As I shared with you in August, CCSD93 has experienced changes in enrollment that have created notable disparities among many of our schools in regards to their operating enrollment compared to maximum capacity. This has resulted in inequities in class sizes, unoccupied classrooms, and student access to specialists among our schools. In order to explore addressing these concerns, the Board of Education has empowered me to convene a Superintendent’s Boundary Committee to analyze data related to enrollment and school boundaries with the ultimate goal of ensuring that we are most equitably serving the students and families of our community.

This week, the committee met for the third time, and this message is to provide you with an update on our progress.

The committee is composed of two parents from each elementary and middle school who were recommended by their school’s PTA, two members from our teaching and support staff associations, CCSD93 Board of Education Members Jay Bastian and Jessica Zolmierski, CCSD93 Assistant Superintendent for Business Services John Benedetti and me. 

We began by developing and agreeing upon the following assumptions, which is guiding our work:

1. Recommendations of this committee will be in alignment with the District’s Strategic Plan

2. Provide the best possible learning opportunities for all students

3. Ensure that all schools will be utilized to the greatest extent possible in order to maximize all resources at each facility

4. Be financially responsible to its community

5. Ensure that appropriate classroom spaces are available for specialized programs such as dual language, ELL, bilingual, and special education

6. Make certain that cultural programs such as music and art have space in each building

7. Keep neighborhoods together to the greatest extent possible

8. Strive to maintain manageable class sizes

9. Strive to maintain equity in middle school enrollment

10. Strive to maintain class size equity across all elementary schools to the greatest extent possible

11. Minimize the length of time students are on the bus to the greatest extent possible

12. Provide equitable number of rooms at each school for specialists to the greatest extent possible

13. Strive to keep diversity in programming within the six elementary schools to the greatest extent possible

14. Strive to minimize any reduction in work staff

15. Strive to provide boundary recommendations that will be successful for the next 5-6 year

Together we have analyzed CCSD93’s demographic trends and enrollment projections and begun processing through scenarios for potential updates to the school boundaries within CCSD93 that meet these guiding assumptions while addressing the concerns outlined above. 

While we have not yet reached a consensus to share any concrete proposals, what has become clear is that the committee will most likely make a recommendation to the Board of Education that CCSD93’s school boundaries be adjusted to some degree. At least a portion of these adjustments would most likely be recommended to be put in place for the 2024-25 school year. 

At this time, we have five more committee meetings scheduled between now and February. Once the committee is ready to share proposed recommendations, the community and staff members will be invited to informational sessions to learn more, ask questions and provide feedback. 

While we understand the far ranging impact that any changes to school boundaries can have for our community, we also know that together we have an obligation to provide greater equity of educational resources to our community.

Sincerely,

Dr. David H. Hill, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
CCSD93

On Saturday, CCSD93’s Board members met for a Board Retreat to review important district trends, procedures, practices and protocols. One such trend that was discussed was student enrollment. As you may be aware, CCSD93’s enrollment has slowly but steadily declined throughout the past several years, as depicted here.

During this time, some areas within our community have experienced greater enrollment decline than others. As a result, notable disparities exist among many of our schools in regards to their operating enrollment compared to maximum capacity. This leads to some schools having a greater percentage of unoccupied classrooms, lower class sizes and greater access to specialists like speech pathologists and reading specialists than others. This inherently creates educational inequities, which run counter to our mission of maximizing the academic, social and emotional potential of each student and our Strategic Plan priority of student success.

Every five years, CCSD93 commissions a professional demographer to forecast enrollment and demographic trends for the next half-decade to help our district keep an eye toward the future. The most recently completed report performed by John D. Kasarda, Ph.D., whose projections we have found consistently reliable, suggests that CCSD93’s enrollment will likely remain relatively steady or dip slightly throughout the next five years. This means the aforementioned disparities are not likely to improve. 

With this in mind, the Board of Education has authorized CCSD93 to create a Superintendent’s Boundary Committee to analyze data related to enrollment and school boundaries with the ultimate goal of ensuring that we are most equitably serving the students and families of our community. Working collaboratively with school administrators and PTAs, we are in the process of securing parent committee members from each CCSD93 elementary and middle school and will also have representation from the Board of Education and our educators. The committee’s work could result in a recommendation to the Board of Education for updates to CCSD93’s boundaries starting in future school years. 

I will keep you apprised of the committee’s progress. It will meet numerous times between now and the winter months, and no recommendations will be made to the Board of Education until after the committee’s work is complete. If from the committee’s work it becomes clear that updates to our boundaries will be recommended, I will then share with you a schedule that includes informational session dates that community and staff members will be invited to attend and the potential timeline of implementation.

We understand the far ranging impact that any changes to school boundaries can have for our community, and we will not take the forthcoming conversations and analysis related to them lightly.

Sincerely,

Dr. David H. Hill, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
CCSD93