Public Meetings Scheduled for Urbana Dis 116 Sub-District Map Plans

Residents of the Urbana school district can find out more about two proposals for a new school board sub-district map, before the board takes a final vote.

District 116 is holding three public presentations on the two proposals Thursday evening.

The Urbana School Board showed its preference for one of the maps at its meeting Tuesday night. Board President John Dimit said that the 4-to-2 straw poll vote picked a map that puts as much of the Historic East Urbana neighborhood into one sub-district as possible.

School Board President John Dimit said that a straw poll vote taken last (Tuesday) night favored a map that redraws Subdistrict Seven in southeast Urbana, so that it includes less of the Historic East Urbana Neighborhood, just east of downtown.

"Right now, (Sub)district Seven actually goes up clear up into the Historic East Urbana Neighborhood," Dimit said. "And that neighborhood is split into three subdistricts. And so there is some concern; that kind of looks like an appendage to the rest of the district. And we're trying to reduce that as much as possible, and also try to make it so the Historic East Urbana Neighborhood, the majority of it, has a single representative."

Dimit voted with the majority in the straw poll, but he says feedback from Thursday's public meetings could change some minds --- or persuade the school board to make minor revisions to the map that they approve.

The public presentations will be held Thursday, Dec. 8 at 5:30 PM at Yankee Ridge School, at 6:30 at Urbana Middle School and 7:30 at King School. The final vote on the sub-district map is scheduled for the Tuesday, December 13th Urbana School Board meeting. The Urbana School District is one of the few in Illinois that elects board members from sub-districts, instead of at-large.