Joliet Public Schools District 86 will host a second meeting about the proposed closing of A.O. Marshall Elementary School on Thursday.

The district held an initial meeting on the matter Dec. 11, during which it discussed the small enrollment size at the building in comparison with its maximum capacity.

The district said the 101-year-old school’s enrollment has been decreasing over recent years. In 2010-11, the school was nearing its 644-student capacity with 591 students.

Currently, there are only 210 students enrolled at Marshall, representing a 64.5% decrease in enrollment in 15 years.

While enrollment has decreased by more than 2,000 students across the district since 2010, Marshall is the building currently using the smallest percent of its capacity at only 33%, the district said.

The second hearing on the topic will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at Isaac Singleton Elementary School, 1451 Copperfield Ave. Singleton has been identified as the likely recipient of Marshall’s students should the school close next year as proposed.

Board documents for the second meeting show statistics about both buildings’ current average class sizes, as well as the proposed average class size after a potential merge.

This year, the average class size for kindergarten through fifth-grade classes at Marshall is 14 students, while it is 20 students at Singleton, which has a total current enrollment of 366 students.

If the schools were combined, class sizes would land between 16 and 27 students in 2026-27, with fifth-grade classes expected to be the largest and an additional fourth-grade room being needed, District 86 reported.

In addition to being the least-occupied building in the district, Marshall also performed below the district average and Singleton in both math and English language arts proficiency, according to the most recent Illinois Report Card data.

Both schools were rated “commendable” by the state, meaning they had no student groups performing in the bottom 5% of schools.

Marshall students showed ELA proficiency rates of 20.9%, as opposed to Singleton’s 22.8% and the district’s 29.6%. In math, Marshall performed just under the district average of 16.8% proficiency with a 16.5% proficiency, and Singleton outperformed the district average with a 17.4% proficiency.

The meeting is the second of three informational sessions being held by the district on the subject. Time will be allotted for community members and parents to ask questions and give their opinion.

The third meeting will be Feb. 4 at Marshall Elementary, with a final decision scheduled for the regular board meeting Feb. 11.