School District U‑46 (SD U‑46) planning staff presented a proposed attendance‑boundary map that would close two elementary schools—Laurie and Washington—and two middle schools—Abbott and Ellis—reassign students to newly built or converted facilities and expand a dual‑language program, district staff said during a public presentation.

The proposal comes after the district’s community planning process and a 2023 bond referendum that district staff said provided funds for renovations and new construction. District planners said the proposal is intended to address aging school buildings, uneven enrollment and rising maintenance costs across the district’s 55 facilities serving about 35,000 students.

District staff described buildings more than 100 years old, growing maintenance costs and a mismatch in enrollment, with some schools under‑enrolled and others overcrowded. To respond, the district’s plan would convert Illinois Park from an early‑education site to an elementary school, build one or more new replacement schools (including a new Mackenley to replace an older Mackenley site), and open a new middle school at the site previously housing Hawk Hollow. The presentation said the district would close Laurie and Washington elementaries and reassign those students to other nearby schools, and that Abbott and Ellis middle schools would be closed with students reassigned to newly defined middle‑school boundaries.

Planners walked through neighborhood‑level changes the map would make. On the west side of the district, the presentation said much of Century Ox and parts of Creekside would shift into Illinois Park’s attendance area; other portions of Creekside would move to neighboring elementary schools. Highland would gain parts of Washington and Laurie; some students who currently attend Hillcrest or Larken would be reassigned to other nearby schools to create capacity for relocated students. In central Elgin, a portion of the west side around Kimbo would move to the new Mackenley, which the presentation described as having more seats than the current facility. At the secondary level, the presentation noted only one proposed change to high‑school assignments: parts of the Wayne elementary attendance area west of Route 59 would be reassigned from South Elgin High School to Bartlett High School to align with new middle‑school boundaries.

The presentation also described program changes: the district plans to add dual‑language programming at Canyon and Kenyon Woods so students in the district’s dual‑language program would no longer need to attend a different school for that program. District staff said the new boundaries are intended to preserve neighborhood cohesion, minimize travel time, allow siblings to attend the same schools when possible, and avoid reassigning the same students in consecutive years.

A parent who spoke during the meeting said her family recently moved from Hawk Hollow to Spring Trail and reported the transition went smoothly, with her daughters quickly making friends and receiving support during the move. The parent’s remarks were offered as an example of supports the district plans to provide during boundary changes, including additional staff support and family resources, the district said.

District staff said the map and scenarios were developed using enrollment figures, building capacity data, birth‑rate trends reported by the Illinois Department of Public Health, and projected new housing construction. Staff also said they used a third‑party mapping and enrollment‑prediction tool to model scenarios and visualize student density across the district.

The presentation included a district‑wide map showing colored attendance zones; staff removed individual student density points during the public display so the map could be viewed more clearly. Staff described the plan as a proposal and did not record a formal board vote or final decision in the transcript. Next steps and a public comment or approval timeline were not specified in the provided transcript.

The proposals discussed affect dozens of individual attendance zones across Elgin and other communities in the district, including references in the presentation to neighborhoods and sites identified as Century Ox, Creekside, Highland, Mackenley, Harry Giffer, Fox Mill, Bartlet, Hilltop, Kenyon Woods, Canyon, Eastview, Horizon, Liberty, Natureridge, Avid, South Elgin and portions of Wayne and Bartlett service areas. Specific school‑level assignments and the final effective date for any changes were not specified in the transcript.