Roughly 30 parents lambasted Naperville Unit District 203’s proposed boundary changes Tuesday night, but school board members did not request any specific revisions to the recommended map.
The board did not take a vote on the map and plans to continue to discuss it next month.
The new boundaries under consideration were recommended by a committee looking at how to alleviate overcrowding at some north-side schools like Beebe and Mill elementary schools and also make room to implement new programs like the proposed all-day kindergarten. “Map 6” currently under consideration would move 1,204 students — 819 elementary, 124 junior high and 261 high school students.
Board members Dave Weeks and Susan Crotty both asked Tuesday if enough had been done to alleviate overcrowding at Mill and administrators replied there has been, but enrollment will need to be closely monitored in future years.
“I think the moves that we have based on the knowledge we have before us as far as our enrollment projections … would indicate we have made enough movement so that that school can function as it needs to function,” Chief Financial Officer Dave Zager said. “That doesn’t mean that we would just give up after this one move.”
But during a two-hour public forum, Mill Street parents in the crowd asked for at least 50 more students to be moved. Parent Kristin Fitzgerald praised the school’s teachers, but said the overcrowding forces them to spend too much time corralling students and not enough on “educational inspiration.”
“The children who walk through the doors at Mill Street should have the same chance to be inspired, challenged, learn as any other school in the district,” Fitzgerald said. “This school district can no longer rely on the dedication and commitment of the Mill Street teachers to attempt to solve this problem.”
Parents in Seven Bridges and Green Trails East neighborhoods also criticized the proposed boundary changes saying their students, who would move to Ranch View from Meadow Glens and Steeple Run respectively, were being sent too far.
Parent Steve Yandel said he understands Green Trails East is in a position to help alleviate overcrowding, but not the move to Ranch View when other schools like Meadow Glens are closer.
“Our children will actually have to bus past Meadow Glens to get to Ranch View every day, and I just don’t see how that makes any sense,” he said.
The board gave little additional direction to administrators Tuesday night. Earlier in the evening, board member Jim Dennison tried to assure parents their opinions had been taken into consideration and that making one move creates a ripple effect.
Weeks asked administrators to prepare more information showing that Mill’s overcrowding really is being addressed adequately or what alternatives exist for the school. The board will continue its discussion of boundary changes March 5. While it will have the option to vote on the proposed map that night, board President Mike Jaensch said it still has the option of amending the map at that time.
