now so everyone heading into next school year knows that it’s good to go,” Jaensch said. “Nothing has changed, we’re just cleaning up the boundaries for the IHSA to make sure the kids are legal when they show up at their school.”
Bridges said IHSA bylaws define athletic eligibility based on school attendance. Students are only eligible at the school to which they were assigned geographically.
When the board considers the plan in two weeks, it also will consider another recommendation by Bridges to allow younger siblings to enroll in the high school currently attended by older siblings despite the boundary changes. The administration, however, is proposing that district-funded transportation ends when the older sibling graduates.
The board next meets at 7 p.m. June 18 at the district Administration Center, 203 W. Hillside Road.