Chicago Public Schools told a hearing officer Friday that all the Trumbull children have been assigned to new schools, putting into doubt a Bulldog piece, also on Friday, that indicated the CPS plan would lead to overcrowding at McCutcheon School.
According to the CPS testimony, the about 146 to 148 special education students at Trumbull will be assigned to either McPherson or McCutcheon. However, and it is a big however, CPS hedged its statement by saying that students who did not reside in the Trumbull district would need to seek enrollment at their neighborhood school.
CPS showed the hearing officer documents that stated McCutcheon would enroll 461 students, receiving 88 students from Trumbull.
As indicated in The Bulldog, CPS documents indicate McCutcheon has just 47 seats till it is 100 percent utilized. In other words the CPS plan would add 88 students, or about ten percent, over capacity, even before demographics make the situation worse.
The Bulldog has used census data to demonstrate that McCutcheon’s new school boundary will cause the school to be overutilized by between 14 and 21 percent.
CPS officials named four criteria for deciding on a school boundary. Demographic information was not among the four criteria.
CPS projected enrollment indicates:
- Chappell will receive about 108 Trumbull students.
- McCutcheon will receive about 88 Trumbull students.
- McPherson will receive about 114 Trumbull students.
- The 8th Grade at Trumbull was 49 students in 2011-12. The range of 8th grade students in the period 2003 to 2012 was between 42 and 65 students according to a study by Northern Illinois University.
- Total accounted for- 352 to about 375 of 389 students.
A screen grab from a spreadsheet created by CPS indicated different enrollments than that projected by CPS before a hearing officer Friday.
CPS projected enrollment at Chappell School for 2013-14.
CPS projected enrollment at McCutcheon School for 2013-14
CPS projected enrollment at McPherson School for 2013-14
Another interesting thing to note, many of the students who will be assigned to McChutchen & McPherson are in the special education program at Trumbull. As these students have sever disabilities (downs syndrome, ASD, cognitive delay, traumatic brain injury, etc.) the law requires a 7-14 student limit on their classrooms. McChutchen has room for 47 non-disabled students. When taking about students with profound disabilities, the number they can accommodate shrinks rapidly.