This Topic Known To Draw 'Pitchforks' In Elmhurst: Official

Elmhurst IL

08 December, 2021

8:26 AM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst school board members on Tuesday discussed whether the new Field Elementary School should be expanded. And for a time, they avoided talk about the possibility of an idea that parents often resist. At a finance committee meeting, board member Athena Arvanitis said Field could provide flexibility for Fischer and Emerson, the other two northside elementary schools. All three schools, she said, are "very tight." "Field could offer some space if we needed to make adjustments," Arvanitis said. Member Courtenae Trautmann commended her colleague for making such a suggestion without uttering the "b-word." The b-word? Yep, that would be "boundary change." Elmhurst is like many places: The mere suggestion of changing attendance boundaries can bring protests. At Tuesday's meeting, the topic was broached by a veteran board member, Jim Collins. He emphasized he was talking "pie in the sky" and that he was not making a proposal. Collins focused on Fischer elementary, which, at more than 530 students, is the biggest of Elmhurst's eight elementary schools. He noted Fischer was becoming less of a neighborhood school, largely because of the expanding district-wide, dual-language program there. He also mentioned the proposal to centralize the district's gifted program at Fischer. "Fischer could be a special purpose school," Collins said. "If you had extra space at Field, maybe Field could become the Fischer area neighborhood school." At the same time, he acknowledged the distance between Field and Fischer. He said Naperville changes its attendance boundaries all the time. In Elmhurst, though, such proposals result in "torches and pitchforks," he said. Trautmann said Fischer needed to again become a neighborhood school, suggesting the district divide the dual-language program between two schools. "They have been chipped away as a neighborhood school," Trautmann said. "We do owe that community to give it back to them." Fischer has another distinction among the elementary schools: It has, by far, the greatest rate of low-income students, at 55 percent, according to state statistics. The next highest is Emerson, at 10 percent.