St. Charles School District 303 moving toward boundary zone changes; community members engaged

After months of considering enrollment zone boundary changes because of overcrowded schools, St. Charles School District 303 board members moved forward with plans for high school and middle school boundaries at their Jan. 16 Learning and Teaching Committee meeting and they will continue to consider elementary school boundaries.

School board members discussed the enrollment zone boundaries for just under three hours. That time was spent reviewing community survey feedback, hearing from community members, hearing a presentation from the district’s demographer and multiple lengthy discussions. The board made some progress on the new zones, reaching consensus to move concepts for middle and high schools to their Feb. 12 meeting for possible action.

Community members still are not satisfied with the proposed changes to elementary schools with the relocation of the dual language program and the addition of mobile classrooms at Richmond Intermediate School being the major concerns.

During the enrollment zone boundary change process, the board has discussed the matter at several committee, regular and special meetings, held multiple public meetings and conducted two community surveys.

An initial survey was conducted from Nov. 28 to Dec. 10 after public meetings with demographer RSP and Associates CEO Robert Schwarz. A second community survey was conducted from Jan. 11-15 after a webinar that shared the results from the initial survey and unveiled new concepts based on the feedback.

Chief communications officer Scott Harvey began the discussion at the Jan. 16 meeting by presenting the results from the most recent survey that asked for community feedback on two to three enrollment zone boundary options for each grade level. Results showed overwhelming support for one of the high school options, but respondents’ support was split between different options for middle and elementary schools.

The concept maps for each grade level, demographer presentations and survey results can be reviewed here.

Harvey said the survey received almost 8,000 responses, almost 5,000 of which had respondents identified as a parent, almost 2,000 identified as students, more than 1,000 identified as community members and the rest were from staff. Respondents were asked to chose between the concepts provided for each grade level.

At the middle school level, the vote was split between two options by a margin less than 500 out of 3,132 total votes.

At the elementary school level, respondents were given three options, which each received an almost even split of the votes.

At the high school level, out of three choices, more than 60% of respondents voted for the concept that would not change the current enrollment zone boundaries.

Within the first 30 minutes of the meeting, the board came to a consensus to move forward with two concept plans that would not change the high school boundaries but potentially would relocate almost 20% (about 166) of district grade school students.

With consensus, the middle and high school boundaries will be brought to the Feb. 12 board meeting for possible action. A consensus was not reached for elementary school boundaries, which were the main topic of the ensuing discussion.

Before opening the meeting to public comment, Superintendent Paul Gordon reiterated that the board will continue to discuss options at the elementary level and the district will continue to collect community feedback on all options being considered.

There was almost an hour of public comment from 21 people, with more than a dozen others who had signed up to speak opting not to after hearing the board’s initial discussion. Many of those who spoke were happy with the board’s recommendation not to change high school boundaries, although several still had concerns about concepts for the elementary level.

Major concerns from residents with the proposed concepts included commute distance and safety, inequitable disbursement of free and reduced lunch and dual language students and the district’s consideration of adding mobile classrooms at Richmond Intermediate School.

Under each scenario, the district’s Dual Language Program will be moved entirely to Richmond Intermediate and all dual language students will be removed from their schools and relocated to Richmond Intermediate School.

St. Charles resident and educator Dana Halper raised concerns about the concentration of free and reduced lunch students at Richmond Intermediate School in all three scenarios.

“Segregating students who live below the poverty line or speak multiple languages does not provide support,” Halper said. “I encourage you all to go back to the drawing board and not move forward with any of these concepts in elementary and really look at how we can provide equitable experiences for all of our students in D-303.”

Many residents of the Anthem Heights neighborhood shared their frustration with RSP’s newest concept, concerned that their children would be moved from Ferson Creek Elementary and relocated to Richmond Intermediate School. Many said they felt RSP and Associates were not taking their feedback seriously.

Anthem Heights resident Chris Walden said he has personal experience learning out of a mobile classroom and has grave concerns about the board considering the addition at Richmond. He cited health concerns and said while he understands it is a temporary solution, he told the board and those in attendance to be prepared for the time frame to be longer than expected.

“At the elementary level, I was in a mobile classroom for two years. I can tell you it’s awful,” Walden said. “It’s not up to par with what should be an acceptable learning environment for our children.”

After public comment, Schwarz presented an overview of each concept and addressed some of the community feedback that RSP received. He noted the main reason for the changes is because Anderson, Ferson Creek, Wild Rose, Norton Creek and Corron Elementary Schools all are over capacity.

“When we’re making changes we know that because students are moving to a different building it’s not going to be positive for everybody,” Schwarz said. “But we know we have to make these changes.”

The board continued to discuss the challenges surrounding elementary school boundaries, including potential new developments affecting capacity in the future, the dual language program and mobile classrooms at Richmond Intermediate.

Richmond Primary School currently houses the dual language program for kindergarten through second grade and Richmond Intermediate housed the program for grades three through five. Under each of the proposed concepts, the entire dual language program would be moved to Richmond Intermediate.

Board President Heidi Fairgrieve asked Schwarz how many dual language students would be included in the move to Richmond. Gordon said about 40% of the dual language population already resides in the Davis Primary or Richmond Intermediate enrollment zones, with the next highest population in the Anderson Elementary zone, which houses more than 20% of the dual language students.

Fairgrieve calculated that under the proposed changes almost 60% of the district’s dual language students would be relocated and would have to be bused to Richmond Intermediate. Board members asked that RSP come back with more details on how those students will be bused and how the change will affect the free and reduced lunch population.

Board member Edward McNally acknowledged families’ hesitations to send their children to Richmond Intermediate because of the possible addition of mobile classrooms. He asked what the use of Richmond Intermediate would look like if it did not include the mobile classroom additions and what the breakdown of student demographics would look like if they chose to implement dual language at multiple sites rather than condensing them all at Richmond Intermediate.

Gordon said the administration would look at those options and bring back more information. Fairgrieve interjected that since the condensing of the dual language program already had been voted on by the board, a member of the majority vote would have to move to bring the item back for reconsideration.

“The poverty level at Richmond is really hitting me hard,” board member Becky McCabe said. “We talk about equity and equal. If we’re going to have a school that’s going to have the highest level of poverty, then this board and administration should be looking at what does it require in order for those kids to get the same quality of education.”

Board member Thomas Lentz said the biggest challenge is finding a solution that improves the education of the few concentrated areas of lower income in the district.

“Why would we take an area that has challenges and break them up and bus them across the district?” Lentz said. “That makes no sense to me and I don’t want to play math games with it. If we know that we have a challenge at the school, get the resources to that school.”

Members of the audience interrupted discussion over which communities should be relocated to Richmond Intermediate and McCabe had to ask them to quiet down and allow the board to continue.

The board will continue to discuss the placement of students in Anthem, Regency Estates and Dillonfield neighborhoods and the district will continue to collect community feedback on all options being considered.

The board is expected to finalize a recommendation for elementary boundaries by its Jan. 29 meeting and potentially take action at its Feb. 12 meeting. Details on the boundary process, including links to the webinar, concept maps and future meeting timeline are available on the boundary updates webpage.