Posted Nov. 15
District 41 is overcrowded with more than 500 students in 26 portables. Two demographic studies have projected steady growth to continue through 2012. At a public meeting Nov. 14, the administration presented to the Board of Education a conceptual recommendation for accommodating this growth: create a 5-6 intermediate school at the Hadley campus. A new section would be added to Hadley, the junior high would become a 7-8 school and would occupy the new section. The intermediate school would occupy the existing building. The four elementary schools would become K-4. The intermediate and junior high schools would operate separately but would share some core areas, using them at different times. Connecting the schools makes good use of the limited site, saves construction and operating costs and allows the district to enhance the gyms, libraries, band and orchestra space, cafeteria and other elements that would serve the two schools. Although the 2004 Facilities Task Force did not consider two connected schools, the administrative recommendation is fundamentally consistent with the Task Force concept presented a year ago and with the public input the district has received over the last two years.
Adding an intermediate school that houses grades 5-6 from throughout the district was considered preferable to building a new elementary school for several reasons: it solves overcrowding at all the schools, it allows developmentally appropriate groupings and curricular enhancements, it requires fewer boundary adjustments and all students would have the opportunity to attend a new school. Adding a new elementary by itself would not solve overcrowding because a K-5 would require an addition at Hadley, and a K-6 would require additions at all the schools.
The recommended instructional plan provides developmentally appropriate enhancements at all grades, especially the intermediate school, which would have an environment more similar to that of an elementary school than to a junior high. Foreign language would begin in Grade 5, math instruction would target a wider range of abilities including an accelerated option, and the Exploratory program would include strong new components.
The administration asked the Board to endorse the following components of the recommendation: the K-4, 5-6, 7-8 school structure, the Hadley building site, the concept of two schools with a connecting core, and the associated program plan. The Board took no action at the meeting. The earliest it could make a decision would be at the Nov. 28 regular BOE meeting. If the Board endorses the plan, the district would have to seek permission to build the school via referendum.
>Click to read the recommendation
>Click to see diagram of the presented building site option
>Click to read the 2005 NIU Demographic Study Update
>Click to read the 2004 NIU Demographic Study
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