Elmhurst D-205 'Got It Right' On Enrollment: Official

ELMHURST, IL — Over the last couple of years, Elmhurst School District 205 has expanded the scope of some of its building projects with the expectation of enrollment increases.

Until recently, though, the district had not conducted an extensive demographic study of Elmhurst's population trends to back up those actions.

Perhaps the biggest decision involved Field Elementary School, which is set to be leveled and then replaced. The school board last year approved an expansion of the school to accommodate 600 students, compared to about 400 currently.

Over the next decade, Field's enrollment is expected to increase to 419, from 382 — an increase of 9.7 percent, according to the study. That's lower than the overall 11.7 percent increase in elementary enrollment during the same period.

At Tuesday's school board meeting, members said they made the correct call on increasing the scope of projects such as Field. They were commenting on the just-released study by Ohio-based Cropper GIS Consulting.

"We made decisions to increase the scope of our upcoming projects. I had a sigh of relief when I saw the report," board member Courtenae Trautmann said. "Based on the projections, we got it right."

Member Karen Stueffen agreed that more space is needed in local schools. She said Fischer and Jackson elementary schools were "still going to be tight," even after building projects. But she said space would be available at other schools.

To make the new space effective, that could mean the school district changes schools' attendance boundaries. Like in most towns, such talk is often controversial.

During the discussion, Matt Cropper of Crosser GIS Consulting said the good news was that Elmhurst's median age is projected to barely increase over the next 10 years, edging up from 41.2 to 41.5.

Other school districts, particularly in metro areas, are seeing much larger increases in their median ages, he said.

"For an area like Elmhurst, we would normally see a greater rate of aging," Cropper said. "The fact that your median age is not going up as we see in other places tells us that in-migration is keeping your median age somewhat stable."

If the median age were increasing at a greater rate, Cropper said, "we would be forecasting flat to declining enrollment."

Board member Jim Collins noted the increase in condo and apartment development downtown and wondered about its effects on enrollment. Last week, the City Council approved zoning for a 200-unit, six-story apartment complex on the outer edge of downtown.

Cropper said multifamily housing in a downtown such as Elmhurst's typically doesn't yield many students. The usual projection is one student for every five units, he said.

Collins said local empty nesters may want to move to the new apartments and condos downtown.

While Cropper said that may be the case sometimes, the greater likelihood is that empty nesters move outside of town, particularly to warmer climates.

"When they leave their single-family, detached household, regardless of where they go, there is still that housing unit available, and most likely a younger family with children will move into that household," Cropper said.