St. Charles to add more mobile classrooms this fall

ST. CHARLES – Dress up a mobile classroom with a school emblem and paint it any color you want, but it still doesn’t go, St. Charles school officials said.

“If our schools were made out of wood paneling, then [mobile classrooms] might fit in better,” said Scott Nowling, president of District 303’s Board of Education.

But in August at the start of the next school year, more than 80 fifth-grade students at Davis Elementary School will be moving into new mobile classrooms to make room inside the regular school building for students enrolled in special-education, those learning to speak English and those taking advanced math.

In April, voters did not give the school district permission to build a newer, bigger Davis Elementary School and school district officials would not venture a guess as to how long the mobile classrooms would be needed at Davis.

“That’s up to the voters,” Nowling said.

Tom Droogan, who lives down the street from Haines Middle School, can see mobile classrooms at Haines from the end of his driveway. 

“I can’t complain because I voted against the referendum,” Droogan said, adding that he doesn’t have children. “The mobiles are a necessary evil for bad planning. The school district asked for too much and wanted to build too much. Do you know how much we’re paying in property taxes here?”

Five of the six existing mobile units in St. Charles – two at North High School, one at Ferson Creek Elementary, and two of the three mobiles at Haines Middle School – contain 30 classrooms. The new mobile at Davis will have six more classrooms and should be delivered next month.

Mobiles are less expensive than a building addition or a new school. But buying a mobile can be like buying a car. They depreciate as soon as you get them off the lot. And, like automobiles, these classrooms on wheels last longer in milder climates.

“We buy them used,” said Don Schlomann, superintendent of District 303.  “I guess in a few a years from now we could try and sell them. But at some point they don’t hold up. You find more of them usually more in places like California. They don’t last as long here.”

They can be eyesores. But their placement – sometimes in plain sight – is not the Board of Education’s way of getting back at a voters for not supporting a new-school referendum, officials said.

Schlomann said to save money, mobile classrooms are placed closest to municipal sewer-and-water connections wherever they may be. Hiding them from public view is sometimes not an option.

The newest mobile cost the district $239,580, which includes new carpet. The school district is paying an additional $94,500 to connect to city sewer and water, according to school documents.

Schlomann said other worries beside negative aesthetics include heightened awareness of security, specifically getting students from the mobiles in the main building safely. Students in mobiles are evacuated to the main buildings during high winds.

Mark D. Armstrong, supervisor of assessments for Kane County, said in his past career he was a real-estate appraiser and has seen no data to indicate that mobile classrooms bring down property values.

Kathleen T. Hewell, a member of the Board of Education, said mobile classrooms are a quick fix and something to blush about.

“We had classes in hallways and closets,” Hewell said. “We need more space. … I hope [the mobile units] are here for as short a time as possible.”

But Hewell added the school district will make it work for the  sake of the students.

“It’s not the ideal environment,” Hewell said. “Not the most attractive thing, but mobiles have air-conditioning and restrooms. And after all, the teacher is most important when educating a child, not the room.”

School mobiles this fall:

Batavia: 0

Geneva: 0

Kaneland: 3 or 4 for storage [all for storage; none for student use]

St. Charles: 7 [six for student use]