Long Range Planning

The committee reviewed data on housing, enrollment forecasts, birth rates, and student transfers to better understand future enrollment trends. This information helps the committee consider the number of students our district will have in the future and factors impacting enrollment.

Key Messages:

• The committee will be looking at the big picture district-wide, not individual schools or individual grades.
• Student Growth Rate data showed that single-family homes attract more families with students than multi-family housing.  
• Enrollment has declined by 1,100 students over the last 10 years, with some factors being affordable housing within our community, the pandemic, and declining birth rates.
• Because many students transfer between schools within our district, partly because of specialized programs, we need to keep looking at information for the whole district instead of just one school at a time.

The committee reviewed data on the current condition of each of our school buildings. This information helps the committee consider whether school buildings are safe, functional, and well-maintained for current and future learning.

Key Messages

• The committee wants to examine the facilities’ repair needs in more detail and focus on infrastructure issues that cannot be seen by the public.
• Bond dollars were well spent, creating a valuable impact on buildings across the district, as demonstrated by all but two schools in the green zone for Facilities Condition Index (FCI). 
• We are celebrating the completion of bond work within bond funds. Replacement costs have increased significantly.
• We do not want to change the use of Garfield Park or College Hill High School.

The committee reviewed data on the maximum number of students that each of our buildings can support. This information helps the committee consider if there is enough space in our schools for all the students now and in the future.

Key Messages

• We have more building capacity than we have students.
• Numbers do not dedicate spaces for programmatic needs such as special ed or district-identified magnet programs (Example: Life Skills, Social Emotional Growth).
• Specialty spaces such as science labs and their impact on maximum enrollment need to be considered in additional analysis.
• Enrollment, as configured, doesn’t match the facility capacity, and the disparity will increase over the next four years. By 2029, enrollment will be equal to around 50% of the total building capacity.
• The building capacity gap is not distributed equally by grade level. The gap between elementary school building capacity and enrollment is currently larger than that between secondary schools.
• Environmental Comfort Survey results were qualitative and completed by building safety committees. Results for all buildings were fair to good. 

The committee reviewed data on programming at each of our buildings. This information helps the committee consider if school buildings can properly support the different ways students learn and the specific programs offered now and in the future.

Key Messages:

• Elementary
  • Each school has dedicated learning spaces for art, music, a flex room, and physical fitness (gym). 
  • District-wide, there are 2 Lifeskills classrooms, 1 Social Emotional Growth classroom, and 4 inclusive pre-kindergarten classrooms.
• Middle
  • Each school has dedicated learning spaces for alternative learning, a computer lab, a learning resource center, student support services, and a staff lounge.
  • District-wide, there are 2 Lifeskills classrooms and 2 English Language Development classrooms. 
• High
  • Each school has dedicated learning spaces for alternative learning, a computer lab, a learning resource center, student support services, and a staff lounge. 
  • District-wide, there are 3 Lifeskills classrooms, 3 WINGS classrooms, and 1 English Language Development classroom.