USD116 BOE Update: Feb. 20, 2024

District administration presented information around the scenario of converting our five elementary buildings into K-6 schools. The information presented was divided into five sections; curriculum/content, social-emotional, extracurricular, human resources, and budget and facilities. Some of the pros/cons are listed below. You can view the entire presentation here: K-6 Elementary Schools

Curriculum & Content:

• Keeping students for an extra year in an elementary school will allow for another year in a general education self contained classroom in order to reach greater proficiency levels in reading, writing, and math.
• Electives: It would not be possible to bring all of the offerings to six buildings. (This includes specialized curriculum, electives and acceleration).
• The district recently adopted curriculum specific to K-5 and 6-8. Having two core curriculums in one building would be a challenge.
• Creating schedules for specials will require hiring more teachers and also require those teachers to travel between buildings. There's also cost implications with this.
• Acceleration opportunities for 6th-graders would be limited; providing and scheduling transportation from 6 schools to UMS

Social-Emotional

• A K-6 model would allow us to build the leadership skills of 6th graders
• Fewer building transitions may strengthen social-emotional development
• Including 6th graders with much younger students raises developmental and social-emotional concerns (sharing public spaces like restrooms, playgrounds and yellow buses)
• Discipline referrals are significantly different from 5th to 6th grade. Student engagement, discipline, and following expectations are already challenging for 5th graders in a K-5 school and will be even more difficult for 6th graders in a K-6 setting

Extracurricular

• In K-6 buildings, students would not be able to participate in IESA events (sports and music). IESA requires a “sister-school” relationship in order for the 6th graders to participate. This means 6th graders would need to get to UMS, which would create equity issues as only some students will have the access and opportunity to participate -- as we do not have extra bus transportation to accommodate this.

Human Resources

• The 6th-grade center model has been a recruitment draw for new hires
  
• There are currently not enough licensed staff at UMS to fill the number of general education 6th-grade classrooms needed in six, K-6 schools. Only three current UMS teachers have the proper certification to work in a K-6 building (self-contained, general classroom teachers).
• Would need more building administrators at the elementary level due to increased enrollment

Budget

• A K-5, three strand elementary school could fit into the same footprint as the proposed design of the 6th grade center. However, if we made it a K-6 three strand building OR a K-6 dual language school, we would need additional classrooms. This would increase the cost of the project by anywhere from $2-6 million dollars, depending on how many classrooms we would need to add. The District is already maxed out on its budget for this project.
• A K-6 model would move fewer students during redistricting if the Dual Language School is at Wiley and help reduce the overcrowding at UMS

Facilities

• Classroom furniture/fixtures in the elementary buildings are not sized for 6th graders
• King and Leal may need to be reconfigured as 2-strand buildings for the K-6 model

Reimagining Wiley into a dual language school

• Using the current Wiley would move fewer students through redistricting. It would also move fewer staff.
• Utilizing Wiley for a multilingual school does not alleviate the overcrowding and other issues we are experiencing at UMS.
• If elementary buildings stay K-5, we will have many empty and underutilized classrooms throughout the district.

Q: Are there any numbers around the operating budget implications for a K-6 model?

A: We didn't run specific numbers on the number of staff we would have to hire, but right now we budget $60-thousand for a new hire (first year teacher). This would be a significant cost for staffing purposes.

Q: What are the implications for special education services in a K-6 model?

A: The special services teachers (related service providers, psychologists, speech language) would be stretched across more developmental levels/more grades, than they do in any other space we have.

Dr. Ivory-Tatum's Superintendent Report is available here: February 20, 2024

• Read Across America is March 2 at Lincoln Square Mall.
• Reminder: There are two upcoming public input opportunities on the elementary boundary plan recommendations. February 28 and 29 from 5:30-7 p.m. in the Urbana High School Commons.
• Metal detection will start at Urbana Middle School on February 26.
  

The Student Ambassador Report is available here: February 20 Student Ambassador Report

Highlights:

• Update on food service
• FAFSA workshops: Feb. 26 from 3:30-6 p.m. and March 7 from 5-6:30 p.m.