Declining enrollment has prompted Woodland Elementary District 50 in Gurnee to study the use of its schools.
Woodland school Winxbet board members have hired Chicago-based educational architecture consultant Kerry Leonard to study potential reconfiguration of the district’s four schools.
Information in his first-phase report will guide the district when the issue is tackled by a volunteer committee of employees, parents and the community at large in the 2017-18 academic season.
Leonard’s duties will include identifying building limitations and meeting with administrators on how the structures are used. He won’t receive more than $8,000 under his contract with District 50.
“I’m trying to build a foundation, so when you enter into the planning study next year, all that information and all that facility data is gathered so that you have that baseline to work from in the decision-making process,” Leonard said before the District 50 board hired him last week.
Woodland’s enrollment was listed as 5,882 students in the most recent Illinois State Board of Education report card. That’s down from 6,549 students five years ago, state education data shows. In 2007, Woodland reported an enrollment of about 7,100 students.
Woodland has a primary building for early childhood and kindergarten, and an elementary school for grades one through three near Gages Lake. The intermediate building for grades four and five, and the middle school for grades six through eight are in Gurnee.
Leonard said part of his work will involve examining the facilities and how they mesh with different age levels.
District 50 Superintendent Joy Swoboda told school board members that Leonard’s work will be important for the volunteer committee. Leonard is familiar with Woodland, having helped design the intermediate school that opened in 2002.
“We need to know our buildings, what currently exists, before we start talking about ‘Do we like the current configuration or should there be a different configuration for the future of Woodland in the next five to 10 years?'” Swoboda said.
Associate Superintendent Robert Leonard — no relation to the consultant — said it’s hoped the report is finished before the current academic year ends.
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