Parents said they still had many unanswered questions when a final recommendation on enrollment adjustment was made Wednesday to the Unit 5 school board.
With hundreds in attendance for the monthly board meeting, public comment alone took up about three hours of the eight-hour meeting. There were 44 commenters; each person was given three allotted minutes to speak.
Carlock Elementary supporters were unhappy the school district still had not shared potential financial savings of its proposed closing. Glenn Elementary parents said the grade school was in too valuable a location to ask students to go to school 15 minutes away.
And several commenters were concerned that open enrollment measures — which could help avoid the aforementioned moves — seem to disproportionately affect students in low-income areas.
Carlock Elementary
While the board did share financial impacts of closing Carlock Elementary School later in the evening, questions about why there was such a long wait have persisted over several months.
“This community has asked for transparency, we've asked for timelines, we've asked for actual cost comparisons, we've asked for enrollment projections that reflect reality, and yet we're still operating in a fog,” said Lacey Fritsch.
Stan Gozur, a school board member and member of the enrollment planning committee, told WGLT this month that option two, which keeps Carlock open, may make it harder to avoid financial trouble later on.
“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.
Those comments concerned Fritsch.
“That statement suggests inevitability,” said Fritsch. “That closure is simply a matter of timing.”
“What damages trust the most is not hard decisions,” said Fritsch. “It's hidden direction. You cannot ask a community to support you while you simultaneously withhold clarity from them. If you truly believe this is the best financial path forward, then follow first grade math and show your work.”
Other commenters said Carlock’s projection to gain students was another reason for Unit 5 to keep Carlock Elementary open.
“With the Town of Carlock continuing to grow, I see no reason to close a building that is structurally sound, financially efficient to maintain and deeply valued by its community,” said Amanda Meredith, speaking on behalf of Carlock Elementary custodian Joseph Hinderliter.
Open enrollment questions
Open enrollment areas are designated to allow families living within them to have multiple schools to choose from.
Proposal two makes the Traditions neighborhood in Bloomington an open enrollment area to send some students to Carlock, increasing enrollment that analysts have said is currently too small to sustain. Other neighborhoods, at Orlando Avenue and Tracy Drive, would become open enrollment areas in both proposals.
Some commenters made observations about what these neighborhoods have in common.
“They're concentrated in rental communities, many of which are home to working class families and disproportionately Black and brown residents, along with economically challenged white families,” said David Cobb.
In the Traditions neighborhood, about three-fourths of that neighborhood is Black; 94% are eligible for free or reduced lunch. In the Tracy Drive area, 90% are eligible for free and reduced lunch, although racial demographics are more even.
“When we cluster our most socio-economically disadvantaged students into fewer schools, whether intentional or not, we create inequalities,” said Stephanie Banks, a teacher at Fox Creek Elementary. “We create schools with fewer resources, greater needs and increased strain on staff.”
Unit 5 consultant Matthew Cropper responded to these comments during his presentation later in the evening, saying elementary school enrollments are ideally able to draw students close by.
“We weren't able to ... make significant strides at the elementary level to get things to be representative, similar to what the district averages in race and ethnicity and lunch code,” said Cropper. “But we did the best we could to try and maintain and try not to make things more imbalanced.”
He added middle and high school redistricting is easier to maintain a good balance in those categories because they encompass larger zones, making it easier to get a good mix of neighborhoods.
Glenn Elementary
Under option one, Glenn’s student population moves to Sugar Creek Elementary to make room for the district's transitional services program. Unit 5 plans to close and sell Eugene Field School, where those 18-22 year old students currently attend school. The change would occur in the 2029-30 school year.
Commenters argued in favor of option two, where those students instead move to a new facility.
Students at Glenn come from near the Illinois State University campus, and Glenn supporters said the grade school makes the neighborhood an attractive place to live.
“When we purchased our house in the Glenn area in 2019, it was absolutely a deciding factor for us that there was a walkable Elementary School,” said Michael Kalmbach, whose child will begin kindergarten at Glenn in the fall. “I have been awed witnessing the community that surrounds the school. It is so truly a special place.”
Supporters also championed the roughly 40% of students who come from open enrollment households, and the diverse student body there.
They also mentioned the lack of time Glenn families were given to research in opposition to relocation. While Carlock families were warned in the fall, Glenn Elementary families did not receive confirmation that relocation was anything more than a rumor until February.
“We were given no financial information to consider in order to provide feedback on the options we were given,” said Sarah Burnett, whose son attends Glenn.
