Back to school in Dist. 300 means loss of labor

One week.

Depending on who is waiting, it could seem like a month or a minute.

In this, case, Community Unit District 300 students and parents are waiting for it to end. When it does on Thursday, tens of thousands of students will return to the classroom.

Remember, this is a week after private schools in Dundee Township and public schools in Elgin and Crystal Lake have already started their lessons.

District 300 students may be saying a week doesn't make that much of difference, sooner or later they will be in class. But it make a different to other residents who share roads, swimming pools, and golf courses with them.

That's not always a bad thing, though. Students, especially those who are in their later high school years, have been around to work local swimming pools and golf courses. If it weren't for them, facilities such as the Dolphin Cove Aquatic Center in Carpentersville and the Bonnie Dundee Golf Course along Route 25, would have had to close earlier, said Helen Shumate, marketing director for the Dundee Township Park District.

During the summer, the park district employs hundreds of college and high school-aged teens to work as lifeguards, cashiers. locker room monitors, golf pro assistants and golf cart attendants. When colleges have their traditional earlier starts, the park districts loses as much as half of its workforce.

"We would still be open at the pools but we couldn't keep the hours we had planned," Shumate said. "We're the largest employer of youths in the township. We depend on them to keep our facilities running."

And thanks to 15-20 high schools students, Dolphin Cove was scheduled to be open during the Labor Day weekend. But it was the last weekend it was scheduled to be open.

As the cooler winds of late summer blow in, local school-bound students find themselves busy with books and sports.

They are returning to them later this year so construction projects on some District 300 schools can be completed. Some will get additions, such as Dundee Middle School. And some will receive new buildings, as is the case with Hampshire High School.

Whatever the reasons, when the first bell rings on Thursday, there will be fewer children and teens to watch during the day, said Dave Sawyer, West Dundee Police Chief.

His officers and their colleagues in neighboring departments have been spending the last two months chasing young vandals, shoplifters and troublemakers.

"We definitely see a decline when school starts again," he said. "Ninety percent of the kids are good kids, but you always have that 10 percent of non-supervised idle kids who get into trouble."

And those aren't just District 300 students. But with the district being as large as it is, when classes begin, a noticeable decline in some crimes is seen, he said.

And that includes petty daytime and nighttime crimes.