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A Movement By Citizens Demanding Transparency, Accountability, and Community Engagement for school districts in the State of Illinois. Building A Better District is a taxpayer-led movement and is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, the State or Regional Board of Education, any individual school district, or administration/Board of Education. |
In November 2022, the district shared a slide that displayed 4 "approved" subdivisions expected to add 1,575 homes and 1,260 students to our district. We verified info on these developments via the City of Elgin. This is what we found: HPI WEST I and WESEMANN PROPERTY
PINGREE CREEK (Shodeen)
TRINITY CHASE
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Approved in *2006* and *2007* (17 to 18 years ago).png)
Assuming the last two began construction soon, it would be done in phases & total 814 homes. A Student Yield Factor of .8 means 651 new students over a span of up to 15 years. At the same time, kids would be graduating out of the district while their parents remain in their home, so existing seats would be opening up to receive other students.
At the November 2022 Focus Groups, the district referred the community to four developments on the City of Elgin's approved developments list as the basis for planning for aggressive growth as reflected in the slide shown here. HPI West I & the Wesemann Property were listed on the district's presentation as expected growth for our district. The developers of these two properties were Pasquinelli Homes & Kimball Hill. The land was purchased in 2008—the same year BOTH developers went out of business. They filed bankruptcy in 2011. Properties from both of these developments were transferred into a new entity: HPI-Elgin, LLC of which Bruno Pasquinelli is still a part. Pasquinelli Homes was subject to many lawsuits alleging a pyramid scheme that led to more than a decade of litigation and it is presumed these developments are on-hold indefinitely. Their bankruptcy was only settled in 2021. If these developments are stalled, this would change the district's student-based projection of 1,575 new homes and 1,260 students to only 814 homes, reducing the expected new students to 651 –half the expected growth -- using the district's Student Yield Factor of .8. We sent sent an e-mail to City of Elgin and Kane County to determine if those properties have active plans for development and have been unable to secure an answer at this time. We have also reached out to the Registered Agent for HPI-Elgin, LLC and have not received confirmation of these developments. |
Approved developments are on the City of Elgin plan, but approval does not translate into construction, and as you can see by the approval dates, getting a project to the construction stage can take decades. We need an Enrollment Forecast & Facilities Analysis and a phased plan that can accommodate where we are today and where we may be in the future. Building a 450,000 SF high school on the promise of future development is neither fiscally responsible or prudent based on the information we have: we have 2 potential developments on the board that may bring up to 600+ students over more than a decade of development.
We have time to get this right!