St. Charles School District looking at facility needs

St. Charles School District 303 leaders want to know the facility needs of the district.

In August, the St. Charles School Board approved hiring a demographer that will do both an enrollment study and a capacity study as part of efforts to develop a comprehensive long-range Educational Facilities Master Plan.

RSP & Associates plans to do the enrollment study at a cost of $22,000 and the capacity study at a cost of $27,650.

“We’re just working through some of the contract language right now,” Justin Attaway, the district’s assistant superintendent for business services, told school board members at the board’s Business Services Committee meeting Aug. 29. “Hopefully we should have a contract in place within the next few weeks and we’ll be able to dive deep into that work.”

In addition, Attaway told board members that the district’s administration will continue to work with Wold Architects on projects scheduled for summer 2023.

As proposed, plans are for RSP to present the data and analysis to the board in January. An educational facility planning committee, comprised of community and staff members, has been working to develop a comprehensive long-range Educational Facilities Master Plan.

“The receipt of RSP’s capacity and enrollment analysis in January will allow the board and administration to make informed decisions regarding the direction of the Facility Master Plan,” Attaway told board members.

The last time the plan was updated was in 2008. During the meeting, Superintendent Paul Gordon told board members that at three or four schools this school year, enrollment was beyond the district’s target in certain grade levels.

“By winter, we hope to be coming back to the board with some short-term solutions,” Gordon said.