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WAUKEGAN - The Waukegan Historical Society gave the Waukegan School Board a history lesson Tuesday night before the board gave the audience a lesson in present and future enrollment trends.
From Native American mounds in 300 B.C. to present-day Waukegan landmarks, the binder that the historical society presented to the board was filled with information that documented the rise of the city from its ancient roots. The purpose of the project, according to society members, was to provide a tool that teachers could use to educate Waukegan students and parents.
"It will be really nice to have something in our curriculum that educates all grade levels about Waukegan," board President Patricia Foley said. "We have so many people coming in, and it would be nice to be able to pick up this binder and find out what we are all about."
The problem of a burgeoning enrollment was the subject of a five-page report by Superintendent Richard Olson. He led the audience through the details of the report, which outlined the problems and potentially painful solutions to enrollment pressure.
"Every year our student population grows to about the size of another elementary school," Olson reported. "At the present time, the classrooms are essentially full with the exception of the Ninth Grade Center and some individual periods at the Upper Grade Center and the middle schools."
Current enrollment figures put the number of students in the system at 16,400. Olson said an arrangement with the teachers union allowing an increase in class size will expire at the end of the 2003-04 term.
Expiration of the contract would mean that 550 more students will need classrooms in addition to the "normal" growth rate of 400 students each year.
To accommodate the additional 950 students, Olson said, the district will likely have to hire more staff and teachers, with an estimated additional expense next year of about $1.6 million.
"Last year, the Facilities Use Advisory Committee studied the district facilities situation and came up with a number of considerations," Olson said.
Among its suggestions, the committee urged the district to:
- Re-evaluate the use of the Ninth Grade Center.
- Re-evaluate the use of Lincoln Center.
- Study the feasibility of neighborhood schools.
- Study the feasibility of split-day (double shift) scheduling.
- Research possible use of parochial schools being considered for closing.
- Support the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese's development of Cristo Rey High School.
- Investigate tightening enrollment procedures.
- Create a long-range facilities plan.
Also listed in the report were suggestions teachers provided, which included:
- Housing eighth-graders with ninth-graders.
- The possibility of a year-round school.
- Study of K-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12 grade configurations.
- Addition of portable (modular) classrooms.
- Close elementary school libraries and use them as classrooms.
- Build another school.
Olson indicated that regardless of the actions taken, the results would be painful for students and taxpayers alike.
"The expanded property tax extension is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide the money that would pay for some of the increased cost due to student population growth. I will recommend that the tax rates be extended to the maximum," Olson said.
While some of the suggestions were welcomed for further study by board members, others were emphatically rejected.
Board Vice President Anita Hanna encouraged the board to investigate tightening enrollment procedures, a move later explained by Olson as determining who was legally entitled to enroll in the district and who was not.
Hanna and Olson agreed with the rest of the board in rejecting the proposed conversion of elementary school libraries to classrooms.
"I don't see that to be an option," Hanna said. "We would be removing the heart of the school. We can't take the libraries from the children."
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