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The Champaign Unit 4 School District is holding a public meeting Tuesday to discuss traffic impact analysis due to construction on Booker T. Washington Elementary School. The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Columbia School Gymnasium, 1103 N. Neil St., Champaign.

Construction on the school, located at 606 E. Grove St., Champaign, will begin in early May, said Principal Asia Fuller.

Fuller said the school is being rebuilt as a science, technology, engineering and math magnet school.

“It’s very exciting and innovating,” Fuller said. “We’re hoping to attract at least 200 more students.”

M. Sharif Ullah, transportation engineer for the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission said the construction could potentially affect traffic in the area.

“We received a request from the city of Champaign planning department to conduct a traffic impact study for the Booker T. Washington school,” Ullah said. “They are extending the school’s capacity by over 100 persons, and it was a concern for them what would be the impact on the neighborhood streets.”

Gene Logas, chief financial officer for the Champaign Unit 4 School District, said the school is being rebuilt because it is “old, outdated and doesn’t meet the requirements for teaching in the 21st century.”

“Some of the classrooms only have one or two outlets,” Logas said.

“The electrical capacity of the school was not large enough to incorporate modern teaching methods with all of the smartboards and computers,” he added.

Logas said the new building will cost $18 million.

“We’re getting the money from the one percent increase in sales tax that was approved last spring,” Logas said. “With the school district’s portion, we issued $86 million in bonds. The money that we get annually from that one percent increase will be enough to make the payment on those bonds over the next 25 years.”

Logas said the school is one of at least four the district will be rebuilding with the funds. He added that if the district is awarded the Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant, funds will be allocated to staffing the new school.

“We’re certainly hopeful that we get that grant, but nevertheless, we’re moving ahead with construction,” Logas said.

He added that students were temporarily moved to the Columbia Center, a former elementary school, over winter break.

Logas said students will attend Columbia for the next year and a half until the new building is complete in the fall of 2011.

Fuller said students have adjusted well to the temporary site and the transition was smooth.

“It wasn’t something that happened overnight,” Fuller said. “They had a chance to say goodbye to their school.”

She added that an open house at Columbia was hosted after the move was complete.

Fuller said the bus routes and number of students taking the bus have not changed drastically since the move to Columbia.

“We’ve allowed more kids to take the bus here because we don’t want them crossing railroad tracks or busy streets,” she said.

No

Parents, administrators and key stakeholders in the rebuilding of Booker T. Washington Elementary School attended a public meeting at the Columbia School, 1103 N. Neil St., Champaign, Tuesday to discuss the effect this construction could have on traffic patterns.

Former students of Booker T. Washington, 606 E. Grove St., Champaign, were moved to Columbia School over their winter break this year as the Champaign Unit 4 School District closed the school to rebuild Washington as a magnet school.

A heated discussion between parents and key stakeholders in the project took place as Arthur Culver, superintendent of Unit 4, lead the meeting.

The school (Washington) will be rebuilt as a science, technology, engineering and math magnet school, which seeks to attract families from throughout the district. The school’s capacity will be increased from a two-strand school, or two classes per grade, to a three-strand school, Culver said.

“It’s something that would be of particular interest to families in this community, and particularly for our nation as we move towards increasing our student achievement in the areas of science and technology,” said Doretha Simmons, director of human resources for Unit 4.

At the meeting, Culver said the school is not modeled after old magnet schools in terms of a selection or application process. Eighty percent of the seats in the new school will be reserved for students who live within the 1.5 mile radius mandated by district policy.

“If there are seats left over, they will offer them to students who live in other parts of the community,” Culver said.

Parents who attended Tuesday’s meeting clashed with school officials on many issues surrounding the rebuilding of the new school, including traffic and parking on Dunbar Court for residents.

Administrators countered parent concerns by ensuring that the new school will not take over parking used by nearby residents.

Sharif Ullah, transportation engineer for the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, said changes will be made to streets adjacent to the school that will reduce traffic problems.

“In our analysis, we have recommended to make the Grove Street segment in between Wright and Sixth Streets temporarily one-way during the school start and finish time, so that it would be easier for parents to drop off and pick up their kids,” Ullah said.

Ullah added that parent traffic will be directed to the front of the building, while buses will load in the back.

“We have suggested that buses should be taking Romine Street instead of Wright Street or Grove Street so that the buses will not interact with the parents,” Ullah said.

He added that safety of students is the biggest concern at hand.

A traffic study was presented by Mishauno Woggon from the Champaign Planning Department. Woggon said that 80 percent of students are bussed to Columbia, even if they live outside of the 1.5 mile radius mandated by district policy, due to railroads and busy streets in the area.

Woggon said a land swap occurred between Champaign and Urbana for property on Eads Street, which lies in Urbana but is needed for parking space at the new school in order to improve bus loading.

“The school sits on the edge of the municipal boundary between Champaign and Urbana,” Woggon said.

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