Champaign School Board Chooses Magnet School Themes for Garden Hills and BTWashington

Garden Hills Elementary School gets the fine arts magnet. Booker T. Washington Elementary School gets the science and math magnet. Those are the recommendations the Champaign School Board approved Monday night for the two schools slated for major renovations.

The Magnet School Planning Committee started developing the recommendations in March. Deputy Superintendent for Student Achievement and Equity Dorland Norris said the committee looked for themes that would be a good match for each school and would attract diverse families.

Norris said the administration's plan to move the Transitional Bilingual Education program from BTWashington School to the larger Garden Hills School was one reason the committee picked the fine arts theme for Garden Hills. She says foreign languages will be a major part of the offerings in the Garden Hills fine arts magnet program.

Garden Hills is being extensively renovated and BTWashington is being completely rebuilt. Both schools will get additional classrooms to meet requirements of the Consent Decree.