LETTER: Yorkville Boundaries Proposal Will Be Detrimental To Youngest Students

Submitted by Wendy Peterson

As some parents know and many others do not, the Yorkville Boundaries Committee working toward a proposal that would shift the current school structure for the youngest students across the District. As a parent of two young students in the District, I am very concerned with the proposed changes. There are several aspects of the proposal that cause this concern.

• Many parents who will have children directly impacted by this proposal are not aware of the changes. Unless you have a child currently enrolled in the Dist. Y115 you were likely unaware of the survey or the proposal. Many children currently enrolled in preschool would be directly impacted by these changes.
• This proposal includes changing bus routes to now ask many 5- and 6-year-old children to ride 40-60 minutes each way to school, when in the past they have been attending a school only several blocks from their home.
• The community does not fully understand the broad impact these changes may have. Micro Neighborhood assignment, which will not be done until an option is selected, impacts all elementary students/families, not just those that will have Pre-K, K or first-graders in the 16/17 school year.
• This point is critical, as neither I or my neighbors or any other parents I have talked to understood that students in grades 2 - 6 could be assigned to a home school that is different from the one they currently attend and/or the one in their neighborhood. I feel this is a big reason that survey participation and meeting attendance is so low as many parents don’t feel like this issue will affect their students when that is actually not the case.

• Finally and most importantly, the committee did not seem to take into consideration the emotional impact to the youngest students in our district. In some cases these children will be asked to attend three different schools in four years, all before the age of 7. There are numerous case studies showing a negative impact on educational experience, academic performance and emotional well being when children experience multiple moves in their early elementary years. This is actually supported by research that was used by the committee!

I encourage all parents who do not want to see the youngest students in the district impacted by these changes to attend the school board meeting on April 13 at 7 p.m. at Yorkville Middle School. I also encourage you to sign the online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/yorkville-boundaries-committee-petition-to-stop. There is strength in numbers and we need to make a strong statement at this meeting. Please help support our children and provide them a stable, nurturing environment in those crucial first years of their education!

Sincerely,

Wendy Peterson