BY MIKE CETERA
In the Oswego School District, all seems calm over proposed boundary shifts. Not so much in the Indian Prairie School District, where parents are hopping mad.
Boundary changes are often an emotional issue, where an arbitrary line can literally divide neighborhoods, and kids who have gone to school together all their lives suddenly find themselves ripped apart from their classmates.
But if the issue is so contentious in one district, why isn't it in the other?
The difference appears to rest in how the parents in each district think they've been treated.
Here's an example of the reaction to the Indian Prairie plans:
The Ashwood development is slated to have 800 homes, but they have been slow to develop. That meant the first residents, such as (Terri) Wiborg, had to send their children to Kendall and Graham elementary schools for the last several years until Peterson opened in fall 2007."We feel like an island and that nobody actually considers our feelings," Wiborg said.
Here's an example of the reaction to the Oswego plans:
Parents mostly praised Behlow's plans, which would affect 685 students in 2008-2009 and 905 in 2009-2010."I only have six words for you: Thank you, thank you, thank you," parent Brad Gooch said.
I am SO glad I moved out of the suburban nightmare in Aurora. With the traffic on Eola road, how will anyone get to school and home? THis is the WORST-PLANNED community in the Chicago suburbs.
Al I would argue there are communities that are better planned than Aurora but also some that are planned much worse (keep in mind in some areas only one side of Eola is Aurora.
As for the bounderies, when Oswego re-alligned the last time schools were opened it wasn't all sunshine and roses, a lot of parents were ticked off. It appears that Oswego learned some lessons last time and did better this time, cool. But to hear some of the folks complaining last time you would have thought that a couple of Oswego schools were black holes where no one learned and their precious child would be runined for ever for attending.
It's got to be an incredibly tough job to assign schools within the district but a rule of thumb for all might be not to split an elementary school to different middle schools or split a middle school to two different high schools. D129 might think about that too.
IPSD 204 is tearing apart White Eagle and Tall Grass subdivisions by sending our kids to Waubonsie High School instead of allowing them to continue to Neuqua with their friends.
The school board better be prepared for lawsuits if there are traffic accidents involving our kids while crossing the EI&J train tracks, which are going to have at least 2 freight trains per hour on them.
Once again 204 drops the ball.With the amount of taxes residents pay to this district you would think they would not just throw darts at a map. It appears this is the case. Fortunately my kids are out of this district We were the lucky ones I guess Still Middle School to WVHS was a smooth and intellegent transition.
This Board need to reach out to parents and homeowners assn -Send out questionaires - Do some real leg work- The Middle School Closures the Brock Broadie Debackle- It goes on and on- A True example Our neighbor kids have to bus or carpool to an elementary school 7 miles away- The the parents get a break 6 7 8 at Still and then look forward to a drive on crowded Eola Rd to almost Fermilab - Come Get real - How about a $1500 tax break per year for fuel or something.
As a newcomer to the district I am shocked to see how the boundary decisions and the whole process is dividing and upsetting neighborhoods and community. I also do not understand how a site that was considered completely ineligible 2 years ago can be decided on so fast and purchased with the money earmarked for another site in the area where you actually find the growth. If you add up all the follow-up costs over the next decades that the school is supposed to be running, are those 17 million more that BB would have cost really so significant? I foresee several huge expenses in legal fees, transportation and other issues that have to be put against this.
IPSD 204 school board needs to put children first. The new school boundary divided the student in middle school which would cause damage our young teenage mental development.
The bottom line is that the bad or good scores, the length of the bus routes, or the balance of the student population all can be compromised! But you cannot separate the student to different schools. This is like their home and family away from home, and they all belong together!
All elementary school students must be in the same middle school, and all middle school students must be in the same high school.