Post by doctorwho on Jun 6, 2012 9:50:53 GMT -6
We want another 'professional' to come in- you mean like the NIU study that predicted gloom and doom and miscalculated the high school attendance here by 2500 students too high - causing us to build an un-needed $155M high school ? Let's hope we pick a better professional this time. This is a desparate attempt to fill the under utlized Northern Taj Mahal while Neuqua remains crowded. You already have kids with 50 minute - 9 mile bus rides from May Watts to Metea- who will be next ? Brighton Ridge ? White Eagle ?
--and BE PREPARED - the result of this will be the long predicted ( by those being honest) recommendations for ES closures of under utilized schools and eventually possibly WVHS.
We're possibly growing ? Really- and what attendance figures that are dropping a few % each year will say that ? Or are they getting ready to be manipulated again ?
www.dailyherald.com/article/20120606/news/706069900/
District 204 wants to study demographics, enrollment
By Kristy Kennedy .
.
There was a time when apartments didn’t generate many students for schools.
But that was before the recession turned everything upside down.
Advertisement >
“Our rental areas used to not have that many children. Now, a lot of children are coming out of rental,” Kathy Birkett, superintendent of Indian Prairie Unit District 204, said. “We’ve had population shifts in these economic times we never could have predicted.”
Because of such changes in demographics and enrollment, officials want an expert to study District 204 and help plan for the future.
Sometime next month, officials hope to pick a firm to provide a big-picture look at the district’s students and schools.
Once the demographic report is complete and shared with the school board, possibly in November or December, board members would decide whether the district should consider any action. Birkett stressed any speculation or worry about what that action might be would be premature.
“I think what often happens whenever we hear that, when we hear about demographics and we hear about growth and we’re going to look at what everything looks like … I think everybody thinks boundaries,” she said. “Oh my God, they are going to change all the boundaries in the district.
“I’m here to say we’re just taking the first steps to get the information.”
Birkett said it has been about eight years since a professional looked at district demographics and it will be important to carefully vet applicants by looking at the accuracy of their previous work.
“We know we still have hard feelings in this district from years ago on demographers that were maybe not on spot,” she said. “We need to vet these companies very closely and very in depth.”
Demographic experts will be asked to examine district socioeconomic data including population, diversity, home values, income levels and census information; examine approved developments within the district as well as planned and zoned use of land to model a build-out of the district; provide an accurate forecast of future enrollment; and provide analysis and maps using a geographic information system.
District officials will be exploring whether they can partner with other government agencies on the study.
While the district does not currently have any capacity problems, Birkett said it monitors high enrollment at Cowlishaw, Longwood and Young elementary schools.
It also appears the district may begin growing again. In the three years Birkett has been superintendent, she hasn’t talked to any developers until lately. Six recently have approached the district.
“Now with the economic development so different, we want a demographer to come in and look at it with that eye,” Birkett said. “We’re not having them come in and tell us what to do with our boundaries right away. Right now we want the information and then the board will go from there.”
Indian Prairie covers portions of Naperville, Aurora, Plainfield and Bolingbrook
