D 158 Launches District-Wide High School Capacity Survey

Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a non certified district employee or a resident who does not have kids in school, DISTRICT 158 WANTS YOU! ... to participate in an upcoming survey to gauge the community's feelings regarding how high school students should be housed in the future.

Will we have two high schools? Will we have one massive high school? Will we build a stand alone Freshman Academy to empty some kids out of the High School to extend the time when that building becomes too full? Those questions and more will be answered in the upcoming months, and key to the board's decision-making process is the survey.

The five school board members who showed up for Thursday night's board meeting (any guesses which two didn't show up?) provided input to Rosemont-based ECRA Group Inc, which will be administerring the survey.

Tuesday, January 27 will be an important day, as current high school students, staff, parents and community members will have their opportunity to have their initial opinions heard through guided focus groups. Here is the Tuesday schedule:

High School Students: 1pm

Parents/Community Members: 3pm and 6pm (choose one)

Faculty/Staff: 4:30pm

All of the meetings will be held at Huntley High School in the Learning Resource Center (library), and if you attend, you are asked to enter through the main front door of the school (Door #1).

The Thursday session with the board/administration, along with the sessions on Tuesday, represent phase I of a three-phase process. Phase II will take place in March, when the actual survey is administerred to the community, and phase III will take place in April, when the results of the survey are shared with the board at a meeting that will be open to the public.

Bongo urges everyone to participate in the survey, because the board has decided to spend a bit extra money to ensure that every single District 158 resident can participate. Every voice should be heard so that the ultimate board decision represents a true reflection of this community's expectations for high school learning.

The Northwest Herald wrote about the issue in Friday's paper, and here is a link to that story.