Post by doctorwho on Feb 18, 2010 9:48:58 GMT -6
Could the 2 districts be any different ?? Trying to keep siblings together -- man they need to talk to our geniuseshere- they can tell them how resilient kids are and none of that 'family' sttuff matters at all.. 
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D203 to adjust elementary school boundaries
February 18, 2010
By KATHY CICHON kcichon@stmedianetwork.com
In order to alleviate overcrowded classrooms at Mill Street Elementary School, some students will be moving to Elmwood Elementary School.
District 203 Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said the district needs to look at re-aligning the attendance boundaries for the school, 1300 N. Mill St. That means some students will attend class at Elmwood, 1024 Magnolia Lane, when they return to school next year.
"We're painfully aware of the stress that that can create, and we have worked on this issue for some time, been looking at every potential scenario that we could in order to address it," Mitrovich said at Tuesday's board meeting. "But we kept coming back to one undeniable conclusion. We only could achieve what we needed to achieve, which is to reduce the class sizes at Mill because they are too large … and the only way to do that is to relocate some of the families that are currently at Mill."
Earlier in the evening parent Robert Bava, who lives in the Cress Creek neighborhood, urged the board to look at rezoning boundaries or creating additional classrooms.
"The class sizes at Mill Street continue to increase," Bava said. "When I went to school there it was 22. Some as low as 20."
Currently his first-grade daughter is in a class of 29 students, he said.
"My son will be going there in two years. I worry about 30-plus as a possible number for those class sizes," Bava said.
He noted other schools in the district have lower class size.
'Some of the other schools have 18, 19 kids and we're approaching 30," he said
According to Kitty Ryan, assistant superintendent for school services and programs, Mill Street ended last school year with an enrollment of 799 students. As of Jan. 31, there are 821 students enrolled.
"While that does not appear to be a dramatic difference, the overcrowding concern focuses on the primary grades where the current first grade enrollment has grown for 114 students exiting kindergarten to 145 current first graders," Ryan said. "There are 130 students currently enrolled as kindergartners. If that cohort group grows at the same rate as last year's kindergarten group, we would be faced with significant overcrowding in both our first and second grade classrooms."
The relocation would not take effect until next school year, and is limited to a couple of neighborhoods, school officials said. The move would involve between 53 and 85 students, depending on the choices the families of fourth- and fifth-graders make.
"We are working very, very hard to make sure we got some contingencies in place to allow those Mill Street families who would be reassigned to Elmwood to stay at Mill if they have fourth and fifth grade students and for their siblings to remain there are well," Ryan said. "So we're hoping we're creating the very best situation for all those involved."
Ryan called the move "a very viable and prudent solution." A letter will be sent to families, likely sometime this week, indicating which neighborhoods will be affected.
If the move is not made, the enrollment numbers are reaching the point where "we would have to re-purpose some of the rooms we had so carefully planned for other uses," Mitrovich said.
In the fall just under $7 million in renovations were competed at the 42-year-old school.
Those include a new 15,000-square-foot gymnasium/multipurpose/lunch area; a new kindergarten classroom; renovation of the building's core, centered on the Learning Resource Center and allowing for a dedicated computer lab and music space; reconfiguration of the original multipurpose room to provide instructional learning areas for educational support programs; and expansion of conference room, school office and school nurse spaces.
"When the referendum was passed to remodel Mill, it was not with the idea that we would be expanding the capacity of Mill, but that we would be increasing the quality of the educational experience for the children that are there," Mitrovich said. "The people who were here did they best they could in trying to forecast what the enrollment in the school would look like. The best forecast has not been able to adequately measure the enrollment of students there."
When the Ann Reid Early Childhood Center opens in the fall, the early childhood students currently housed at Elmwood will move to the new facility, Ryan said. That will free up space for the students arriving from Mill.
"The one sort of silver lining in this dark cloud is we do have extra room at Elmwood due to the fact the early childhood center — the Reid Early Childhood Center — is going to be open next year," Ryan said.
The board will discuss the plan to move Mill students at its March 1 work session, and will likely vote on the changes at its regular meeting March 15.
-------------------------------
D203 to adjust elementary school boundaries
February 18, 2010
By KATHY CICHON kcichon@stmedianetwork.com
In order to alleviate overcrowded classrooms at Mill Street Elementary School, some students will be moving to Elmwood Elementary School.
District 203 Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said the district needs to look at re-aligning the attendance boundaries for the school, 1300 N. Mill St. That means some students will attend class at Elmwood, 1024 Magnolia Lane, when they return to school next year.
"We're painfully aware of the stress that that can create, and we have worked on this issue for some time, been looking at every potential scenario that we could in order to address it," Mitrovich said at Tuesday's board meeting. "But we kept coming back to one undeniable conclusion. We only could achieve what we needed to achieve, which is to reduce the class sizes at Mill because they are too large … and the only way to do that is to relocate some of the families that are currently at Mill."
Earlier in the evening parent Robert Bava, who lives in the Cress Creek neighborhood, urged the board to look at rezoning boundaries or creating additional classrooms.
"The class sizes at Mill Street continue to increase," Bava said. "When I went to school there it was 22. Some as low as 20."
Currently his first-grade daughter is in a class of 29 students, he said.
"My son will be going there in two years. I worry about 30-plus as a possible number for those class sizes," Bava said.
He noted other schools in the district have lower class size.
'Some of the other schools have 18, 19 kids and we're approaching 30," he said
According to Kitty Ryan, assistant superintendent for school services and programs, Mill Street ended last school year with an enrollment of 799 students. As of Jan. 31, there are 821 students enrolled.
"While that does not appear to be a dramatic difference, the overcrowding concern focuses on the primary grades where the current first grade enrollment has grown for 114 students exiting kindergarten to 145 current first graders," Ryan said. "There are 130 students currently enrolled as kindergartners. If that cohort group grows at the same rate as last year's kindergarten group, we would be faced with significant overcrowding in both our first and second grade classrooms."
The relocation would not take effect until next school year, and is limited to a couple of neighborhoods, school officials said. The move would involve between 53 and 85 students, depending on the choices the families of fourth- and fifth-graders make.
"We are working very, very hard to make sure we got some contingencies in place to allow those Mill Street families who would be reassigned to Elmwood to stay at Mill if they have fourth and fifth grade students and for their siblings to remain there are well," Ryan said. "So we're hoping we're creating the very best situation for all those involved."
Ryan called the move "a very viable and prudent solution." A letter will be sent to families, likely sometime this week, indicating which neighborhoods will be affected.
If the move is not made, the enrollment numbers are reaching the point where "we would have to re-purpose some of the rooms we had so carefully planned for other uses," Mitrovich said.
In the fall just under $7 million in renovations were competed at the 42-year-old school.
Those include a new 15,000-square-foot gymnasium/multipurpose/lunch area; a new kindergarten classroom; renovation of the building's core, centered on the Learning Resource Center and allowing for a dedicated computer lab and music space; reconfiguration of the original multipurpose room to provide instructional learning areas for educational support programs; and expansion of conference room, school office and school nurse spaces.
"When the referendum was passed to remodel Mill, it was not with the idea that we would be expanding the capacity of Mill, but that we would be increasing the quality of the educational experience for the children that are there," Mitrovich said. "The people who were here did they best they could in trying to forecast what the enrollment in the school would look like. The best forecast has not been able to adequately measure the enrollment of students there."
When the Ann Reid Early Childhood Center opens in the fall, the early childhood students currently housed at Elmwood will move to the new facility, Ryan said. That will free up space for the students arriving from Mill.
"The one sort of silver lining in this dark cloud is we do have extra room at Elmwood due to the fact the early childhood center — the Reid Early Childhood Center — is going to be open next year," Ryan said.
The board will discuss the plan to move Mill students at its March 1 work session, and will likely vote on the changes at its regular meeting March 15.
. Sad.