A portion of Hampshire High School students will be moved to Jacobs High School in Algonquin in the next school year as officials expect dozens of new housing develops to shift its school populations.

Algonquin-based Community School District 300’s Board of Education unanimously approved the attendance boundary changes Tuesday. District staff, with the help of a boundary committee, found that Hampshire High is expected to reach capacity in four years, according to district documents.

“We should take this proactive step now to alleviate our capacity concerns,” District 300 Chief Financial Officer John Hummel said.

The kindergarten-through-high-school district, which currently has 20,000 enrolled students, expects to see an increase of over 4,000 students over the next decade, Hummel said.

With that increase, along with other Illinois districts seeing a decline in their enrollment numbers, District 300 has the potential to be bumped up to the fourth or fifth largest school system in the state. Currently, District 300 sits at sixth largest.

The expected influx of students is a result of 27 residential developments in progress within the district, many being on west side of Randall Road, Hummel said.

Hampshire is growing the most, with even more areas that have development potential in the future, Hummel said. Looking at maximizing building occupancy, transportation efficiency and programmatic efficiency, officials found moving a piece of Hampshire students to Jacobs would relieve capacity concerns.

Neighborhoods south of Huntley Road, west of Randall Road and north of Interstate 90 will be affected by the change. Originally, the boundaries extended further south and west to the Dunhill Estates and Indian Trails subdivisions, but those were ultimately left out of the new boundaries.

The approved change will go into effect for the 2026-27 school year. Current juniors will have the option to remain at Hampshire, while current eighth graders affected by the change will attend Jacobs. All affected families will be contacted by the district to discuss next steps, Hummel said.

The district also originally suggested a change to boundaries between Eastview Elementary and Algonquin Lakes Elementary schools, but staff decided to table that vote. The board could in the future consider changes to those schools’ boundaries, depending on the populations of the new housing developments, Hummel said.

Other future concerns remain, as Hampshire Elementary and Middle schools still face capacity issues due to the upcoming developments. Boundary changes were made to Hampshire about three years ago when Big Timber Elementary was built to help alleviate capacity problems the district was already facing.

The district will need to look into how to fund future building expansions or create more new schools, Superintendent Martina Smith said.

“That will happen through our Master Facility Plan process and needing to time out what that looks like in our future based on our capacity and enrollment concerns for those two buildings,” she said.

Multiple parents spoke out last month with concerns about the proposed boundary changes, many asking for current students to be grandfathered into their current schools.

One of the affected areas from the boundary change is The Meadows Winchester Glen neighborhood in Carpentersville. Parent Ryan Keller said it was would be “devastating” for his daughter, who is a freshman, to switch schools.

“My daughters have been looking forward to the possibility of playing high school softball and flag football together and not against each other,” he said.

Parent Andie Anderson said some families will be happy with the change, but she would like the option to be in the students’ hands.

“I’m sure there’s going to be some families in our neighborhoods who are going to be very happy to move over to the Jacobs High School from Hampshire High School,” she said. “I am just begging you to consider those of us who would like just the option to be able to be grandfathered” in.