'False' Hinsdale D86 Claims On Disparities: Watchdog

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale High School District 86 officials say disparities in courses at the two high schools are largely wiped out.

A watchdog's response: Not true.

Hinsdale Central, which has a wealthier student body and is nearly twice as large as South, has long enjoyed a greater course selection.

Since late last year, Superintendent Michael Lach has suggested "alignment" between the two schools should no longer be a priority.

His subordinates have presented numbers that they contend show the problem is largely solved.

In an email to the school board last week, Burr Ridge resident Alan Hruby, who has monitored the disparities for years, took issue with numbers presented at a District 86 committee meeting earlier this month.

The district reported 346 scheduling conflicts at Central and 345 at South for the next school year.

But Hruby said the district failed to account for conflicts at Central for courses that are not running at South next year.

Of Central's 346 conflicts, 92 were for courses not at South, so that leaves 254 conflicts for courses offered at both.

Of South's 345, 27 involved conflicts with courses not at Central, resulting in a total of 318.

Ultimately, that means one scheduling conflict for every 9.7 Central students and one for every 4.3 South students, Hruby said.

"That is the relevant statistic that has yet to see the light of day," he said in the email.

He questioned the progress of the years-long effort for the alignment of courses.

Since 2017-18, Central has gained many classes that South offered – South's Woods Program, South's physics-chemistry-biology sequence, Anatomy & Physiology, Tumbling, and Outdoor Education. Next year, Central will get American Sign Language, which South has long offered.

South ran just two of Central's courses last year – Sports Marketing and Biology Honors, Hruby said.

"I’m not talking about any pie-in-the-sky entries in the current Program of Studies," Hruby said. "I’m talking about courses that are actually running."

He said the administration should stop trying to end alignment efforts with "misleading and false claims."

"Now that Hinsdale Central has reaped a windfall of courses that were formerly delivered only at South, we see that our Superintendent is calling for the termination of curriculum alignment efforts," he said.

Hruby, along with others in the South area, has pushed for balancing the enrollments of Central and South through a boundary change as a way of equalizing opportunities.

But the idea is considered politically untouchable because Central residents fear their home values would plunge if they ended up in the South zone.

In his email, Hruby recognized that reality. But he said he has not changed his mind, saying a boundary change was the best way to solve unequal opportunities.

A couple of weeks ago, Patch showed how District 86 presented widely varying numbers on course scheduling conflicts.

During a committee meeting in December, officials reported that Central was able to grant 89 percent of course requests the previous school year. South's rate was 68 percent.

But at a committee meeting earlier this month, officials said that for the next school year, both schools "satisfied over 98% of total requests and over 80% of students had all of their requests filled," according to the minutes.

The officials did not explain the gap in numbers in a single year, especially given that they made no major changes.

The district later said it incorrectly described the numbers in December. The statistics did not apply to total requests, but rather the percentage of students who had all their course requests honored.

The district said 81 percent of South's students had all their requests satisfied for next year, up from 68 percent. Central stayed the same at 89 percent, according to the district.

For years, Hruby has posted YouTube videos detailing the disparity between the schools. In 2021, he pointed out how the district portrayed the gap as smaller than it was.

An official acknowledged the error, calling it "a little oversight."

District 86 officials have not responded to Patch's requests for comment. Earlier this month, Patch asked for an interview with Superintendent Lach about the issue, but he did not respond.

Hruby said he has encountered silence as well.

Here are Alan Hruby's charts on course conflicts at Central and South among courses that are not offered at the other school: