District 86 Board Eliminates Buffer Zone

HINSDALE, IL — At its meeting on June 18, the District 86 Board of Education voted to eliminate the attendance area known as the Buffer Zone and to use proximity as the primary criterion for determining school attendance boundaries to bring each school closer to its target enrollment. The district said the decision only affects the Buffer Zone, and not other boundaries.

No changes will go into effect for the upcoming school year, according to the district. In 2018-19, all District 86 students will attend the school they are currently scheduled to attend. No attendance boundaries have been determined yet.

According to a district FAQ, the board first considered revisiting the buffer zone in April. The policy that created buffer zone in 1991 was to address concerns about overcrowding at Hinsdale South. The policy gave families who resided in the buffer zone the option to choose whether their kids would attend Hinsdale South or Hinsdale Central. The district said the buffer zone was last modified in 2016.

In the 2017-18 school year, 200 students from the buffer zone attended Hinsdale Central and 27 attended Hinsdale South. For 2018-19, 189 students are attending Hinsdale Central, and 32 will attend Hinsdale South.

The board recently addressed a civil complaint filed by the village of Burr Ridge, which stated that the district discriminates against students at Hinsdale South. The complaint states that students "have experienced and continue to experience unlawful discrimination based upon the fixing of unlawful attendance boundaries...and the curricular disparity between Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South."

The district said the decision to to eliminate the buffer zone does not have anything to do the complaint filed by Burr Ridge, as the district began considering the idea in April, before the complaint was even filed.

The board will have future meetings to discuss and review next steps, including how and when to implement attendance boundaries.

Image via District 86.