Oswego, Aurora parents dismayed at proposed school boundaries

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Updated: March 24, 2012 11:24PM

After a couple months of meetings and maps, parents are looking to send the Oswego School District’s boundary committee back to the drawing board, at least for a few details.

Hundreds of parents, children and interested residents packed the Oswego East High School auditorium overflowing up to the balcony Wednesday night for the district’s boundary forum.

Dozens spoke, offering suggestions or explaining how a move would adversely affect their children or neighborhoods. But the most outspoken groups of the night included parents and students hoping to avoid going to the newly opened Murphy Junior High, located in Plainfield, in the sparsely populated southern part of the district.

Nearly half the auditorium stood with signs as people entered the forum protesting the current proposition that Homestead students — in the most northeasterly corner of the district — go on to Murphy, – being bused each day through Bednarcik Junior High territory.

“We are concerned about the logic used so far that would send us down to Murphy in Plainfield,” said Steve Keca. “We know boundaries are always a contentious issue, but look at the map. We are farther away from Murphy than any of the other schools.”

Homestead parents also argued that the long distance would result in longer bus rides and higher transportation costs to the district, and asked to see the financial effects of different proposals.

But Wolf’s Crossing parents were also on hand to support the boundary line that keeps them feeding into Bednarcik, though Wolf’s Crossing is one of the elementary schools closest to Murphy.

The proposed changes will affect the most students at the junior high level. In addition to sending large portions of Bednarcik and Plank students to Murphy, boundary lines will also shift for Traughber and Thompson junior highs.

At the elementary level, students in the Aurora and Oswego areas of the district will move the most. The proposed boundary changes would affect some of the students who currently attend The Wheatlands, Churchill and Hunt Club elementary schools.

“Prescott Mills is one of the largest neighborhoods being moved without representation on the boundary committee, and Grand Park and Murphy are not neighborhood schools for us,” said one father, who listed six elementary and junior high schools closer to the neighborhood. “

“Prescott Mills gravitates to the north, to the Route 34 corridor for business and community activities, and we don’t really head south to Plainfield for anything,” he said. “The plan really carves us out and isolates our neighborhood.”

High school boundaries are unlikely to be affected by the remapping.

While the maps proposed Wednesday night are unlikely to change too drastically before board adoption, forum comments were all taken down, and the 38-member boundary committee will meet once more prior to their board presentation to review comments and possibly tweak the plan.

The Oswego School Board is scheduled to hear a presentation from the boundary committee at its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday in the community room of Oswego East High School, 1525 Harvey Road.

The board will consider adopting the new boundaries on Feb. 27.

Additional comments on the boundary changes can be made to boundaries@oswego308.org.