A certain group of Danville District 118 families will soon be receiving information via mail and e-mail. During Wednesday (June 5th) evening’s District 118 Board meeting, Assistant Superintendent John Hart announced that students living in the old “Cannon School boundary,” who were originally moved to Mark Denman Elementary, will now be going to Southwest Elementary.
Hart says they will begin by having kindergarten and 1st grade students go there this coming fall. However, any older siblings at Mark Denman in 2nd through 4th grades may join their younger siblings at Southwest by petitioning to transfer. Hart says information on how to do that will be included in the mailing and e-mailing.
AUDIO: And actually, the attendance has gone down at Southwest. Right now, if you look at their K to 4 student population, it’s about 225 students, which is very low. That building is built to hold about 450-460. It’s the right amount of kids, it really equals out.
Meanwhile, the district’s new facility at the former Carle medical building at 2300 N. Vermilion will get off to a small start this coming fall with two pre-K classes. All pre-K classes are at Southwest and Edison, with two classrooms at Southwest set to move first. While the Carle building will eventually have a day care for district employees, alternative student classrooms, and more pre-K; Hart says just getting started on using the building this fall will be a good first step.
AUDIO: So right now we’re looking at moving two classrooms. Which can be kind of deceptive, because there’s a morning and afternoon class; so it’s actually four sessions of school but about two classroom teachers. About 20 kids in each session; we’re looking at about 80 kids we’d be moving from Southwest to Carle.
Hart says there could be some alternative students at the Carle building at the start of the school year, and maybe more pre-Ks later in the school year, depending upon how construction goes. Also, a committee has been formed on what to name the old Carle building now that it’s part of District 118. Hart says a decision on that should be coming in about a year.
