Far More Course Denials At Hinsdale South

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale South High School students see far more course denials than their counterparts at Hinsdale Central.

This school year, 32 percent of South students' first choices for courses were denied, according to the district's numbers. That compares with 11 percent at Central, which has a wealthier and larger student body.

Because Central's enrollment is nearly twice South's, it can offer more classes, making scheduling conflicts far less likely.

During Thursday's Hinsdale High School District 86 board meeting, resident Adolph Galinski, who has long spoken out against the disparity between the schools, called attention to the numbers.

"The news of the difference should be blared like a siren across the South attendance area," Galinski said. "Central residents would never tolerate a 32 percent course rejection rate for their students. Why should South residents and its students accept it?"

He noted the district runs an enrollment imbalance of more than 1,000 students between the schools.

"This affords economies of scale at Central and forces more courses to run as singletons at South," Galinski said.

The issue of the gap came up at Thursday's meeting because it was the board's first review of the annual "staffing framework" for the schools. The framework involves the number of teachers and courses each school gets.

Burr Ridge resident Alan Hruby, who puts out videos focusing on the gap, minced few words.

"In a few minutes, you will hear a pitch for next year's staffing framework – District 86's annual rationalization of greed and prejudice, cloaked in a mantle of maximizing opportunities while maintaining fiscal responsibility," Hruby said.

As usual, he said, the framework makes no allowance for South's smaller size – "and thus is prejudicial to South students on its face."

He said it was unfair that the district is "handing out opportunities to Central students because the school has economies of scale ... while throwing the staffing framework into the faces of South students instead of fixing the enrollment imbalance that causes the problem to begin with."

He has long suggested changing the attendance boundary between the schools to equalize enrollments.

In her public comments, Linda Burke, a Hinsdale resident who has attended board meetings since the 1990s, said boundary changes were a "conundrum" because students would need to travel farther from their nearby school.

"I'm not saying that's prohibitive, but it's something we should remember," she said. "There are a few real disparities that should never have happened but that we could easily fix."

During the staffing presentation, Jodi Bryant, assistant superintendent of human resources, said that given South's small size, it was a "testament to the creative scheduling" that the school offers as many courses as it does.

"The courses are there. But it is difficult to have as many first choices as you do in a building with a thousand more students," she said. "That requires us to continue to work to find creative solutions to offer as many things as we can to our South students."

The board later discussed the issue, with some members calling for the district to address the course disparity. Patch wrote a story Friday about the hour-long debate.