The Galesburg school board on Monday heard a proposal to change school boundaries in two neighborhoods in order to better spread out enrollment in the district's three elementary schools.
The board could take action on the proposed changes in February or March.
Superintendent John Asplund said the district is facing a small but growing enrollment imbalance in its three elementary schools.
As of October of last year, Steele Elementary had 532 students, while King had 470 and Silas Willard had 456.
“So what we're trying to do is take some of the pressure off of Steele because it's really bursting at the seams in terms of students, which is somewhat of a good problem,” Asplund said. “But still we feel like with some very slight changes to our boundaries, we could make it a little bit leveled out.”
With the changes, Steele would have 499 students, Silas Willard would have 480 and King would have 479.
The district has proposed changing the boundaries in two neighborhoods. The first is along Home Boulevard. Students there would move from Steele to Silas Willard under the plan.
The other is on the south side of Galesburg near St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. Students who live there currently go to Steele but would go to King under the plan.
Asplund said the second change would also solve a transportation problem.
“In that neighborhood, we've been told that bus is very regularly late to school because it gets stopped by trains,” Asplund said.
If those students go to Steele, the bus could avoid trains.
Asplund said the board could keep the boundaries the same.
“We're just trying to get ahead of this, and it's in our policy that we examine this every year,” Asplund said.
Board members asked for additional criteria before the proposal comes to a vote, including how the changes would affect class size and the number of students impacted in the two neighborhoods.
The board is also considering changes to Lombard Middle School’s early start time, which has been a concern for families with children in multiple buildings.
Asplund said the district’s transportation provider, First Student, has determined Lombard could start 20 minutes later without costing the district more money, which would align it with the junior-senior high school start time.
Pushing it back further than that would require adding more routes and finding bus drivers, which would be a challenge given ongoing shortages and the fact that the district already loses money on transportation.
A proposal to change Lombard’s start time will come before the board for a vote at a future meeting.
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