Troy school board approves elementary redistricting

JOLIET – The Troy school board voted Wednesday night unanimously in favor of redistricting the district’s elementary schools.

The redistricting plan changes the boundaries of the district’s five elementary schools, Craughwell, Heritage Trail, Crossroads, Shorewood and Hofer.

The board's vote marks a period of five months in which the district devised a plan, held public meetings to get parent feedback and used those comments to make changes to the plan.

The changes will take effect next school year. Superintendent Todd Koehl said the next step is to start communicating the change to parents.

“We’re going to wait a week and then start transition meetings,” Koehl said, adding that next year’s school registration will start soon.

The plan

Koehl said the redistricting plan was based on making each school more geographically centered in its boundary, maintaining class sizes and building a baseline for future growth.

This year, the five schools either had no free classrooms, or were in need of extra classrooms. And while enrollment is expected to drop, Koehl said the schools need extra classrooms to prepare for an unexpected increase in students.

The new boundaries, in addition to the $591,000 in renovations to add two classrooms at Crossroads and convert team centers at Hofer into classrooms – also approved by the board Wednesday – frees up a total of 17 classrooms in the five schools.

Under the plan, Craughwell, Heritage Trail and Shorewood will lose students. Hofer and Crossroads will gain students.

Parts of the south and east of Craughwell’s current boundary will head to Heritage Trail because of close proximity. Also, Craughwell students west of Interstate 55 will attend Crossroads.

Heritage Trail students living north of Route 52 will head to Craughwell.

Shorewood students north of Black Road will go to Hofer. Also, any residential developments bounded between Black Road, Route 59 and I-55 will be zoned in Shorewood’s boundaries.

Crossroads students living between Theodore Street, Black Road, Route 59 and Wesmere Parkway south will go to Hofer, based on geographic proximity.

The original plan presented to parents at the public meetings also had Heritage Trail students living in the McClintock Acres and Leland Hills subdivisions changing schools to Shorewood Elementary.

But after staunch feedback from parents concerned about busing kids on Interstate 55, and the proximity of Heritage Trail compared with Shorewood, the plan was changed at a special Feb. 8 board meeting to keep them at Heritage Trail.

“We definitely listened, and we definitely made some changes,” board President Mark Griglione said.

The final plan ends up leaving Craughwell with two free classrooms, Crossroads with two, Heritage Trail and Hofer with three each, and Shorewood with one.

While clusters of parents attended the meeting Wednesday, besides those who came for student recognition, there was no public comment.

Superintendent contract

The board also approved a contract extension for Koehl through the 2019-20 school year. Koehl’s contract expired after next school year.

Details on the contract weren’t immediately available after the meeting. But Griglione said the extension also comes with a 2.7 percent salary increase next year.

“It’s just a salary increase for next year,” Griglione said, noting that the board needs to approve any salary increase for Koehl.

Griglione also noted that the percent increase was less than the percent increase teachers are getting.

That didn’t matter to board member J. Terry McFadden, who said after the meeting that he doesn’t believe in extending a superintendent contract for more than three years.

“I don’t spend percentages, I spend dollars when I go to the store,” said McFadden, who was the sole vote against the extension.

McFadden said it wasn’t personal toward Koehl, and he commended Koehl’s work on the redistricting plan.