Consultants will present a final recommendation to the Unit 5 School Board next week on how best to balance class sizes.
One Unit 5 board member who serves on the district's enrollment planning committee said there are several factors the board will consider in realigning its schools.
School Board Vice President Stan Gozur noted four of the district’s schools have mobile classrooms because they are overcrowded and the district is monitoring two other buildings that are approaching capacity.
“One is to balance the school utilization," he said. "You walk through those priorities: minimiz[ing] student impact is certainly one of them, considering close proximity is one of them, busing efficiency...."
Gozur said the district will also consider how to best balance economic, cultural and ethnic diversity in each of its schools.
One plan calls for Carlock Elementary School to close and Glenn Elementary to be repurposed to support the 18-to-22-year-olds in the transitional service program at Eugene Field School.
The other plan would keep Carlock and Glenn elementary schools as they are, and merge the 18-to-22 year olds into a new early learning center the district is looking to build.
The district has been looking at enrollment projections which Cropper GIS compiled for the study. Half of the district’s elementary schools are expected to see enrollment drops over a 15-year period from 2020 to 2035, including Glenn [down 19.9%] and Carlock [down 3.8%]. Benjamin [43.2%], Grove [16%] and Towanda [15.9%] project the highest enrollment growth.
Gozur, who has served on school the board since 2021, said the district has noticed population and enrollment shifts since shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say over my time period [on the board] that it’s any particular business or industry that’s driving it. I think it is more family-oriented personal decisions that are influencing where those populations are starting to resettle within our communities,” Gozur said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “We are seeing now where those pushes and pulls are happening inside some of our buildings.”
The district closed its public survey period on March 1, ahead of Cropper GIS’ final recommendation on March 18. Gozur said the board has received feedback from parents who have questions about the plans to close schools, while others have asked about costs.
"There is a concern there from a financial aspect of, even if my household or my students may not be directly impacted, what is the financial impact to our household,” Gozur said.
A Unit 5 spokesperson said the district is still finalizing projected costs and that will be included in the presentation that the school board will review. Gozur said the district plans to pay for any new buildings or expansions through the county facilities sales tax voters approved last year.
“We would look to do that without coming to the voters asking for more money,” he said.
Gozur said the first option [to close Carlock and repurpose Glenn] is a financially conservative one. Option 2 would keep those schools as it, though Gozur said that may not be financially sustainable long term.
“It may put the district back against the wall closer down the line than if we were to start making some movements now,” Gozur said, adding the board could consider a hybrid of the two options under review.
“Our primary responsibility is to deliver value for all of our students across the district. We are trying to prioritize that student experience but do so within the confines of what we are trying to achieve.”
The school board will vote on a final plan during its April 15 meeting.
