NORMAL — A study of the overall utilization of McLean County Unit 5 schools shows that the district's two high schools are approaching full capacity.
Matthew Cropper, president of Cropper GIS Consulting out of Ohio, said during Wednesday's school board meeting that his firm has been working with the district for the last seven or eight months to understand how each school is laid out and determine how many students each building can hold.
Using average classroom sizes, the firm set target numbers for low and high utilization of district schools. These numbers determined whether each school, based on its current student population, was being underutilized or overutilized.
Cropper said this data doesn't just factor in the number of classrooms within a school, but also the number of special programs offered.
"Some schools have a lot more programs and offerings in the building to meet the needs of the students, and that typically lowers the available capacity of the school because they need more space to deliver those programs," Cropper said.
Cropper said it's ideal for junior highs and high schools to have between 80% and 85% utilization.
However, the district's two high schools are operating at 96% of total district utilization. Normal Community High School, in particular, is operating at 101% of utilization, according to Cropper.
Although the high schools are approaching capacity, Cropper said the elementary schools in total are running at 79% utilization.
He added that elementary schools generally are able to operate at a higher utilization than high schools because students don't have to change classrooms each period.
"In elementary schools, students stay in the classroom (and) the teacher teaches them every single period of the class, and there's not much migration from room to room," Cropper said.
Unit 5 Superintendent Kristen Weikle said the district also is working on a report detailing any maintenance work schools may need. The report is expected to be finished this summer.
"Together, we'll take the utilization study (and) our facilities information and really be able to make a plan for the future of our facilities so we can best serve our students," Weikle said.
Weikle added that if schools do face capacity issues, the district does not intend to do away with classroom space for music and art programs.
"Some districts may be OK with that, but we have chosen not to," Weikle said.
Photos: Normal West baseball at Bloomington
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Contact Drew Zimmerman at 309-820-3276. Follow Drew on Twitter: @DZimmermanLee
Matthew Cropper, president of Cropper GIS Consulting out of Ohio, presents McLean County Unit 5 school utilization data during Wednesday's school board meeting at Normal West High School.