Post by slt on Mar 4, 2008 20:40:22 GMT -6
Draft column for the Beacon - I don't know when it will be published or what editing may take place.
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The topic of boundary changes in Indian Prairie School District is a painful one for many people. Those of us who have been here throughout much of the growth have gone through frequent boundary changes as we opened eighteen new elementary schools and five new middle schools in the last twenty years. There was a major boundary change in 1997 when Neuqua Valley opened and our district went from one to two high school buildings.
We are in a long-awaited yet difficult time now that we finally have relief for overcrowding on the horizon with a new high school and new middle school scheduled to open in the fall of 2009. As the district approaches build-out it seems we are reaching the point at which we will have adequate space for all of our students and can stop constructing new buildings.
When you look below the surface you will find that this does not come without a huge price for the district in terms of not only finances but in a great deal of boundary shifts that will be painful to families in an ongoing manner, and in the loss of trust and respect for the School Board and the administration. Our district is in an angry and divided state at the moment.
I believe that the School Board and administration have done their homework all along and have made what they considered to be the best decisions they could at each time with the information and options available. In hindsight a third high school would have been a better option than the freshman centers that we opened in 2003. Although I was a big supporter of the 2005 referendum, apparently many did not feel they had enough information to support a third high school at that time and that no vote, whether blame falls on the people in charge or the voters is a huge part of what led directly to the mess of the past couple of years.
We no longer had the option to buy the Brach-Brodie land (which many residents thought was a bad site for a high school anyway) at a negotiated price and had to go through the courts. Had the court case gone more quickly, had we been granted quick-take, or had the jury price come in anywhere near comparable sales in the area in the specified time-frame, we would have a school building underway at that location. However, none of these things happened and we were stuck with a too-high price too late to absorb the cost differential due to rising construction costs.
The new site has been chosen, is under contract, and the new boundaries have been decided upon. The Brach-Brodie site had always been considered the “least bad” of the available pieces of land in the district. Now we have something that most would consider worse. The new site that has been chosen on Eola Road at Molitor was not available until recently. It is in an area that will allow several neighborhoods a much shorter commute to high school but it will cause many more neighborhoods to have a longer commute to school.
The Brach-Brodie site allowed the new school to be made up fairly equally from both Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley attendance areas. Middle school boundaries were never drawn up for that site. The new site requires the school be filled entirely from within the Waubonsie Valley attendance areas, with a large number of students shifting from the Neuqua attendance area to Waubonsie.
Many more students are moved under the new boundary plan that this new site required. Many students who had a very short commute will now have a long one, and some who had a long commute will have an even longer commute. Several schools will find their student bodies split into different schools as they move from grade school to middle school or from middle school to high school. In the first years, some students will move from one overcrowded building to another, some will stay in their same overcrowded building, and some will move into an incomplete but not crowded building of freshman and sophomores only that will not have varsity sports the first year (and may not have fall sports at all that year).
Several district residents submitted boundary plans and some appeared to me to be superior to the one selected by the School Board because they minimize school splits and/or distance. While several areas seem to have gotten the short end of the stick, it seems the School Board tried to do what they could given that each move of one area would cause another area to move as well. In an effort to avoid the boundary fiasco of two years ago they rushed this decision through quickly without giving residents the benefit of hearing the thought processes that caused them to address the concerns of some areas but not others.
I do not think this is a laughing matter. The lives of parents and children are planned around where these students will go to school. People bought their homes based on school locations, even though in a growing district boundaries are known to change. I have a great deal of sympathy for the changes many families will be dealing with and could easily have been in their shoes. Too many are reacting as if this boundary shift is the worst thing that could ever happen to their family. If this is the worst, then they are truly blessed.
All Indian Prairie students will continue to get an excellent education and access to fantastic extra-curricular programs. I am both thrilled as a Metea parent and sad as a Waubonsie parent that the new school will be led by Waubonsie Valley’s current principal. It is time to move on and look forward to the new space and additional opportunities that will be available. It is time to come together as a district and support all of our children, all of our families, all of our neighborhoods, all of our schools, and our School Board and administration.
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The topic of boundary changes in Indian Prairie School District is a painful one for many people. Those of us who have been here throughout much of the growth have gone through frequent boundary changes as we opened eighteen new elementary schools and five new middle schools in the last twenty years. There was a major boundary change in 1997 when Neuqua Valley opened and our district went from one to two high school buildings.
We are in a long-awaited yet difficult time now that we finally have relief for overcrowding on the horizon with a new high school and new middle school scheduled to open in the fall of 2009. As the district approaches build-out it seems we are reaching the point at which we will have adequate space for all of our students and can stop constructing new buildings.
When you look below the surface you will find that this does not come without a huge price for the district in terms of not only finances but in a great deal of boundary shifts that will be painful to families in an ongoing manner, and in the loss of trust and respect for the School Board and the administration. Our district is in an angry and divided state at the moment.
I believe that the School Board and administration have done their homework all along and have made what they considered to be the best decisions they could at each time with the information and options available. In hindsight a third high school would have been a better option than the freshman centers that we opened in 2003. Although I was a big supporter of the 2005 referendum, apparently many did not feel they had enough information to support a third high school at that time and that no vote, whether blame falls on the people in charge or the voters is a huge part of what led directly to the mess of the past couple of years.
We no longer had the option to buy the Brach-Brodie land (which many residents thought was a bad site for a high school anyway) at a negotiated price and had to go through the courts. Had the court case gone more quickly, had we been granted quick-take, or had the jury price come in anywhere near comparable sales in the area in the specified time-frame, we would have a school building underway at that location. However, none of these things happened and we were stuck with a too-high price too late to absorb the cost differential due to rising construction costs.
The new site has been chosen, is under contract, and the new boundaries have been decided upon. The Brach-Brodie site had always been considered the “least bad” of the available pieces of land in the district. Now we have something that most would consider worse. The new site that has been chosen on Eola Road at Molitor was not available until recently. It is in an area that will allow several neighborhoods a much shorter commute to high school but it will cause many more neighborhoods to have a longer commute to school.
The Brach-Brodie site allowed the new school to be made up fairly equally from both Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley attendance areas. Middle school boundaries were never drawn up for that site. The new site requires the school be filled entirely from within the Waubonsie Valley attendance areas, with a large number of students shifting from the Neuqua attendance area to Waubonsie.
Many more students are moved under the new boundary plan that this new site required. Many students who had a very short commute will now have a long one, and some who had a long commute will have an even longer commute. Several schools will find their student bodies split into different schools as they move from grade school to middle school or from middle school to high school. In the first years, some students will move from one overcrowded building to another, some will stay in their same overcrowded building, and some will move into an incomplete but not crowded building of freshman and sophomores only that will not have varsity sports the first year (and may not have fall sports at all that year).
Several district residents submitted boundary plans and some appeared to me to be superior to the one selected by the School Board because they minimize school splits and/or distance. While several areas seem to have gotten the short end of the stick, it seems the School Board tried to do what they could given that each move of one area would cause another area to move as well. In an effort to avoid the boundary fiasco of two years ago they rushed this decision through quickly without giving residents the benefit of hearing the thought processes that caused them to address the concerns of some areas but not others.
I do not think this is a laughing matter. The lives of parents and children are planned around where these students will go to school. People bought their homes based on school locations, even though in a growing district boundaries are known to change. I have a great deal of sympathy for the changes many families will be dealing with and could easily have been in their shoes. Too many are reacting as if this boundary shift is the worst thing that could ever happen to their family. If this is the worst, then they are truly blessed.
All Indian Prairie students will continue to get an excellent education and access to fantastic extra-curricular programs. I am both thrilled as a Metea parent and sad as a Waubonsie parent that the new school will be led by Waubonsie Valley’s current principal. It is time to move on and look forward to the new space and additional opportunities that will be available. It is time to come together as a district and support all of our children, all of our families, all of our neighborhoods, all of our schools, and our School Board and administration.
