Mayor, parents unhappy with bus rides to Plainfield schools

• Reprints

Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

PLAINFIELD — Romeoville Mayor John Noak spoke up on behalf of residents in Lakewood Falls 7 subdivision who don’t want their children to be transferred from Indian Trail Middle School to Heritage Grove in Plainfield School District.

“The village does not support the plan as proposed and I would be willing to meet with you to further discuss a potential partnership and our resident’s concerns related to this matter,” Noak wrote in a letter to Superintendent John Harper.

Noak said residents complained about an additional 20-minute one-way travel via bus service to Heritage Grove and that only Romeoville students would be affected by the proposed attendance zone recommendations.

Noak suggested that a partnership between the district and the village would possibly reduce several bus routes, saving the district thousands of dollars.

However, Harper replied that the project to construct sidewalks connecting to Creekside Elementary School with nearby residential areas would not address overcrowding at the district’s middle schools.

While the changes at Indian Trail only affect Lakewood Falls 7 residents, Harper said there are students who currently attend Aux Sable Middle School in Joliet who would move to Drauden Point, if the board approves the plan to alleviate overcrowding at the middle schools.

The school board is expected to vote on new attendance zone boundaries at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the auditorium at Plainfield East High School, 12001 S. Naperville Road in Plainfield. Public comment will be heard at the beginning of the meeting.

An internal matter

Harper expressed his concern to Noak about his letter.

“… Candidly, I’m a bit disappointed that you’ve elected to publicly express your opposition to a matter which is internal to the school district and one which we view to be as a necessary initiative in order to provide our students with a safe, secure environment, conducive to learning,” Harper wrote.

In addition to the letter Noak also sent a representative to the board’s March 21 board meeting expressing the same concerns in the e-mail. The Herald-News obtained the e-mails between Noak and Harper via a Freedom of Information request.

At the March 21 meeting, parents and students applauded when they heard Harper say he was scrapping a plan to move 220 students from Liberty Elementary, John F. Kennedy Middle and Plainfield East High schools.

However, Harper strongly recommended that the board approve a Tier 1 plan that would move 111 children in the Lakewood Falls 7 subdivision from Indian Trail Middle School to Heritage Grove Middle School for the 2011-12 school year. Instead of being promoted to Plainfield North High School with their middle-school classmates, those children will attend Plainfield East High School with their peers from elementary school.

Harper said it was essential that the board move the Lakewood Falls 7 students to ease the space crunch at Indian Trail, where at least two self-contained special education classrooms must be added.

Parents had concerns about adding eight miles to the commute, saying many of their children would not be able to participate in after-school activities.

If the board does not approve this plan and Indian Trail enrollment holds at 887, Harper said the following will happen:

The media center will be closed and divided for use as classrooms.

Band and choir will use and share the stage for classes.

Encore classes capacity will increase from the mid-20s into the 30s.

Health classes of 100 to 140 students would be taught in the gym rather than in a classroom.

The gym would be used each day as a lunchroom to accommodate the overflow of students from the cafeteria.

Core academic classes — such as math, science, language arts and social students — would be taught in areas, including the woodshop, the family and consumer sciences room and the cafeteria, Harper wrote to Noak.

Harper said administration looked at other alternatives, but Lakewood Falls 7 subdivision has the right number of students to create the space needed at Indian Trail Middle. If the plan is approved, Indian Trail’s enrollment will drop from 887 to 776 and Heritage Grove’s will increase from 766 to 877.

Many parents and students opposed the plan, saying students will be split from their friends not once but twice.

Creating a plan

In November, the board asked Harper to come up with a proposal to relieve crowding at Indian Trail, John F. Kennedy and Aux Sable middle schools next school year. Administration released a proposal earlier this month to change attendance boundaries for 403 students.

However, at March’s meeting, Harper said he was only recommending two tiers of the plan, affecting just 183 students.

Tier 2 would relieve crowding at Aux Sable Middle School by moving to Drauden Point Middle School students from Brookside Fon du Lac, Lakewood on Caton and McKenna Woods subdivisions and from two rural areas.

Harper said implementing this plan is not essential, but he does recommend it because it moves about 100 students from crowded Aux Sable. Unlike the first plan, all these students would remain in the same feeder system and continue on to Plainfield South High School.

If implemented, enrollment would change from 1,217 to 1,100 students at Aux Sable; from 862 to 979 students at Drauden Point; 817 to 752 at Meadow View and from 724 to 789 at Ridge. Plainfield South High School’s enrollment would hold at 2,526 students.

If the board chooses to not implement Tier 2, Harper said Aux Sable can handle its current enrollment.

To alleviate crowding at John F. Kennedy Middle School, the administration had proposed moving students from Graver Estates, The Ponds, Wolf Creek, Sterling Estates, River Ridge, Weller, Lake by Clark subdivisions and rural homes south of 135th along Plainfield-Naperville Road.

But Harper said he is against implementing this plan because it draws students out of Plainfield East High School, which already has the lowest enrollment of the district’s four high schools. Plainfield East’s enrollment would drop from 1,875 to 1,814 students while Plainfield North’s enrollment would increase from 1,966 students to 2,027.

The proposed attendance zone recommendations are posted on the district’s website at www.psd202.org.

Comment on this story

www.heraldnewsonline.com