Naperville Potluck

The Brookdale PTA voted to endorse a NO vote on the second referendum and got a good turnout and 80% NO vote on the referendum. Why? Stated reason was that they were unhappy about being split off by themselves and sent off to WV from Hill, when the Brach Brodie property would have shortened their commute.

Now the administration is doing the same thing to Fry and they are supposed to be happy about it? Unbelieveable.

The school board members are trying to make it out to be some stupid rivalry about going to a different school when it's 2 things, plain and simple. Splitting off by themselves from middle school and being sent farther away to high school.

By the way I don't live in the Fry attendance area.

It is very sad to hear that kids will have to face the split after middle school. My son will the one getting effected by this situation & when I gave him the news he was almost in tears thinking that all his close friends are going to be in a different high school. He also made a comment saying I wish I had know this before so I could ave made friends from only our subdivision & does not have to face this situation now. I am sure kids will be drifting away from each other keeping the fact in mind that they will not be togther in the high school.
This is a very sad situation that we are putting our kids into & district is playing a very bad mind game with our kids. I hope we can fix this & someone can put this nonsense to a stop.
Thanks reading our comments & hope we can provide a better future for our kids & not a political & personal mess that 204 district has created for their own good.

This is just a general comment regarding what The Sun chose to publish in today's paper. It has already gotten back to me that Metea will be the new "red headed step child" school because someone read something in the Sun about low income families being assigned there. How can The Sun publish comments regarding perceptions of certain schools ("So Mad We Moved Out of 203") and then feign shock and surprise when these perceptions divide the community?

Response from host:

It's often said that newspapers and other media are mirrors held up to a community. We chose a mix of remarks: positive ones were published, too, so by your own logic those positive prophecies should come true, too.

I have four children, 3 now in college. We've moved all over the country, and have also experienced splits in multiple school districts. My youngest son, due to relocations, went to three different middle schools (not something I'd recommend, but a job is necessary). For the older children, two went to high schools where middle schools were split; keeping in touch is not that tough if they want to. For the one that did not go through a split, he ended up meeting all new kids in high school due to activities/interests, so a split would not have affected him anyway. My youngest is now at Neuqua, and although he changed curriculms three times in middle school, he's doing well, taking honors classes, playing sports and meeting new kids. Children are resilient, and although boundary changes and splits aren't fun, they also aren't the horrible things that some parents make them out to be. As others have said on the other thread, if the parents play up the positives and support the inevitable changes that living in a growing area brings, the kids won't miss a beat and will just move to the next stage in their lives with great attitudes.

I've also served on a boundary committee in another state; ironically, my neighborhood got separated from the rest of it's elementary school going to middle school. My neighbors thought I could protect them, but honestly, in looking at the big picture, there was no logic for their protection. And several years later, it's not been a big deal. All the concerns never materialized.

I've lived in another area, where due to the housing styles, aging population and new construction in a neighboring district, they were having to do the opposite - close neighborhood schools - also not an easy task, especially given the long history of those schools. Unfortunately, school districts are not static, and boundary changes are inevitable in some form or fashion. As someone who has moved many more times than I'd wish, we know to look for the strong "school district", not the strong school, because one never knows...

BTW, I definitely support a new high school. The ninth grade building should not have to be shut down in order for grades 10-12 to have enough seats to take standardized tests. There should be more opportunities for students to be a part of extracurricular activies to feel more a part of the school. 204 is a great school district, but I think a 3rd high school can make it even better.

the freshman campus at waubonsie valley dhould remain a freshman campus and not convert it to a middle school. my kids like it there. also it's too far from our house to go to matea valley highschool it's a 35 minute bus rides for my children and nequa valley is alot less on the bus to school. those people who live near matea valley highschool should go there and those that live on the opposite of the boundaries should go to nequavalley highschool its within the boundaries area. please look into this for me and let me know about any changes in the boundaries for matea valley highschool.

My kids haven't experienced a split in a Naperville school. However, we moved from Lisle to D204 5 years ago, so would imagine it as the same thing. You can call it a "split" but they are "moving".

I think it really depends on the child as to how well they will adapt to the change. Same goes for the parents!!!!

Going into a new environment -middle to high school, could be a intimidating situation to begin with. To add to that if they don't have their friends to count on, I think could make a child feel very vulnerable. Its very critical for us to make our kids feel confident and comfortable as they go ahead not like a small loney Nemo lost in an Ocean.

I look at it as something that is good in the short term, but should be phased out in 2-3 years. We want to minimized commute time for our kids, so it makes sense that (when possible) children attend the closest school. This is my only concern. I cannot understand the mind set that you can't split a sub-division. I also think that current high school students should be given some chance to finish school with their friends. And finally I don't believe most of WE and TG should have ever been offered Neuquia since they are closer to WV.

I attended Oswego district 308 as a kid, before the population and real estate explosion in the western suburbs. The elementary schools filtered in to two junior high schools, Traughber and Thompson. My friends were split up, but it wasn't really that big of a deal. It stinks to get separated from your friends, but kids from other schools will get shuffled in to make new friends with.

In my opinion, the school district should do whatever it can to keep commute times as low as possible... even if this means moving kids around to different schools. Shorter bus rides allow for kids to sleep later, get home sooner, etc. My bus route in district 308 was 45-60 minutes long.

I clocked in many, many hours on my classic GameBoy during bus rides that I would have much rather spent with my family or doing other stuff at home. If I had the choice of spending one hour less of my day sitting on a bus but it meant I'd have to make some new friends... I would have jumped all over the opportunity.

I can understand parents being upset that their children might have an awkward couple weeks at their new school making new friends. Look on the bright side though, being able to build new friendships is a valuable skill for kids to learn. It's not like you are going to stick with your original kindergarten class your entire life. If kids don't get split up for middle school, they'll get split up for high school. If they don't get split up for high school they will certainly get split up for college/work.

Try to make the most of it, I guess.

In response to Archana - Absolutely the Tall Grass community should attend NV. Fry elementary is 1.54 miles away from NV and 5.91 miles from WV. I do not understand how you come up with the idea that TG should never of gone to NV because WV was closer. This is just not true.

My brothers and I lived through boundary issues in high school, while never moving from our only home. My two older brothers went to Elk Grove HS, my middle brother and I went to Forest View HS (Arlington Heights) and my youngest brother went back to Elk Grove. We lived 4-7 miles away from each school.

We never were able to develop that family "school spirit". Who's games would we go to, whose concerts and other activities did my parents/siblings make it to? It also became difficult to participate in extra activities being split between the two schools.

Talking about minimising home to school commute times for kids, that's exactly the point. Also, making that travel safe should be important. I don't think having the kids to cross the railroads 2 times in a day is safe by any chance, especially when there could be safer alternatives.

There are many rail crossings in naperville. They aren't going anywhere, and we appear to be smart enough to cross them. I think they cover that in Drivers Ed.

Well, if splits are good or bad we will certianly find out. There is one ES (Peterson) that will split into three middle schools. (Still, Crone and Scullen) Then Still and Crone will split yet again into one of the three new high schools.

Should make for an excellent study of human behavior.

I am a student that will have to be split. Me and my friends hhad big plans for high school and now none of the will happen because we wont be going to the same high school. When I heard the proposal my friends and I started crying. We were all so sad. It's not fair that the middle school have to be splilt up. This makes no sense!

I think it is stupid for Fry Elementary to go to Wabonsie! Fry is so much closer to Nequqa and to put them on a 33 minute bus ride is dumb.

The original voter referendum was passed by voters in IPSD 204 AFTER the boundaries were presented for review, comment and approval by the Board. That voter referrendum was passed with this explicit understanding of where our children would attend elementary, middle and high school. The current process forced upon voters in IPSD 204 to select a revised high school site and then present and implement a revised boundary WITHOUT the voters approval is not democratic, and should be illegal. The voters in IPSD 204 should have the opportunity to VOTE, not COMMENT, on sites and boundaries as a pre-requisite to giving this administration the authority to pass this referendum and spend our tax money. Where in our democracy would we accept such a denial of our rights as citizens? We have been duped.

Please don't dwell on minimizing bus times for kids. If you live in a subdivision like Westglen and Brighton Ridge, it seems 204 Administration doesn't mind recommending longer travel times. Owen Elementary currently feeds into Waubonsie, 5.7 miles away compared to Neuqua which is 4.5 miles away and is proposed to attend Metea which is 8.4 miles away.

Driver's ED teaches a whole bunch of things. We are talking about minimizing the risks if that makes any sense to any parent whose kids will be doing this travel on a daily basis. For Fry-Scullen, NV just seems to be the obvious option based on distance and safety.

Finally someone speaks for Owen and their long commute. TG should take a look and quit complaining. WE commute is 30min vs TG 33min. Haven't seen any WE complaints in these blogs, even though they're switching middle schools, and high schools, and are having the splitting of schools effecting them. Seems as though they accept the longer commute time and are taking it in stride.

RR crossings are safe if you,
a) don't go around the gates to beat a train, and
b) don't stop on the tracks.

Pretty simple really,unfortunately there is always some idiot that doesn't follow the rules and gets hit by a train.

I totally agree with the person that said that "parents must play up the positives" about schools being split. How the parent reacts is how the kids will react. No question about it. My son was bummed today that his friend would be going to Crone instead of Scullen with him in a few years. I told him that yes it's a bummer, but you can still be friends. Just because a kid goes to another school doesn't mean that you can't be friends with them. And then I talked about how cool that will be to hook up with him at NV in a few years. Play up the positives -- your kids will end up being more flexible which is apparently something we need around here in 204.

I'm not sure why splitting a school is such a problem. What's wrong with meeting new people and being given the opportunity to make and develop additional friendships. If a child is split from a really close friend, they will stay friends despite going to different schools. While I understand that they are kids, being introduced to new situations is part of life and learning to adjust socially. If kids go on to college, they often don't know a sole. Neighborhoods especially like Brighton Ridge and West Glen will be burdened if they have to commute 35-40 minutes to get to school. Sure everyone would rather that schools not be split but it's much more important to go to a high school that is within a reasonable distance. All of the schools are great. If Brighton Ridge and West Glen are upset about going to Matea, it has nothing to do with not wanting to go to Matea. The issue is that kids should not have to travel such distance when Nequa or even Waubonsee are so much closer. Why should children have to wake up at 5:00am so that they can catch a bus? They have their whole lives to wake up early. That is a time when they need their sleep so that they can focus on school work and everything else that they should be able to do at that age. Why would we place such hardship on them and force them to go through 4 years of exhaustion to avoid splitting them from their friends from middle school. If it makes sense to do so, then schools should be split. Kids will adjust just fine.

How about change the boundaries of the City of Naperville to include Waubonsie and Metea. I bet there wouldn't be an issue anymore.

You imbiciles. Same school district, same curriculum. Plenty of other cities have railroad tracks going through them.

Stop forcing your kids to live in a bubble. Meet new people get over it.

Like I stated on previous posts, if you aren't happy here move. If you move, thanks for proving my point that there are other great cities other than Naperville, IL to live in

The recently recommended boundaries may align with District 204 strategic objectives, but will produce more harm than good for District 204 because of certain physical realities. I am stating my view as a parent of a Neuqua Valley graduate, a high school teacher at Hinsdale Central and a Tall Grass resident.

The transportation of large numbers of students from their homes south of 95th Street by bus or car at busy times of the day will be a daily scenario for students and parents. The route has numerous stop lights, a rail road crossing that is increasing its traffic, and the addition of a commuter train station in between Tall Grass and the high school. If the time is 33 minutes each way today without the additional train traffic, commuter station, and auto traffic, you can guess it will be close to or above the 40 minute guideline in a few years.

When my daughter attended Neuqua I frequently dropped her off at school. It took between five and ten minutes, her bus ride was minimal, and when she participated in extracurricular events it was convenient as a parent to provide rides. Being physically at the school is such a huge part of the high school experience that I am really disappointed with the adults who are drawing the boundaries and find this new scenario acceptable. Parents have legitimate grievances with the location and proximity of where their children attend school. Please do not dismiss these concerns so lightly as being frivolous. The law of geographic proximity states that relationships are strongly influenced by distance. The relationship between the students and Waubonise will be weaker because distance affects the bond, geography cannot be ignored, even though you may wish to do so.

The board should be aware of the lessons of the past before you march down this path. Don't delude yourselves that its attitudes about Waubonsie. It is and will be the realities of a long and difficult commute that angers parents and their kids. The residue does not go away as you are stuck in traffic and going on a route that is not a natural one. Although many of us already commute long distances to jobs, or to downtown Naperville, its usually in a different direction. Commission a traffic study and that is the case. More gas, more time, more traffic may not be relevant to the decision makers, but it would be if you and your family were faced with this proposal. Our families, our students deserve better. Have respect for their daily lives. Do not put us in a boundary at the southern end of a school that is difficult to commute to on a daily basis. It will break the bonds of trust in your commitment to fairness and equity. It will not be good for the district. Poor assumptions and decisions have lasting effects.

I grew up in a district where, despite living in the same house the whole time, I was transferred once in elementary school, had 2/3 of my elementary classmates go to a different middle school, and half of my middle school classmates go to a different high school. That was District 203 in the 70's, and the schools were Mill Street, Highland, Washington, and NNHS. We kept our neighborhood friends, made some new friends, and either kept in touch or lost track of some other friends -- it really didn't seem to be big deal back then. Obviously, some effort should be made to keep kids together as they advance from one school to the next, but splitting a school is not the tragedy some are making it out to be. None of my high school friends went to college with me, either.

The board says they tried to keep splitting to a minimum? Serioulsy? Taking WE out of Scullen has left Tall Grass as an island unto themsleves in a Nequa Blue Sea. My son is quite depressed that his buddies in WE will no longer be his classmates at Scullen. Kids at Scullen are already talking about not befriending kids they won't go to high school with. Splitting a middle school is putting fuel on the fire. Do you remember how impressionable and mean kids can be in middle school? Now add this divisive decision and you put our kids in emotional turmoil during already highly tumultous years. It won't be long before the rivalry and teasing begins. The decision to split Scullen has put the school and kids in a potential hotbed. If WE and TG have to go to Waubonsie then move the Nequa feeder schools out of Scullen and make Scullen a 100% feeder to WV or better yet, let Tall Grass Stay at Nequa- we are one of the closest subdivisions to Nequa. We are NOT closer to WV- please look at a map.

There is a southern, central, and Nothern school and the boundaries should reflect that. Owen's kids will be on a bus for 35 minutes and Fry for 33? Yeah, if they hit every light- Why is no one talking about the proposal for Candadian Rail to acquire the railways that these buses will cross. They are talking about at least 2 trains per hour. So don't be surprised when kids are late while they wait at a busy rail crossing.

Honestly, the school board's recommendation is about making numbers look good on paper- they wanted academic achievement balance at any cost and pulling Fry into Waubonsie did that for them plain and simple. Not in the best interest of the kids but in the best interest of the administration so they don't have to admit they are failing the struggling kids- how about actually raising up the failing and floundering students rather than diluting them by moving high achievers around.

I pray that the board listens to the constituents that voted them into office. They are supposed to represent us and ensure the administration doesn't make decisions that are not in the best interest of their constituents. Who is working for who?

To Sane voice,

I think you need to look at a map. Alot of TG homes are 1 mile away from Neuqua. Compared to 6 miles from WV.

What is Dist 204 administration thinking? Is our SB going to rubber stamp the proposal? HOPE NOT! We live in Ashwood Park where apparently our children do not matter. Or maybe this is another cruel joke or maybe another way to get back at PL and Macom?

There are 2 children in MS in this sub who next year will be pulled away from the ENTIRE Crone MS to go to NVMS. Is this fair? There are less than 10 ES children that will be split completely away and will be going to Still MS. How can you split a middle school 3 ways?

Half of the Ashwoods go to NVHS, Half to WVHS. Half to Crone MS and half to Still MS 30 minutes away.

The only response from the SB at this point is that some day the Ashwoods will be big. Apparently not and thanks to the SB (if passed) not in our life time. Who would want to live in a neighborhood that you can see the MS but can not attend. You can drive 4 minutes north and waive at Scullen MS and continue to drive 30 minutes to YOUR MS. Who would want your ES split 3 ways??

Is there justice? We will see. This must be a cruel joke. I just hope our children do not get hurt because of an inept school administration!!

My son had gone to Cowlishaw, right before Owen opened. Cowlishaw was split - some went to Hill, some went to Still. The kids get over it quickly and the parents didn't dwell on it either. They developed news friends at their new school. And at least in this case, they were all re-united at WVHS.

Oh, if everyone got to go to closest high school, NVHS would have at least 6000 students, MVHS 1000, and WVHS 2000. Actually, that's probably ok. NV parents wouldn't mind lunch in 1st period and classes in hallways.

Years ago, when Neuqua was in the boundary decision phase, I was at an elementary school PTA meeting. A parent brought up the boundary situation and our principal said "Don't worry, you will always go to Clow, you will always go to Gregory and you will always go to Neuqua". Now considering the idiocy of some of the boards decisions, we have been lucky that has been the case. However, Clow was split when Patterson opened. Gregory was split when the original Crone opened and was split again when Still opened. My kids all lost friends at those splits. They kept in touch with the ones that were good friends and the others fell away. The same thing happens naturally when kids go from elementary to middle to high school. To think that you are going to keep the same friends is naive. Are we really going to go through this again because some of you don't want your child going to a particular school? Be honest, the negativity that TG or WE feel towards the boundary change has more to do with having to go to Waubonsie than it does with TG being 1 mile from Neuqua and 6 miles from Waubonsie. The board had to make a decision and whereas I have disagreed with the way the board has handled this process from the beginning, the boundary line has to be somewhere. As another poster said, kids are resilient. They are going to pick up on the parents attitude. It is time to get over it and move on.

The botom line is when you voted to approve the third high school, that is what you voted for. No where on the ballot did it say, you were voting for a third high school with specific boundries. The school board has that option to change boundries as it sees fit to adjust enrollment at its schools. No one got taken! No matter what new boundries the school board could have come up with, someone would have complained. OMG lay off the comments about crossing rail road tracks. Kids arent idiots they know how to drive. I grew up in a school that was split between three high schools as well. Kids are kids they will have friends no matter which school they will attend. Give me a break and stop pretending the world is coming to an end. All three of our high schools will provide the same educational benefits to meet the needs of all our students. Its the people and teachers inside the school that matters most not the building. Get over yourselves!

Is there still a need for the 3rd high school ? Do the growth projections need to be re-visited ? The economic realities around here are not the same as they were even a few years ago with Lucent, BP, and others significantly cutting their workforce.

I was a supporter of the 3rd high school, but I am not sure we are talking about the same economics today and the same growth projections.

Thank you Peterson Parent, you understand that Brighton Ridge and West Glen are mainly concerned about the distance and travel times to our high school, not which school we attend. Over the years our kids have moved from May Watts to Cowlishaw to Owen due to new boundaries and each time it was a wonderful opportunity to make more friends.

Well said Kevin!

If the board is serious about trying to create unity between WVH and NVH than more than one boundary recommendation should be proposed. The current proposal still has NVH as the "golden child". The test scores under the current proposal have NVH at 92.5 with no title one schools and WVH at 86.1 a difference of 6 points. The proposal has no current WVH students attending NVH again not addressing the issue of trying to create unity between the two schools. I would challenge the board to look at my boundary proposal. MVH would have Steck, Longwood, McCarty, Young, Brookdale, Owen, and Brooks. I realize that not any NVH students would attend this new school. The reason for this would be logistics (too far to commute). WVH would be Georgetown, Gombert, Fry, Wheatland (Peterson), Springbrook, and White Eagle. The reasons for this would be that this allows a couple of current WVH schools to attend NVH and it balances the academic scores more, WVH would be 88.5 vs. the proposed 86.1. The above proposal has similar busing times as the board’s proposal, addresses the unity issue, and still allows all walkers to continue to walk. NVH would consist of Cowlishaw, Watts, Kendall, Patterson, Graham, Welch, Builta, and Clow. The academic test score would go from the proposed 92.5 to 90.7. The academic difference between WVH and NVH in my proposal is two, again creating more unity vs. the boards six. There are two current WVH schools attending both NVH and WVH again trying to create unity between the two schools. NVH has always had a very active Boosters Club, allowing a large sum of money into NVH to enhance current programs. My hope would be with four NVH elementary schools going to WVH this might help enhance the current boosters Club at WVH. I currently live in Tall Grass and moved into this subdivision to attend NVH because of its rankings and reputation. The current school rankings in Il put NVH at 40 and give the school 5 stars vs. WVH at 108 and give the school 4 stars (school digger.com/go/Il). Newsweek ranks the top 1300 school in the country. NVH has been on the list for the last 3 years (2005-719, 2006-761, 2007-607). WVH has been on the list only this year and ranked 1252. Your proposal will not change any of the above statistics. As parents, which school would you want your child to attend? Of course, you would pick the school with the higher statistics. My first o