By Amy L. Hatch
I went to the community forum for input regarding the Urbana School District #116 redistricting last week and the very first thing I noticed was just how few people showed up.
Granted, it was a freezing cold night and there was a basketball game going on at Urbana Middle School at the same time, but for a change that could potentially affect hundreds of families, I was surprised to find the attendance so low.
Those who did attend were broken up into rooms with an administrator from their home school and parent representatives. It was the public’s chance to provide any and all input about how the lines determining which school their child goes to will be redrawn.
My home school is Prairie Elementary, and I had some preconceptions about it going into the meeting. However, the principal, Yavonda Smith, was very impressive and clearly passionate about her school.
Unfortunately, there were only three families represented and none of those attendees (myself included) have students who are already in Prairie. However, the evening certainly was an education in the way that Urbana district lines are currently drawn.
Smith told us that the map for Urbana schools is so decidedly non-linera because as neighborhoods were built up, overcrowding began at certain schools. So, to alleviate that problem, the lines were redrawn again and again until we got to the place we are now.
The current redistricting is predicated on the over-crowding at Leal School, where Smith said the size of some Kindergarten classes are well over the contract limits — and well over what I would feel comfortable with.
The majority of parents in the Prairie room said that they would prefer that school lines be redrawn to create “community schools,” as opposed to neighborhood schools. A district centered around community schools would take into account the demographics (social and economic) of the city and distribute the students among the buildings as equally as possible, barring any special services or programs that one school may offer.
Another idea put on the table was one I’d never heard of: Sister schools. That would mean that schools would be divided up by age. So, one school would be made up entirely of kindergartners and first-graders, and so on and so forth, until the kids merged at Urbana Middle School.
Some of the parents also placed busing times at the top of their list of concerns. Right now, the maximum amount of time a child can ride the bus is 75 minutes. Smith says the longest an Urbana student is on the bus right now is about an hour. I know in my neighborhood, some kids get picked up for the 8 o’clock bell at just a few minutes after 7 a.m.
We also had a visit from school board member Brenda Carter, who represents Sub-District 1. She urged us to email any input we have to our board representative, because now is the time to get any and all concerns heard. The school board members and their email addresses can be found here.
The Redistricting Committee does not yet have a timeline for submitting their recommendation, but Smith said it will likely be soon.
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Thank you for this update. I was out of the state and very sad that I couldn’t go to the meeting because it was very important to me.
4 kiddos and a sick sitter, I was also unable to attend. Thank you so much for this quick roundup….sister schools. Interesting idea.
I’ll add my thanks as well. I just totally forgot. And I wish I hadn’t because I’m planning to move soon and, like you, am currently in Prairie. And I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be but should have utilized the meeting to find out more. As for sister schools, my mom taught in the Rantoul district when they switched to sister schools and it seemed to work well. I’m interested that Urbana is considering it.
Thanks for the info, will write right away.
Thank you for this informative article. I had intended to contact Gayle Jeffries before the meeting, as was suggested in the News-Gazette article announcing this meeting early last week, since I knew I would not be able to attend. I did not get it done before the meeting, though, so I am thankful to have you share alternate ways of contacting people in the district to share my input. I spent the better part of my morning drafting an e-mail to my school board representative and I hope it is helpful and taken into consideration. My husband and I are nervous about the changes that will be brought about by the redistricting, and we are really hoping we will not have to move as a result. Our oldest child will enter kindergarten in the 2013-14 school year, so we will have some time to figure out what we might need to do, once we know the results of the redistricting.
I live down the street from Yankee Ridge and have a child who will be in 5th grade next year, so I think we can squeak by (thank God). I’m strongly in favor of neighborhood schools instead of the community schools concept. I think neighborhood schools draw many people escaping from Champaign’s system, and the community school idea would seem to be Champaign Lite. Socioeconomic factors as a means of establishing school districts seems especially problematic in Urbana, a town full of impoverished grad students who are more than capable of providing their children with all the enrichment they need, even if they aren’t earning money right now.