School District U-46 needs to delay or modify its plans for changing school boundaries and moving sixth-graders into middle schools after officials learned plans to build a new middle school in Elgin will take longer than expected.
School board members were briefed Monday night on the construction timetable for the new $135 million on Rohrssen Road, which is forcing the district to reevaluate how it will move middle-schoolers to new buildings.
“With the expected construction time of 20 months, this building will not be ready for occupancy for the 2026-2027 school year,” said Ann Williams, deputy superintendent of operations.
The district has just initiated the zoning and annexation process with the city of Elgin and with the Fox River Water Reclamation District, she said.
“During the design development phase, we have determined there will be extensive site work required, including underground stormwater detention and sidewalks along the perimeter of the entire property,” Williams said. “We are also waiting for the city of Elgin’s review of a traffic impact study to determine if any road work improvements are required.”
Assuming U-46 receives the necessary permits later this fall, construction bids could be sought by early 2025 and work could begin in late spring or early summer.
Because of the delay, Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm presented three possible options for shifting sixth-graders from elementary to middle school buildings.
One option would be postpone the move until the 2027-28 school year to coincide with the new middle school’s opening, Lindholm said. An estimated 7,200 students in grades 6 through 8 would remain at their currently assigned schools.
A second option would have sixth-grade classes transition to middle school campus over two school years, he said. With this plan, about 1,200 6th graders (about 50% of the grade’s students) would move into middle school in the the 2026-27 school year and the rest would remain in their current schools.
If this plan is chosen, sixth-graders living on the district’s east side would make the change in the first year and those on the west side would do the same the following year, Lindholm said. The schools included in the first year plan would be Eastview MIddle School in Bartlett, Tefft and Canton middle schools in Streamwood and the new middle school currently under construction in Bartlett, he said.
Under this option, new attendance boundaries would not go into effect until the 2027-28 school year, he said. Ellis and Abbott middle schools in Elgin would close that year and Larsen and Kimball middle schools in Elgin, Kenyon Woods in South Elgin and the new school on Rohrssen Road would become buildings for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
A third option would be to implement new boundaries and send all 6th graders to middle schools in the 2026-27 school year, Lindholm said.
“In this scenario, we would need to find alternative sites for the first year for the approximately 1,100 students who would eventually be assigned to the new middle school in Elgin as it would not be ready for occupancy,” he said.
Staff will bring its final recommendations to the school board later this fall as part of its boundary planning work, Lindholm said. Whatever the recommendation turns out to be, it will mean keeping Ellis and Abbott open for an additional year.
After the presentation, board President Melissa Owens stressed that the board has not made any decision the discussion will continue for the next several weeks.
A Unite U-46 update session will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30, at the U-46 Welcome Center, 1019 E. Chicago St., Elgin, and is open to the public. Registration is encouraged but not required. For more information, go to www.u-46.org/uniteu46.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
