Maintenance & Operations

St. Charles (Ill.) district may close 3 schools

Shrinking enrollment and diminished state support may force the district to shutter 1 middle and 2 elementary schools.
Sept. 10, 2015

With enrollment and state funding dropping, St. Charles (Ill.) School District 303 is looking at the possibility of closing a middle school and two elementary schools.

The Kane County Chronicle reports that the schools named as closing candidates are Lincoln and Wasco elementary schools and Haines Middle School.

District officials are exploring several facility options: closing Lincoln and Wasco; closing Haines, retrofitting Thompson Middle School, and moving sixth-grade students to elementary schools; and closing Lincoln, Wasco and Haines, and expanding Thompson so that sixth-graders could remain at the middle school level.

Lincoln and Wasco are the two smallest elementary schools in the district, and Haines is the smallest middle school.

Enrollment in St. Charles has declined from a high of nearly 14,000 to about 12,500; projections for the coming decade place enrollment between 10,000 and 12,000.

About the Author

Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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