Tentative recommendations for boundary changes that would affect schools throughout District U-46 were presented Monday night to the school board.
“We realize that boundaries can be a very charged topic given the real and direct impact they can have on some of our families,” Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm said.
“Tonight’s update includes preliminary recommendations only. These same recommendations will be shared with the community at our upcoming United U-46 sessions to gather feedback and help us prepare our formal attendance boundary proposal for formal board of education approval later in the spring.”
The suggested adjustments are necessary, in part, because the district will be closing Washington and Lowrie elementary schools in Elgin and Hanover Countryside Elementary in Streamwood and converting Illinois Park Center for Early Learning in Elgin into an elementary school following the 2025-26 academic year.
McKinley Elementary School in Elgin will close when a new elementary school on the site of the former DC Cook building on Elgin’s east side is ready for occupancy, possibly in time for the 2027-28 school year, Lindholm said.
The suggested boundaries reflect an attempt to retain the patterns in which students go from the same elementary schools to the same middle and high schools, he said. They also take into consideration factors that include the locations of ESL programs and new housing being built, he said.
During the 90-minute discussion, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Mark Moore demonstrated the mapping tool staff used to come up with the proposed changes across the district, which currently has 38 elementary, eight middle and five high schools.
Among the changes on Elgin’s east side, Channing and Lords Park elementary will pick up some students who currently would expect to go to Huff Elementary, Moore said.
On Elgin’s west side, the district will be closing two elementary schools and opening one, he said.
“The one we’re opening, Illinois Park, is not in the same location as the two we’re closing, Washington and Lowrie,” Moore said. “So we have to move some zones pretty significantly to have space for the Washington and Lowrie students and also to create a zone for Illinois Park out of existing zones.”
With this plan, some students would have to head east across the Fox River as there wouldn’t be sufficient space for them in west side elementary schools, Moore said.
“We deliberately chose neighborhoods that are at least close to, if not centered on, one of the bridges that cross the river to choose to move over,” he said.
At the middle school level, Kenyon Woods in South Elgin will be adding a dual language program as it will be picking up many students from Abbott in Elgin, Moore said.
The only change proposed for U-46 high schools calls for students in one attendance zone to switch from South Elgin High to Bartlett High. Most of the students in the zone live either in Bartlett or West Chicago.
The plan reflects the transition of all U-46 sixth-graders from elementary to middle schools for the 2026-27 school year, when the new boundaries would take effect, Lindholm said. The district would continue to use Abbott and Ellis middle schools in Elgin until the new middle school is ready to open, Lindholm said. The new school will hold about 1,100 students.
Proposed boundaries will be posted to the U-46 website in January, Lindholm said.
Board member Sue Kerr suggested principals provide information to families about how the proposed changes will impact their respective students and families.
The district also plans to hold open house-style sessions for specific geographic areas, Lindholm said. The first two are set for 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, at the U-46 Family Welcome Center, 1019 E. Chicago St., Elgin, and 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at Bartlett High School, 701 W. Schick Road. Three more will be held in January.
Videos at each will focus on the respective specific part of the district addressed and will be available online the day after each session, Lindholm said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
