St. Charles School District needs to address middle school capacity: study

St. Charles School District needs to address the capacity needs of its two middle schools, according to a study done to determine the district’s future needs.

The district has two middle schools – Thompson Middle School and Wredling Middle School. The district hired RSP & Associates last August to do an enrollment study and a capacity study as part of efforts to develop a comprehensive long-range Educational Facilities Master Plan.

The firm presented the results of the study at the School Board’s Business Services Committee meeting on Thursday. The study determined that there is adequate elementary school capacity district-wide, but that there is limited middle school capacity district-wide and that future planning should include addressing middle school capacity relief.

The study also determined there is adequate high school capacity district-wide. To meet space needs, RSP has suggested the district look at such solutions as adding physical space, relocating specialized educational programming within a school, implement alternate scheduling to increase classroom utilization and realigning boundaries.

At tonight’s Business Services Committee meeting, administration will discuss next steps and seek direction from the board. School Superintendent Paul Gordon said decisions will have to be made.

“What is it that we want from our buildings?” he asked. “How do we want our buildings to function? Do we want things on carts? Is that OK, or not OK? "

According to the study, enrollment is expected to increase at the middle school level, but decrease at the elementary and high school levels. Districtwide enrollment is set to increase by 96 students in the next five years for a total of 11,615 students.

Total district capacity is 12,467 students, not including Compass Academy. The district’s elementary schools are forecast to decrease by 50 students, with elementary school enrollment hitting 4,820 students in the next five years.

The district’s total elementary capacity is 5,138 students At the same time, the district’s middle schools are forecast to increase by 315 students in the next five years, with enrollment hitting 2,958 students.

Total middle school capacity is 2,827 students. In addition, the district’s high schools are forecast to decrease by 169 students, with enrollment hitting 3,837 students in the next five years.

The district’s two high schools have a total capacity of 4,529 students.

RSP & Associates used data – including from the school district and county – as part of its study.

“What you are seeing with your enrollment, it’s having different impacts on the capacity,” Robert Schwarz, chief executive officer for RSP, told School Board members. “Enrollment is pretty stable overall, if I look at this from a district perspective.”

As he noted, the number of births in Kane County has been decreasing – 2020 saw almost 2,800 less live births than 2007. This is consistent with national and state trends.

“What we’re trying to look at with this variable is in the future, five years down the road, what might this mean for the number of future kindergarteners?” Schwarz said.

Kindergarten classes moving forward are forecasted to be between 441 to 496 students on the low end and 625-703 students on the high end, he said. The study shows that more than 900 housing units are expected to be built in the area within the next 5+ years.

“New building activity will spur on more new students than existing inventory,” Schwarz said. “We never see existing developments have more kids than what they had in the heyday of when they were built.”

St. Charles School District has nearly two million square feet of building inventory. The majority of that inventory – 40.4% – is for the district’s two high school buildings.