Post by joe6pack on Feb 19, 2008 2:09:25 GMT -6
Here's the link to the ariticle: www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=137598&src=2
Text below...
Dist. 204 ready to OK boundaries
Officials say they've reviewed community feedback, heard proposals
By Justin Kmitch | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 2/19/2008 12:09 AM
Several Indian Prairie Unit District 204 board members say they've heard and seen enough in the past week to approve new high school and middle school boundary plans tonight.
When the electronic community message board stopped taking comments about the boundaries at noon Saturday, 1,264 comments had been logged, spokeswoman Janet Buglio said.
Some officials said they received hundreds more comments and proposals in their personal e-mail accounts.
Board member Alka Tyle spent much of her weekend analyzing attendance figures and trends while reading and responding to several resident comments.
She said the comments were split pretty evenly in support of and against the boundary plan prepared by district administrators.
"The response total was quite high and even a little overwhelming," she said Monday. "We got more than 1,200 responses, but there's a lot of them that say the same thing.
"By and large, I don't believe anything remains to be said that we haven't already heard."
The district redrew its proposed attendance boundaries after abandoning its initial site for the new Metea Valley High School and choosing instead to build it along Eola Road on the northern end of the district.
The decision came just two years after the district went through a controversial process to redraw boundaries to serve the original site near 75th Street and Commons Drive. The district covers portions of Naperville, Aurora, Plainfield and Bolingbrook.
Under the new high school boundary proposal, elementary students from Brookdale, Brooks, most of Cowlishaw, some of Gombert, Longwood, Owen, Watts and Young elementary schools eventually will attend Metea Valley.
Not everyone was surprised by the level of community input. Board member John Stephens said he anticipated the volume of responses but was pleasantly surprised by the time and thought put into some of the proposals e-mailed to him.
"I can only speak for myself, but I received a lot of constructive ideas and presentations across the district," Stephens said Monday as he continued to sort through the responses. "I just got through a 21-page proposal that was one of the most professional looking documents I've ever seen. It's obvious that a lot of time, effort and research went in to all of these proposals."
The number of original ideas, however, dropped off after Thursday morning, according to board President Mark Metzger. He said he had been keeping up with the postings since they began Tuesday so he didn't fall behind.
"It took two full days to exhaust the original community feedback and then things started to get repetitive," he said. "Like I said last week, it's pretty par for the course -- the families not being moved are fine with it and many of those being moved are unhappy."
Despite the depth of many of the responses, several board members said they expect to make a final decision after hearing the administration's presentation tonight.
"I want to see the formal presentation to see if any of the concerns or feedback that we've gotten from the community have been addressed," board member Christine Vickers said.
Stephens agreed.
"I currently have enough information to make a decision but I'm keeping an open mind as we wait to see what comes up in public comment," he said. "I always hope there's another proposal out there, during public comment, that we haven't seen to make the plans even better."
If nothing new develops, Tyle said the board would be remiss not to call the proposal for a vote.
"People want this over with, not in a rushed way, but in a way that makes sense and allows us to do the other things that need to be done," she said. "Our administrators have been working on so many things, like improving the curriculum, updating our technology plans and pursuing our strategic initiatives but they haven't been able to focus on those things."
The board meets at 6 p.m. today at the Crouse Education Center, 780 Shoreline Drive, Aurora.
Parents seeking the boundary proposal online may not be able to access it from the district's Web site due to a server failure.
In the meantime, the district has posted the information at a temporary Web site: www.ipsd.org/uploads/news_17587_1.pdf.
Text below...
Dist. 204 ready to OK boundaries
Officials say they've reviewed community feedback, heard proposals
By Justin Kmitch | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 2/19/2008 12:09 AM
Several Indian Prairie Unit District 204 board members say they've heard and seen enough in the past week to approve new high school and middle school boundary plans tonight.
When the electronic community message board stopped taking comments about the boundaries at noon Saturday, 1,264 comments had been logged, spokeswoman Janet Buglio said.
Some officials said they received hundreds more comments and proposals in their personal e-mail accounts.
Board member Alka Tyle spent much of her weekend analyzing attendance figures and trends while reading and responding to several resident comments.
She said the comments were split pretty evenly in support of and against the boundary plan prepared by district administrators.
"The response total was quite high and even a little overwhelming," she said Monday. "We got more than 1,200 responses, but there's a lot of them that say the same thing.
"By and large, I don't believe anything remains to be said that we haven't already heard."
The district redrew its proposed attendance boundaries after abandoning its initial site for the new Metea Valley High School and choosing instead to build it along Eola Road on the northern end of the district.
The decision came just two years after the district went through a controversial process to redraw boundaries to serve the original site near 75th Street and Commons Drive. The district covers portions of Naperville, Aurora, Plainfield and Bolingbrook.
Under the new high school boundary proposal, elementary students from Brookdale, Brooks, most of Cowlishaw, some of Gombert, Longwood, Owen, Watts and Young elementary schools eventually will attend Metea Valley.
Not everyone was surprised by the level of community input. Board member John Stephens said he anticipated the volume of responses but was pleasantly surprised by the time and thought put into some of the proposals e-mailed to him.
"I can only speak for myself, but I received a lot of constructive ideas and presentations across the district," Stephens said Monday as he continued to sort through the responses. "I just got through a 21-page proposal that was one of the most professional looking documents I've ever seen. It's obvious that a lot of time, effort and research went in to all of these proposals."
The number of original ideas, however, dropped off after Thursday morning, according to board President Mark Metzger. He said he had been keeping up with the postings since they began Tuesday so he didn't fall behind.
"It took two full days to exhaust the original community feedback and then things started to get repetitive," he said. "Like I said last week, it's pretty par for the course -- the families not being moved are fine with it and many of those being moved are unhappy."
Despite the depth of many of the responses, several board members said they expect to make a final decision after hearing the administration's presentation tonight.
"I want to see the formal presentation to see if any of the concerns or feedback that we've gotten from the community have been addressed," board member Christine Vickers said.
Stephens agreed.
"I currently have enough information to make a decision but I'm keeping an open mind as we wait to see what comes up in public comment," he said. "I always hope there's another proposal out there, during public comment, that we haven't seen to make the plans even better."
If nothing new develops, Tyle said the board would be remiss not to call the proposal for a vote.
"People want this over with, not in a rushed way, but in a way that makes sense and allows us to do the other things that need to be done," she said. "Our administrators have been working on so many things, like improving the curriculum, updating our technology plans and pursuing our strategic initiatives but they haven't been able to focus on those things."
The board meets at 6 p.m. today at the Crouse Education Center, 780 Shoreline Drive, Aurora.
Parents seeking the boundary proposal online may not be able to access it from the district's Web site due to a server failure.
In the meantime, the district has posted the information at a temporary Web site: www.ipsd.org/uploads/news_17587_1.pdf.
