U-46 Enrollment Hits an All-Time High

By Tara Malone Daily Herald Staff Writer

Enrollment in Elgin Area School District U-46 this year hit an all-time high, officials said.

An official head count for the year shows 40,294 students in district schools, up 2 percent from the 39,491 students reported a year earlier.

Never has the state’s second largest school district served so many students.

“I think that is an affirming statistic,” Superintendent Connie Neale told school board members Monday night. “We are finding across the district a re-entry into U-46 … an interest in what we are providing at all levels.”

And at all levels, enrollment climbed.

An estimated 425 new high-schoolers enrolled in the district this fall, an increase likely driven by the opening of South Elgin High. The district’s fifth high school began with 960 students from South Elgin and parts of Bartlett, Elgin, Wayne and West Chicago.

“Anytime you open a new school it draws kids that were either living in other districts or kids who were attending private school,” said Lalo Ponce, assistant superintendent for administrative service. “A new school does do that.”

An additional 302 students enrolled in the district’s 40 elementary schools. Some 76 more students attended eight middle schools in the district.

“As we continue to show strength in the quality indicators, more people will come,” Ponce said.

District enrollment first eclipsed the 40,000 level three years ago. That year, 40,123 students attended U-46 schools.

Slight declines ensued.

The district that received as many as 1,000 new children a year during the late 1990s lost 578 students between 2002 and 2003.

Many pinned the decrease on the district’s financial challenges that sparked a $40 million budget cut, a 600-teacher layoff and larger classes.

A slight enrollment dip came last fall amid speculation by U- 46′s demographic consultant that controversy surrounding new neighborhood school boundaries might be the cause. A discrimination lawsuit triggered by the new map remains in federal court.

Yet 803 new students reported to district schools this fall, school board member Karen Carney said.

“I think it’s a good sign,” the Bartlett woman said. “We’re on our way up. We are completely focused on improving student learning. If that’s the reason why we have more kids then that’s a good reason to have more kids.”