Hinsdale Central-South Shuttle? It's Eyed For Orchestra, Other Courses

HINSDALE, IL – The board for Hinsdale Central and South high schools is considering a shuttle between the campuses to address an imbalance in opportunities.

At the board's meeting Thursday, it held its first major discussion this decade about transportation between the schools.

For years, Hinsdale High School District 86 has let students take courses at the other school if the courses are unavailable at their campus.

The catch: Find your own transportation.

The other catch: You'll miss parts of other classes while traveling.

This puts South students in a worse position. With half of Central's enrollment, South has a smaller course selection.

At Thursday's meeting, administrators presented several options to deal with course disparities – providing a shuttle or holding courses remotely to varying degrees.

Board member Liz Mitha said she hesitated to approve any remote options. She preferred a shuttle.

"We all lived through COVID," said Mitha, one of two members who live in the South zone. "I think something very important is lost when students are not in person. If we were to do something like remote Google Meets, it doesn't suit students who are struggling very well. It doesn't suit a lot of things."

Member Asma Akhras, the other South resident on the board, suggested a survey to help determine the need for a shuttle.

"I'm not sure how we would decide without having more information," she said.

The issue is taking on a new meaning as the district prepares to end South's orchestra program.

On Friday, Burr Ridge resident Alan Hruby, who has long spoken about the disparity between the schools, emailed the board a detailed plan for the district to make a shuttle work for orchestra students.

He said he still believed the district should either change the attendance boundary to balance enrollments or convert the campuses into grade-level centers, which Lyons Township High does.

He also said the best way to serve all orchestra students was to enroll them full time at Central. Another resident has presented that idea twice in the last couple of months, but the board has not responded.

Hruby suggested scheduling Central's orchestra courses for the last four periods of the day. South students could take a shuttle during the preceding lunch. This bus is already being used to take South students to the Technology Center of DuPage during lunch, Hruby said.

Under this plan, South students could take their music and other classes at Central during the afternoon.

"Allowing the South Orchestra students to spend a half-day at Central confines commuting between schools to 4th period lunch and then after school and probably wouldn’t increase bus transportation costs because the bus is already running," Hruby said in the email. "This idea could be equally applicable to South students seeking to take other courses available only at Central as well."