School District U-46 unveils proposed attendance-boundary map to rebalance enrollment

School District U-46 presented a draft districtwide attendance-boundary map at a public meeting, proposing reassignments meant to balance enrollment across 55 schools and better align students with newly funded facilities.

"Our goal is to create new attendance boundaries to provide the best opportunities for all of our students here in U‑46," a staff member representing the district said. District presenters said the map is the product of the Unite U‑46 planning process, which began in 2022 and included community-developed planning criteria used to shape the scenarios shown to the public.

The proposal follows the district—s 2023 bond referendum, which presenters said provides funding to upgrade older schools and construct new buildings. A staff member said many U‑46 buildings are aging—some more than 100 years old—and that maintaining older buildings has become increasingly costly; the plan calls for retiring some of those buildings and reassigning their students to newer facilities.

Key elements of the draft map include:

- School reassignments and closures: Presenters said Hanover Countryside School will close; students from that zone would be split among Bartlett Elementary, Oak Hill and Glenbrook.…