How Downtown Condos Affect D-205 School Enrollment

Elmhurst IL

18 October, 2021

9:35 AM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — The general understanding is that the recent condo and apartment development in downtown Elmhurst has little effect on enrollment in the local school district. As a direct connection, that may be true. But an Elmhurst School District 205 official last week said he learned from demography firms that the new developments may have an indirect impact. "Their observation was that students in any large numbers are unlikely to move into those developments," board member Jim Collins said at a board meeting. "But what those developments do is allow the opportunity for a homeowner who may have stayed put in their house a place to go and stay in town. And therefore, an increase in the housing turnover and therefore, attract more students to the district." The district recently heard from demography firms that were vying to conduct a study on future enrollment in the district. Collins said officials asked the firms about the impact of new schools on enrollment. "Pretty much their unanimous reply was that if it's a brand-new high school, it definitely attracts students. But elementary schools, not so much," Collins said. "I thought that was an interesting insight." In the summer, the district started construction of a new Lincoln Elementary School. Next year, the building of a new Field Elementary is slated to begin. At last week's meeting, the board voted unanimously to pay $20,000 to Ohio-based Cropper GIS for a demography study. It last performed one in 2014. "They were accurate. They were certainly right about the Nitti development and the number of kids it was going to produce," Collins said. "I thought in 2014, they were going to be absolutely wrong, and they turned out to be absolutely right." The district has more than 8,000 students.