Mobile classroom proposed for Brooks Elementary School gets preliminary green light

DeKALB – To address growth in enrollment, leadership in DeKalb School District 428 presented a proposal this week that would bring a mobile classroom to Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School.

The petition would give staff the flexibility that officials said is needed to have additional space inside the building at 3225 Sangamon Road for an intensive classroom. The classroom also would exist outside on the school grounds.

The request received initial support from the city of DeKalb’s Planning and Zoning Commission; however, the DeKalb City Council will need to green light the request before it moves forward.

Tammy Carson, director of facilities and safety operations for District 428, said the proposal would relocate the space where music class currently is held and put it on one side of the mobile classroom.

“That’s what we have done in other times with mobile classrooms that we’ve had to put around the district,” Carson said. “We put music in one side and typically a media center on the other side.”

But Carson said the district doesn’t yet have a plan for the other side of the mobile classroom, which will be used for storage for the time being.

The city has approved other mobile classrooms for District 428 in the past, including those at Clinton Rosette Middle School, Tyler Elementary School and most recently at Littlejohn Elementary.

The mobile classroom, if approved, would remain on the south end of the building on the blacktop for three years beginning with the 2022-23 school year.

DeKalb City Planner Dan Olson said the petition wouldn’t affect the availability of parking on the school’s premises.

“They’re currently parked out there in the parking lot,” Olson said. “They’re just waiting for approval so they can place it to have the location noted.”

The site allows for 106 parking spaces, including five handicap parking spaces, according to city documents.

Carson said the district already is engaged in discussions on ways to reduce class size in the future and how school officials can work to eliminate mobile classrooms throughout the district.

The mobile classroom proposal is expected to be given consideration by the City Council during its meeting Monday.