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1. KimJ
   Member

   From what I understand, Dr. Lamberson believes that children that are at St. Marys, for example, are there for other reasons besides full day K, like the parents want their children to have a religious education.

   According to my collection of Central School Directories, the 05/06 school year started with 59 K's, 06/07 had 60, 07/08 had 46. That is approx a 24% drop in enrollment for Kindergarten in one year. The only thing different about 07/08 compared to the previous years, was that enrichment was cut in half.

   What kind of enrollment drop for K can be expected with losing the full day option all together across the district? How much $ does it cost the district to run half filled classrooms?

   Posted Monday Jan 28, 2008 22:07 #

2. spatny
   Member

   Lamberson has another agenda entirely. People should have looked back at Barrington and Lake Forest before they annoited him.

   Posted Monday Jan 28, 2008 22:21 #

3. Catherine
   Member

   Has there been a drop in kindergarten aged children in that time? Surely all those kids are not at St. Mary's?

   All I know about Lamberson was there was little audible defense from him of school revenues from the proposed TIF.

   Posted Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 10:48 #

4. EricSundstrom
   Member

   Ames Has an over abundance of kindergarten kids this year and more to come for next year to the point where the district will redistribute them to Blythe and Central. Ames is using the Gym for lunch and their all purpose room(lunch room) for class space.

   Posted Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 12:17 #

5. HollyMachina
   Member

   I think Eric might be wrong. I believe last year Ames had 60 kindergarteners. This year there are fewer. I know last year Central had 60 K & this year there are under 50. It will be interesting to see if the number of 1st graders next year is consistant w/ the number of this year's K students. I suspect the numbers will not jive. Why District 96 administrators decided to discontinue a program (Enrichment) that 2/3 of a grade opted & paid for, is beyond me.

   Ames is overcrowded. To me, these are really 2 issues. I believe Ames was meant to be a 2 grade level school, meaning 2 K classes & 2 1st grade classes, etc. It has become a 3 grade level school, & is busting at the seams because of it.

   Posted Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 21:53 #

6. spatny
   Member

   I believe that there are more students coming into Ames from North Riverside then previously, which is why it is so crowded. All of NR east of First Avenue goes there, and the families that have been moving into NR have more children. If smaller, less expensive condos (with only one space per unit) are built with the rezoning being proposed for harlem, you will find families from Berwyn and elsewhere moving into those units and putting more kids into Blythe and Central - and of course, in a few years - into Hauser and RB. It is idiotic to advocate and zone for smaller units along Harlem, or for that matter, anywhere in town.

   Posted Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 22:05 #

7. CuriousResident
   Member

   Regarding the "Dr. Lamberson believes that children that are at St. Marys are there for other reasons besides full day K", the percentage will now clearly shift.

   I know of multiple (both parents working) families (including my own) that have no other cost effective option for full day K. Options are: St.Mary's, a nanny that is paid for 1/2 a day (good luck finding that...turns into full day to get them), Montessorri($$$) and options in OakPark and LaGrange(logistically and $$$ stupid).

   I'd wager that St. Mary's received more deposits this past weekend's opend house than they ever have on a first day receiving.

   There are 3 other issues that don't seem to be coming to the surface:
   1) There are now going to be K children that will not go to District 96 K at all. Not only do the families not get the benefit of their tax dollars, they have to pay more!
   2) Why all or none? I understand that if Enrichment was cancelled at Ames, it would pain the Ames parents. But now it is paining a much larger group of K parents.
   2) Does this affect teachers jobs? Since the other schools had people being paid for Enrichment, what happens to them?

   Frustrated with the lack of public knowledge and/or options presented...it appears that the cancelling of Enrichment a couple weeks before sign up was not known until it was added to the board agenda right before the meeting. Not very responsible communication from community servants.

   Many parents of children going into K the fall 08 are simply scrambling~

   Posted Wednesday Jan 30, 2008 09:26 #

8. Catherine
   Member

   Hm, well, this is one of many problems that will have to be better anticipated, along with traffic patterns, prior to any further high-density development.

   Posted Wednesday Jan 30, 2008 09:48 #

9. KimJ
   Member

   It is my understanding that dist. 96 did not cancel enrichment for all because of Ames overcrowding issues.

   Last year they claimed they did not want to be in the babysitting business.

   Considering how well attended it is (was) I wonder why the full day K option was not implemented instead of scratching all of it.

   The parents of this district would overwhelmingly support it. At State level they are working towards it, why the step backwards? (I am tired of the "space" argument, one can always find space, or rent two rooms at parks and rec/scout cabin for a year while they figure it out.)

   Posted Wednesday Jan 30, 2008 10:52 #

10. bluemonk
    Member

    Spatny.. Where did you get the information that families moving into NR have more children?

    Posted Wednesday Jan 30, 2008 13:33 #

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