U-46 board approves broad attendance-boundary changes, delays some school closures for one year

The School District U-46 Board of Education on April 14 approved a revised attendance boundary proposal that will reassign students, retire multiple elementary schools and shift sixth graders into middle school when the new boundaries take effect in the 2026–27 school year.

District officials said the plan, developed as part of the Unite U46 initiative, responds to declining elementary enrollment, the addition of new classrooms and the retirement of older facilities. Administration briefed the board on two last-minute map adjustments intended to eliminate split feeder patterns before the board voted to adopt the final plan.

District officials said the proposal retires Washington, Lowry and Hanover Countryside elementary schools after the 2025–26 school year, and McKinley after the new elementary on the former David C. Cook site is ready for occupancy. Illinois Park will transition from an early-childhood center to a K–5 elementary in 2026–27. Officials also confirmed the planned opening of Hawk Hollow Middle School in Bartlett will affect 2025–26 assignments approved earlier and that larger district-wide boundary changes will begin in 2026–27 when sixth grade moves to middle schools.

Administrators described two specific adjustments made since the March 24 draft: moving a northern section that had been assigned to Bartlett Elementary to Sunnydale to reduce the number of splits from four to three and reassigning a Bartlett/Streamwood block to keep Centennial High School’s feeder pattern aligned entirely with Bartlett High School. Officials also detailed a reassignment in the Nature Ridge area that assigns most students to Eastview and Bartlett middle/high feeders to balance enrollments with Kenyon Woods and newly opening Hawk Hollow.

Brian Lindholm, chief of staff, summarized a modified residency-exception process that will allow families affected by boundary changes to apply for early transfer to their new assigned school for the 2025–26 school year. Lindholm said the district will accept online residency-exception requests tied to the student information system, require parent authentication, and will process applications subject to available staff and space. He told the board the anticipated deadline to submit exception requests for 2025–26 will be May 15 to allow schools time to adjust staffing and schedules.

Mark Moore, assistant superintendent of human resources, described the operational adjustments the district will make while the new Elgin middle school is completed. Because the new Elgin middle school will not be ready for full occupancy in 2026–27 as originally planned, the district will keep Abbott and Ellis middle schools open for an additional year. Moore said approximately 1,100 students who will ultimately attend the new Elgin middle school will be served temporarily by Abbott and Ellis; about 350 sixth graders from the new Elgin attendance area would attend Abbott in the first year, while the new school’s older students would continue at Ellis to complete their middle school years.

Transportation and safety were recurring themes. District staff said school buses will be available to affected families and described standard safety practices for routes and railroad crossings, noting drivers receive specialized training and buses are equipped with GPS and cameras. The district plans local informational meetings for impacted neighborhoods and an address-lookup tool on the Unite U46 site to show current and proposed school assignments.

Board members who spoke during the discussion thanked staff for outreach and mapping work and acknowledged community concerns about commute times, traffic and railroad crossings in some areas. President Owens called the process extensive and noted the goal of long-term rightsizing of district facilities. The board voted unanimously to adopt the revised attendance boundaries.

Implementation timeline and next steps: the board approved the boundaries April 14; residency-exception requests for the 2025–26 school year are expected to be accepted immediately after the vote with an anticipated May 15 deadline; larger boundary changes and the shift of sixth grade into middle school will take effect for the 2026–27 school year. The district said it will post final maps and an address lookup tool to the Unite U46 web page and hold school-level meetings to explain transitions to families.