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Batavia School Addition Study Requested McWayne Elementary Has Run Out of Room, School Board President Says

Posted on: Monday, 15 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Batavia school board President Ron Link has recommended the district study the feasibility of a four-classroom addition to McWayne Elementary.

For the past few years, Principal Kevin Skomer has gotten creative in resolving the lack of available space at the west-side school.

For three years, the Spanish teacher has been delegated to a cart, Skomer said. For the second year in a row, the music room will be turned into a classroom, shifting the music classes to an employee lounge. This year, to reduce the large class sizes, 12 students in fourth grade will be taught in a conference room.

"We are starting to infringe on the capacity of that building," Link said.

Since there are open rooms at Alice Gustafson, J.B. Nelson and Hoover-Wood schools, however, Superintendent Ed Cave said this week the board may want to consider slight boundary adjustments in a couple of years if they are needed.

"I, for one, would like to exhaust all options before we do any sort of boundary evaluation," Link said.

At the very least, families with children in any new subdivisions in the McWayne attendance area will be designated to schools with available class space, Cave said.

The total number projected at McWayne for this year is 567 students, Skomer said. McWayne was built in 2001 for a capacity for about 500 students, with 18 classrooms for first through fifth grades, three kindergarten classrooms, an art room and a music room.

Since projected enrollment for all the elementary schools may be up 50 students - as Cave has counted 2,883 thus far - the board approved hiring 3.5 positions, two of which will be at elementary schools.

A full-time teacher will be hired for the fourth grade at McWayne and a part-timer is needed for kindergarten at H.C. Storm, Cave said.

Another full-time position will be spread out among existing part- time teachers at the high school.

The district may not need to use the other position authorized, Cave said. District officials had budgeted $360,000 for a total of six new full-time positions, or an equivalent, for the entire school year.

Source: Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.

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