District 202 to adjust attendance areas, seeks public comment

District 202 will adjust elementary and middle school attendance area assignments for the 2007-2008 school year in conjunction with the opening of the district's 15th and 16th elementary schools and 7th middle school.

Residents can email their comments to Attendance@learningcommunity202.org.

As well, residents in the affected neighborhoods will receive a letter, including a comment card, from the district this week. Written comment will be taken through January 10, 2007.

The Board of Education will take oral comment as part of its January 22, 2007 regular meeting. Board members are expected to vote on the recommended new attendance area assignments at their February 12, 2007 regular meeting.

High school attendance assignments will not change until 2008 when Plainfield East High School is expected to open.

The three schools opening next fall are the first of nine - six elementary and two middle schools and one high school - that voters approved through referendum last March to accommodate the district's ongoing growth.

District 202 grew by about 2,400 students this year. Its student enrollment has increased by more than 2,000 students a year for the last several years, and officials expect the district to continue growing at a similar pace for the next several years.

These proposed attendance area changes will affect about 9 percent of current kindergarten through fourth graders, and about 16.5 percent of current 6th and 7th graders. (Fifth and eighth graders are not counted because they are moving to new schools anyway as they graduate to middle and high school.)

The attendance area changes are necessary as new schools open to ensure that students are properly assigned to, and enrollments are appropriate for each school.

Still, district officials worked hard to minimize the number of students impacted by these changes, said District 202 Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Harper. Those efforts will continue next fall, he said.

"All of our staff will do everything possible to make each student feel welcome, supported and valued at their new schools," Harper said.