St. Charles School Board examines district’s facility needs as capacity study shows increase in middle school enrollment

St. Charles School District 303 Board members on Monday began discussing the district’s next steps after hearing the results of a study done to determine the district’s future needs.

According to the study, the district needs to address the capacity needs at its two middle schools. The district has two middle schools – Thompson Middle School and Wredling Middle School. The district hired RSP & Associates in August 2022 to do an enrollment study and a capacity study as part of efforts to develop a comprehensive long-range Educational Facilities Master Plan.

In addition, schools forecasted to experience overutilization challenges include Corron, Ferson Creek, Norton Creek and Wild Rose elementary schools and Wredling Middle School. Schools forecasted to experience underutilization challenges include Davis Primary School, Richmond Intermediate, St. Charles East and St. Charles North high schools.

Board President Heidi Fairgrieve said there needs to be discussion on early childhood needs in the district.

“I think that we need to have more data and analysis around what exactly the need is in our community,” she said in addressing the other board members Monday at the school board’s Business Services Committee meeting.

Board Vice President Joseph Lackner suggested the board examine the academic programs the district offers.

“We could look across the board of all of the academic programs and I think we ought to consider some kind of balance of their space consumption versus their academic contribution,” he said. “So if we looked back at that list, certainly early childhood would have to be on it, but there’d be other programs on it as well.”

Board member Becky McCabe suggested the board examine traffic concerns.

“We have buildings that have major traffic issues,” she said.

Superintendent Paul Gordon stressed the need to address “significant” ADA concerns at Davis, Lincoln and Wild Rose schools. Gordon said the district plans to engage the staff along with the community before any improvement plans are put in place.

“We’re going to do what’s right for our students and our community,” he said.

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.

St. Charles School District 303 has almost two million square feet of building inventory. The majority of that inventory – 40.4% – is for the district’s two high school buildings.