Hinsdale Central Needs Space: Officials

HINSDALE, IL — Hinsdale Central High School needs more space, officials say. But one potential solution is considered a political no-go zone.

At last week's school board meeting, two participants talked about Central's need for space in making the case to renovate the old pool building rather than leave it unused.

"It's no great surprise for people at Central that the utilization at Central is quite high," said Dorothy McCarty of Cotter Consulting.

She said renovating the pool space was better that leaving it "fallow for the foreseeable future," given the school's space needs.

Principal Bill Walsh agreed.

"We're at utilization capacities close to 95 percent in some cases," he said. "Central needs space."

In 2019, a Hinsdale High School District 86 report demonstrated what the officials are saying. According to the document, Central has 173 square feet per student. Meanwhile, the district's other school, Hinsdale South, has nearly double that space per student, at 330 square feet.

The report said Central's area per student was lower than typical in Illinois, while South's was considerably above the state standard.

Two decades ago, the schools' enrollments were about the same, but Central's is now about twice that of South's.

One obvious solution to balance enrollment is to change the attendance boundary between the schools.

But that is a highly touchy subject in the Central zone. Central residents near the boundary fear their property values would plunge if the district switched them to the South zone. Central is in Hinsdale, one of the wealthiest towns in Illinois.

Of the 10 candidates in the April school board election, only one said he would be open to changing the boundary. He lost.

Six of the district's seven board members live in the more populated Central zone.

Residents in the South zone have argued their students are shorted educational opportunities because their school is too small to offer as many classes.