Post by refbasics on Feb 24, 2010 17:29:51 GMT -6
Thank you for being interested and hopefully becoming vigilant. The following data comes from the IPSD enrollment data.
Here is why I would be concerned fellow Watts resident: for everyone else some interesting info here
They have already mentioned building consolidation as being on the table --
Here is a history of Watts ES population over the past 10 years. What you will see in 2002-03 is the population of Watts BEFORE sattelites such as the location I mentioned on Rt59 and North Aurora and Lehigh station were added. Clearly these areas could and should go to school closer to home. Attendance from the 'home' area was declining quickly ( my student was there 1990-96 ( overcrowded before addition) and another student 1999-05
Watts attendance ( capacity 850)
1997-98 719
1998-99 737
1999-00 612
2000-01 586
2001-02 544
2002-03 499 ( start adding satellits to boost)
2003-04 560
2005-06 567
2006-07 527
2007-08 538
2008-09 595 ( added more satellites from far north)
2009-10 608
242 empty seats operating @ 72% capacity even with 5 satellite locations
Owen ( capacity 850)
2003-04 494
2005-06 538
2006-07 558
2007-08 561
2008-09 566 ( adding a chunk of kids from Builta to bolster)
2009-10 589
261 empty seats operating @ 69% even with additions of kids
now keep in mind that there ar 3807 empty seats in 204 today and most of the grade levels have declinig population the last few years at 2-4% per year
2005-06 7028 total - peak !
2006-07 6830 down 3%
2007-08 6711 down 2%
2008-09 6586 down 2%
2009-10 6375 down 3%
down 9% friom peak just 5 years ago - so don't let anyone snow you that things are rosy and population is increasing, the pipeline is going down quickly
3807 open seats - 4.5 schools worth- and population dropping each year.
note this is at 100% capacity - so lets look at 90% capacity - very reasonable in tough fiscal times
that would be 2109 empty seats - that's 2.5 schools to be consolidated.
who'll be on the list - well I'd look at schools close to each other that are underutilized- which is why I mentioned Owen and Watts. Note also that Builta has 315 empty seat so they could easily take back the 150 or so moved to Owen to try and make it look more crowded.
You can be the judge but be prepared...
here are # of empty seats at 100% capacity per ES and % open high to low
Peterson 407 47%
Builta 315 37%
Clow 220 34%
Owen 261 31%
Graham 245 29%
Watts 242 29%
Patterson 260 27%
McCarty 210 25%
Kendall 202 24%
Gombert 147 23%
Brooks 183 22%
White E 147 21%
Brookdale 127 20%
Steck 159 19%
Springbrook146 15%
Fry 140 15%
Cowlishaw 122 14%
Geo'twn 86 12%
Welch 93 10%
Young 42 5% ( doesnt count 120 capacity for trailers)
Longwood 9 2%
@ 90% capacity the ones in red are out of play IMHO.
So decide where the consolidations are coming - and please don't be surprised when they happen. Can't wait to see the new boundaries then.
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...with new ES boundaries.. let's just hope they don't have to march arm-in-arm to MS and HS.. let's hope they start thinking geographically!
