CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – The board of the state’s fourth largest school district has made a major change to school boundaries but it’s leaving at least one subdivision feeling left out.
“This would be a never-ending process if we kept the boundary process open until everyone got what they wanted,” according to Indian Prairie District 204 school board member Mark Rising.
The district has 33 schools including three high schools. The redrawing of school boundaries was designed to balance enrollments at Metea Valley High School, Nequa Valley High School and Waubonsie Valley High Schools.
But residents of the Ashwood Park subdivision argue the change is not fair to them. During the school board meeting’s public participation session this week, resident Sachin Sharma complained, “Homes in Ashwood Park are the farthest from Waubonsie, more than twice the distance than Nequa. This is an extra 60 to 70 minutes of commute time per day.”
Ashwood Park resident Doug Shaffer said the new plan will be unfair to him and his neighbors by requiring high schoolers to go to Waubonsie Valley when Nequa Valley is closer.
“It looks like other subdivisions complained and now Ashwood Park residents must pay that price,” Shaffer said.
School board member Allison Fosdick said she struggled with the distance issue faced by Ashwood Park residents. Fosdick said she and the board heard the concerns of the community but that, “unfortunately, hearing and giving each group or each community what would be ideal for them isn’t always the same.”
“In a perfect world, we would all go to the closest school that would be very balanced with complete feeders and everyone would have transportation. I do struggle with the fact and, I think many of the board members especially struggle with the fact and administration, frankly, that we’re not going to be able to give everyone exactly what would be their perfect situation,” Fosdick continued.
Indian Prairie School District 204 said some 2,700 students would be impacted next fall by the change in school boundaries. That does not include students who get a choice of being grandfathered into the schools they currently attend.
Board member Justin Karubas was the only board member to vote against the “grandfathering” plan, citing the district’s transportation dilemma.
“We are struggling to provide bussing in our current state. I question whether we’ll be able to provide it with grandfathering next year,” Karubas said.
District 204 Supt. Adrian Talley had said at the meeting that the district is 30 bus drivers short of what it currently needs for transporting students.
The changes go into effect next school year.
District 204 has 26,000 students in Naperville, Aurora, Plainfield and Bolingbrook.
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