A Choice For Hinsdale Central Students, Not South's

DARIEN, IL – The Hinsdale High School District 86 board wants to make it easier for Central students to transfer to South.

This is because Central's enrollment is nearly twice that of South's. As a result, South has the capacity to take more students, officials say.

The school board's policy now states that the district prioritizes transfer requests from the higher-enrollment school to the lower-enrollment one. For decades, more students have been enrolled at Central.

South students can still transfer to Central, but they must prove they are victims of such things as bullying, harassment and intimidation.

In response to Patch's public records request last fall, the district revealed that a dozen students in the Central zone attended South, but only two went the other way.

Until a few years ago, the district contained a small buffer zone, where families could choose between Central and South. About 90 percent selected Central, which has more course opportunities because of its higher enrollment.

In September, school board member Liz Mitha pushed to make it easier for Central students to transfer to South.

"I'm just going to say it. We have unequal enrollment in our district, and we are not going to be moving boundaries. That is just a fact," Mitha, a Darien resident, said at a board meeting. "I think if there is an opportunity for us to make it easy on families to make a slight change, it could make a big difference."

Mitha said Central, with its higher enrollment, may experience overcrowding, while some courses don't run at South because of its lower population.

At Tuesday's board meeting, members discussed the procedure for student transfers, talking about students' "choices."

But Deb Kedrowski, the district's administrative chief of staff, pointed out the choice is for one school's students.

"It's based on population," she said. "I'm just being direct that it's not a choice for all students. It's a choice for students at the higher population school to attend the lower population school."

In other words, South students cannot attend Central full time if they want to take courses that are unavailable at South.

The latest example is with South's orchestra program that is ending. A resident has asked district officials whether South students who want to take orchestra can enroll at Central. The district has not given him an answer – at least publicly.