Why District 21 is halting redistricting plan
Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 has pumped the brakes on a redistricting plan amid recent enrollment declines that officials attribute to geopolitical, economic and other factors.
Enrollment in the pre-K-8 district dropped by 300 students at the start of this school year, including by 80 at Kilmer Elementary in Buffalo Grove, where modular classrooms were installed in 2024 to handle a spike in new students.
District officials launched the redistricting process nearly a year ago — hiring a consultant, forming a committee, conducting a survey and holding a public open house — and drafted four options that would have shifted attendance boundaries to balance capacities at nine elementary schools and three middle schools.
The boundary changes could have moved anywhere between 399 and 723 elementary students, and between 155 and 181 middle school students, to new schools.
The district map design committee’s recommended hybrid option would have relocated 323 elementary students and 136 middle school students.
But then new enrollment data arrived Sept. 3, after the school year began.
The elementary schools and early childhood school have 3,875 students, but have space for 4,678 — an 83% utilization rate.
Middle school enrollment also dropped: now at 1,853, out of a capacity of 1,963, or a 94% utilization rate.
“Things happen. We did not anticipate 300 students leaving over the course of the summer,” said Superintendent Michael Connolly, who noted the trend is not unique to the Wheeling-based district.
For example, Chicago Public Schools enrollment dropped by more than 11,000 students this school year.
“I’ve spoken with other superintendents that are seeing their numbers decrease as well,” Connolly added. “A lot of that anecdotally is geopolitical. Protected status of various noncitizen residents is changed. And then just economically, I think there’s a lot of upheaval going on.”
The birth rate has continued to decline in recent years, too, Connolly said.
Though a formal vote is expected Oct. 15, revelation of the new enrollment figures led school board members late last week to pause consideration of changes to boundary lines for the 2027-2028 school year. They said they plan to continue to monitor enrollment and building capacity.
“We definitely needed to do it because everything was so tight, and some of us at least were internally panicking about what was going to happen a year from now if things kept growing,” said board Vice President Debbi McAtee. “And now we were dealt a new hand.”
She and others noted planning continues for a new early childhood center on Hintz Road in Wheeling that would centralize district preschool programs and free up space at Tarkington and Whitman elementary schools, which now host preschool classrooms.
The district also has the option of moving other special programs around to alleviate overcrowding.
If enrollment numbers stay consistent, Connolly believes there is room for all 500 Kilmer students within the confines of the school building, though officials so far have stopped short of ending the district’s $115,000-a-year lease for mobile classrooms.
“Even if we’re able to contain everything within the building proper, given the variability of things, are we comfortable with immediately removing the modulars, or do we want to hedge our bets a little bit?” Connolly said. “That’s a discussion that we would need to have.”
A virtual town hall about the redistricting plan — originally scheduled for Tuesday — is canceled, along with a previously planned written public comment period.
cplacek@dailyherald.com