In the past weeks Jerome McKibben, a demographer hired by the Champaign School Board, has presented 2 viable options for drawing new boundaries lines for the Champaign high schools. As you can guess, there has been a lot of discussion, complaint and thought throughout this process. The current boundary map is visible and clickable in this post, option 1 map and option 2 map at the Unit 4 School website. (they tak
e a while to load)
It’s a given that the boundaries will be changed and it looks like Option 1 is the favorite of the board, administrators and the demographer as it does a better job of balancing the enrollment of the schools, the racial and economic makeup, keeps neighborhoods pretty much together and keeps the school’s transportation costs down.
Thoughts about a new high school in the northern part of the district were also considered but lines would have to be redrawn in 10 years regardless due to shifts and changes in the area’s population. Since a new high school is more than 6-7 years in the future it didn’t really make sense to factor that into the current plan.
They do have a sibling preference transfer policy but it will be interesting to see what family rivalries develop between parents and siblings as the changes go into effect. The current transfer policy depends on what grade the younger and older siblings are entering next year. This policy is also under some debate as large age gaps between siblings (think 5-6 years or more) create a real problem for a comprehensive transfer policy.
The final vote is currently scheduled for the November 1st Board Meeting and questions can be sent to their email address: redistrict@champaignschools.org
It will be far from perfect and there will be no way to please everyone in this process but it looks like the school board is getting good input and making good decisions. I’m just glad my girls (3 1/2 and 1 1/2) are a long way from high school!
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