Like a lot of parents, Chansy Rogers Tuesday was weighing the pros and cons of consolidating three Springfield elementary schools: Hazel Dell, Southern View, and Laketown, where she has a kindergartner. There’s also the prospect of a new school building on a new site.
“I think it would be nice not to have as many schools, but it would take away smaller schools with smaller (student to teacher ratios),” said Rogers. “Change is OK, but it will be harder for some parents to have to travel further, depending on where the building is.
“I like that (Laketown) is smaller and it’s more personable and that would get taken away by conjoining three schools into one. But they might have money to spend on one school instead of three.”
Parents, teachers, neighbors and students weighed in on the issue at the latest of three public hearings Tuesday night at Laketown.
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A 2017 vote by a previous school board approved the consolidation of Hazel Dell and Laketown and building a new school on a different site, which was part of the facilities master plan.
An eight-page guideline released recently by the district revealed an 11th Street site as “the highest potential for a new school facility” for all three. The 13.2-acre site includes a building that formerly housed the corporate headquarters for H.D. Smith, a privately held pharmaceutical wholesaler. The land is still held by some members of the Smith.
Southern View became a part of the consolidation question within the last several months after engineers got a closer look at what needed to be done repair-wise to the 1930s building.
District 186 Superintendent Jennifer Gill said all three sites had “structural deficiencies” and declining enrollments. Southern View has169 students and Laketown 150 students. Hazel Dell is the smallest with 117 students.
A more recent consideration is building a new school on the site of Laketown Elementary, which is at 1825 Lee Street.
Staying in the neighborhood
Micah Miller of Subdistrict 2 said he would like to see District 186 invest in neighborhoods, like the one Laketown Elementary is in, and has been a proponent of the board at least considering building where the school presently sits.
“You have a lot of single-income families and even dual-income families that are making well under $100,000 and it’s all they do to claw their way into the middle class by being proud homeowners in a nice neighborhood and I give you Laketown as Exhibit ‘A,’ Miller said. “This neighborhood is holding up well and I’m concerned that as a board we may be missing an opportunity to wisely invest in a community.”
Investing in that neighborhood could address slumping enrollment and “can only be to our benefit,” he said.
Ashley Mason said she can walk to Laketown Elementary with her kindergartner and second-grader.
“I like the smaller school atmosphere,” Mason admitted. “It’s kind of like a big family. If there are fewer kids in the school, more people are more aware what’s going on around them.”
Drawbacks of building at Laketown
Board vice president Mike Zimmers of District 4 said building on the site isn’t what taxpayers were promised in 2017.
“What we promised people at that time,” Zimmers said, “was Laketown and Hazel Dell would have a brand-new school off-site.”
Todd Cyrulik of BLDD Architects said a study recommended “it was not in the best interest (of the district) to reinvest in this site.”
New construction there would reduce play space and parking would be problematic, said Gill. Some homes also would have a two-story building just feet from their fence lines, she added.
Laketown has limited sidewalks and storm sewers and smaller than normal roadways, said Mark Vasconcelles of Veenstra and Kimm Engineers.
11th Street site
The district would have to purchase the 11th Street tract, which is still held by some members of the Smith family.
It does include a building that would be considered for some of the district’s administrative offices.
The district does have a preliminary letter of approval from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Gill said, though it is waiting for a final letter.
The mixed-used site offers ample acreage to build. It could include a nature lab and trail, Gill said.
Students would not be displaced while the new school is built, Gill said, and the two-story building would have separate facilities for the library, gym, and cafeteria.
What happens to the school sites?
Ken Elmore, president of the Laketown Association, was concerned about what might happen to the school sites if a consolidation plan with Southern View was approved. His particular worry was about property values if schools were vacated.
Gill said the school buildings could get sold or torn down and converted into parks.
The district, she said, would care for buildings “as long as (they’re) here,” but the city of Springfield and other neighborhood associations would have to be part of the conversation.
The district does have money budgeted for potential demolition, she added.
Other questions
Southern View operates under a balanced calendar schedule, meaning the school year starts in late July and has learning breaks every nine weeks.
That would have to be addressed if the consolidation plan includes Southern View.
Regarding busing to any new facility, Gill said, students who live more than 1.5 miles would be bused automatically, there are also rules about crossing busy streets, like 11th Street or Stevenson Drive, so all students could be bused.
Reaction
Erica Austin of Subdistrict 6 said she knows about the camaraderie of a small school. She attended Lincoln College.
“It was definitely a community that really cares about its school,” Austin said after Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s a neighborhood school, for sure, that has some real concerns and I think their concerns were valid.
“It’s not an easy decision (the board is charged with).”
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The idea, Gill said, was to give a new school to the south side of the city.
“I love it when they love their school,” Gill said. “My point is that we have larger schools all across the community that build that same sense of culture and pride in their schools.”
Mindy Madonia has taught kindergarten at Laketown for 31 years. She said a nice “retirement gift” would be a new school at Laketown.
“I’m not sure that giving up a small neighborhood school where everyone knows everyone for some shiny cool things because (those new things) also get dull at times and they get old,” she said.
The youngest speaker Tuesday? Kamren Lott, a fifth-grader at Laketown wanted to know if the new school became a reality if students could choose the mascot.
What’s next?
The board will vote on whether to add Southern View into the consolidation.
The next regular meeting is Monday, and the vote is tentatively listed as an action item.
The board could wait on a vote while they study information about the feasibility study at Laketown. The district also may want to wait for the results of a parent survey that was expected to go out soon.
Regardless of how that vote ends up, there will be another conversation about the location.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, [email protected], twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
