Unit 5 families received an update Wednesday on the enrollment planning study meant to adjust enrollment for certain schools in McLean County’s largest school district.
Matthew Cropper, president of Cropper GIS, presented preliminary findings, addressed survey feedback and answered questions. Wednesday’s meeting was for facility concepts; draft options will be presented in February.
Final recommendations to the board of education will not come until March. The board could vote in April.
Carlock Elementary
Carlock Elementary School survived the threat of closure after voters passed a tax referendum in 2023 to avoid budget cuts in Unit 5. Many comments against the school’s closure have been received since the enrollment study began.
Still, Cropper said the firm is likely to recommend closing the school that has an enrollment of about 100 students.
“You're starting to get into issues where you have very small class sizes,” said Cropper, referring to schools with enrollments shy of 150 students. “And it starts to get to a point where it's just not sustainable to maintain heat and cool a building and to staff a building with enrollment that small.”
Adding students may not be a fix either. Cropper said doing so would likely require facility upgrades. Additionally, most of the student population already comes from outside the village while Unit 5 wants to reduce commute times and transit costs.
“We are leaning towards a recommendation of that building being discontinued,” said Cropper.
“If Carlock were to be recommended to close, we would ensure that we would assign students to a building that is as close to them as possible.”
East B-N changes
A new school may be recommended to correct a lack of classroom space for students living east of Veterans Parkway.
Cropper said there are 500 more students coming from that area than there are spots available. In other words, hundreds of kids not enrolled at one of two schools east of Veterans instead attend school closer to the center of Bloomington-Normal.
“There's just been a lot more residential growth in here,” said Cropper. “And the school facility growth has not kept up with the residential growth.”
It’s the opposite problem west of Veterans Parkway, north of Bloomington. These areas have a surplus of capacity in their schools, he said.
“That could potentially give the district some opportunity to evaluate, re-imagining spaces and trying ... to do something to help address this particular segment of the district's students,” said Cropper.
Other issues
Also mentioned as items the study looks to address:
- Brigham, Carlock and Towanda elementary schools and Eugene Field School are most frequently mentioned as in need of capital improvements. Normal Community High School, Evans Junior High and Parkside and Cedar Ridge elementary schools have problems with high enrollments.
- Normal West High School and Normal Community High have an enrollment imbalance that has led to limited course spaces at Normal Community.
- Feeder patterns have led to splitting up friend groups as students move from elementary to junior high or from junior high to high school.
- A better socio-economic balance is needed at schools, particularly at the elementary level. Cropper said this would be done through boundary adjustments.
- Enrollment is declining, leading to a looming need to close schools in the future.
