On the Agenda: Board Might Vote on Proposed Opening of New School

The Oswego School Board will again be asked by the administration at Monday night’s meeting to vote on .

The decision on whether to open the Plainfield school has been delayed as board members and administrators study alternatives to the measure that would cost the district a minimum of $805,000 in start-up costs.

Members of the committee working to redraw the district’s boundaries for next year plan to appear before the board en masse to persuade board members Murphy's opening is necessary to ease overcrowding at Bednarcik Junior High. The committee met on Tuesday of last week, but made little progress toward boundary work because members and administration are awaiting a decision to go forward.

will present the board with another in a series of PowerPoint presentation on the pros and cons of opening the school.

The latest presentation will include five options:

• Colvin’s first option shows opening Murphy in 2013-14 instead of next year. Leaving enrollment boundaries where they are for next year, that would put 1,083 students at Bednarcik and 1,098 students at .
• The second option shows leaving Murphy closed and transferring 140 students from Bednarcik to . Colvin's report shows this would only create a one-year fix and would mean long bus rides for students traveling from Aurora and Plainfield to Thompson.
• Option three calls for not opening Murphy and moving special programs, English Language Learners/Dual Language and some special education programs from Plan to Thompson and shifting 140 Bednarcik students to . That would create shorter bus rides, but would be disruptive to the special program students. Options two and three would save taxpayers some money, but four or five additional staff members would need to be hired, according to Colvin’s presentation.
• The fourth option is to open Murphy and have sixth-graders from Grande Park, Homestead and schools attend the new school. That would put enrollment at about 315, plus the district’s GOAL program would remain at Murphy. The cons of this scenario would be separating siblings and increased transportation costs. Enrollment at Bednarcik would shrink to 882 in this option.
• The final option also shows opening Murphy with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from Hunt Club and Grande Park, which would create an enrollment of 550 students. According to Colvin, this would provide relief to Bednarcik and Traughber and the boundary could last up to five years. This plan also would keep siblings together, but students would have to attend different high schools.

The board meets at 7 p.m. Monday in the community room at .