FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 22, 2007

For more information call

Ed Hightower

618.656.1182

District Proposed Attendance Areas for New Schools

The District 7 administration and Dr. Randy Pearson presented the preliminary results of the Attendance Area Study at the District’s regular Board of Education meeting tonight. Dr. Pearson, Chairperson of the Geography Department at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, was commissioned by the District to reconfigure elementary and middle school attendance areas for the 2008-09 school year.

Public Meetings

The administration has scheduled public meetings across the school district on October 23, 24, and 25 to share the results of the study with parents and other interested citizens. The meetings will include a presentation and a question/answer session. Parents may choose to attend the meeting is most convenient to them. The content at each meeting will be the same. The schedule is outlined below.

Date Time Location

October 23 7:00 p.m. Glen Carbon Elementary School

October 24 7:00 p.m. Columbus Elementary School

October 25 7:00 p.m. Midway Elementary School

District 7 will open a new primary school near Liberty Middle School, a new intermediate school on Glen Crossing Road, and an expanded Worden Elementary School that will house grades three through five.

According to Dr. Pearson, Superintendent Ed Hightower asked that the study take into consideration the following information:

§ School capacities and preferred enrollment

§ Bus ride times/road infrastructure

§ District geography divided into Subdivision Units

§ High population growth areas

§ Minimal movement of students in current historic attendance areas

§ Balanced enrollment and demographics

§ Minimal geometric complexity of attendance areas

Proposed New Primary Attendance Area (Liberty Site)

The proposed new primary attendance area will include students living within the following areas:

§ All subdivisions/roads that connect to Goshen Road

§ All subdivisions/roads connected to Gerber Road that are south of the proposed Governors’ Parkway

§ All subdivisions/roads that are accessed only via Ridge View Road

§ All subdivisions/roads that connect to State Rt. 143 – east of Ridge View Road

§ All subdivisions/roads that are connected to Staunton Road – south of Pin Oak Road

§ All subdivisions/roads that are connected to Pin Oak Road – east of I-55 (not to include Staunton Road north of Pin Oak Road

§ All subdivisions/roads connected to Cottonwood Road or Old Troy Road – north of and including Mont Road

§ All subdivisions/roads connected to Center Grove Road – south of the proposed Governors’ Parkway

§ All subdivisions/roads that are accessed via Cougar Road or Junction Drive (area south and west of Hawthorne Animal Hospital

NOTE: Attendance areas for Hamel and Midway Elementary will not change. However, both schools will convert to K-2 schools to align with all other primary schools in the school district.

Proposed New Intermediate Attendance Area (Glen Crossing Site)

The proposed new intermediate attendance area will include students living within the following areas:

§ All subdivisions/roads south of I-270

§ All subdivisions/roads connected to Glen Carbon Road and homes/roads on 159 south of Wal-Mart

§ All subdivisions/roads south of Goshen Road between 159 and Liberty Middle School (to and including Gusewelle Lane)

§ All subdivisions/roads that are north of Goshen Road and south of proposed Governors’ Parkway between 159 and Liberty Middle School

§ All subdivisions/roads connected to Gerber Road south of Governors’ Parkway, which includes Bennington Place and Gettysburg

NOTE: The attendance area for Worden Elementary will not change. However, Worden Elementary will convert to a 3-5 school to align with all other intermediate schools in the school district.

Proposed Modification to Middle School Attendance Areas

The middle school attendance areas are being modified to distribute the student population more evenly between the two schools. The modified attendance area includes:

§ All students living west of Hillsboro and north of Vandalia

§ All students living west of South Buchanan/Troy Road between the Edwardsville Public Library and Dierbergs

§ All subdivisions/roads that are accessed via Cougar Road or Junction Drive (area south and west of Hawthorne Animal Hospital

NOTE: Those students currently attending Liberty Middle School who are in 6th or 7th grade and reside within the new Lincoln Attendance Area will be considered as Grandfather Status. Parents of these students will have the choice to continue at Liberty Middle School or move to Lincoln Middle School.

If there is a sibling who will be moving into middle school at the same time as the 6th or 7th grader is in middle school, the parent may choose to have the sibling stay at Liberty as well.

Dr. Ed Hightower, Superintendent of Schools, said that the District administration is sensitive to the stresses associated with moving students between buildings. “It’s the reason we adopted a grandfather clause for those middle school students who already started at Liberty. We want them to be able to finish middle school where they began,” Hightower said.

Board of Education President Jim Speciale was pleased with the work of the administration and Dr. Pearson. “I want to thank everyone involved in this process. The amount of effort that has gone into this study is obvious, and the quality is outstanding. We are fortunate to have access to the expertise of Dr. Pearson and the technology at SIUE to help us make informed decisions,” Speciale said.

“We know that parents are anxiously awaiting the information presented tonight. They want to know what school their children will attend next year. I hope that parents take the opportunity to attend one of the public meetings we have scheduled for this week. It is a chance to ask any questions they might have about the process and the proposed changes,” Speciale said.