Parents urge saving science center as district plans STEM labs and hires additional teachers
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Community speakers urged the board to fund and maintain the existing Science Center; district staff said the referendum and planning include creating STEM labs in elementary buildings and hiring content teachers.
Several speakers at the May 22 meeting urged the La Grange SD 102 Board of Education to preserve and support the district’s Science Center and to ensure adequate staffing and program continuity if STEM labs are added to schools.
An unnamed parent and grandparent who identified her family’s long association with the center said the “Save Our Science Center” initiative aims to secure funding to expand hands-on science programs. “The hands on learning experiences and interactive exhibits offered by the science center are proven to ignite curiosity,” the speaker said.
Tamara Raust, who identified herself as having been a mathematician, data scientist and the state’s chief data officer, spoke in support of the center’s deeper, multi-hour inquiry experiences. “A short science special in a lab that serves 20 some classrooms is not the same as a long period of time in which you can perform deep inquiry,” Raust said, describing her own fourth-grade experience doing an electricity experiment at a science center.
Parents asked practical questions about how district-built STEM labs would be staffed and maintained. “Who's going to be staffing these labs? Is it going to be a science teacher certified? Who's going to be prepping and cleaning the labs?” asked Alexandria Zuck, a parent.
District administrators later said the referendum planning includes adding STEM labs to elementary buildings and that the district has hired six new science and social-studies teachers to support expanded instructional minutes in those subjects. Staff said they will convene current STEM teachers, Science Center personnel and incoming staff to plan how Science Center programming and in-school labs will align with curriculum and staffing plans.
Why it matters: Community members framed the Science Center as an experiential resource that supports long-term science interest; parents want clarity about staffing, safety, materials handling and whether in-school labs will replicate the deep inquiry opportunities the center currently provides.
No vote was taken. District staff said they will continue meetings with science teachers and Science Center representatives to plan lab design, staffing and integration with curriculum as part of referendum implementation.