D205 School Board Open to Staggered Move for Special Needs Students

Elmhurst, IL - The Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 board of education has asked district administration to review possible solutions for crowding at Field Elementary School that would appease parents and ease a possible transition for special education students.

A letter dated Nov. 20, 2015, was sent home with special needs students in Field’s two instructional classes to inform parents that their children’s classes would move to Emerson Elementary School for the 2016-17 school year.

Of the 29 public comments at the Jan. 12 board meeting, about 18 people took to the podium to ask for a reconsideration of the move, to express concerns about transparency in the district and to impart the positive effects instructional students have on the general student population.

• See also: D205 Parents Hold to the Hope that Special Needs Students Won’t Be Moved

Some asked the board to consider staggering the move of Field’s instructional classes, so the younger kindergarten-to-second-grade class would go to Emerson sooner than the older third-to-fifth-grade class.

Superintendent David Moyer said the district apologizes for using the letters to tell parents about the move, which “the district recognizes in hindsight was not the best way to communicate this news to parents.”

Several school board members also apologized to parents for the letters.

Moyer said the decision to move the instructional classes was made to address inadequate facilities at Field, which “exceeds its functional capacity in terms of classroom size, availability, the design and location of the media center, areas for instructional programming and areas for the provision of auxiliary services.”

He said a two-part move of the two instructional classes was considered, but it would require hiring an extra teacher, which would cost about $80,000 each year. He said the instructional program’s value would also be diminished by separating the classes.

Moyer said the all-at-once move would be successful ”with little to no adverse impact on the educational progression of the students in the program.”

But board members asked Moyer and the district administration to give them other options for moving the program or solving the capacity issues at Field.

Moyer pushed for the board to cut deliberations short and make a decision about how to proceed, if members wanted to agree on a staggered move.

“If that’s what you want us to do, we can do that,” he said. “It wouldn’t be ideal for many of the other students in programming at Field, and there will be a cost attached, but if that’s the board’s decision, we can do that. And I’d just rather say that’s what we’re going to do and move on.”

Board member Margaret Harrell said that’s the direction the board is asking the administration to take moving forward, but she asked what that option “will look like,” so the details of the decision can be communicated to the community.

Kathleen Kosteck, assistant superintendent for Student Services, said she and the special education team that presented the original plan to move both instructional classes next year still “feel we can support the students academically and socially — I understand that parents don’t agree with that.”

She said they are happy to look into a different option, but other solutions come with financial implications and effects on space at Field.

The discussion ended with Harrell asking Kosteck to bring that information to the board.