Hinsdale High School District 86 Board members said they want more information about making more courses available at South when they discussed the 2025-26 staffing framework at their Jan. 9 meeting.
Adolf Galinsky, a parent in the Hinsdale South attendance area who spoke during public comment, said 32 percent of students’ course requests for this school year at South were denied, compared to 11 percent at Central, according to information presented at the Dec. 13 academic committee meeting.
“The news of that difference should be blared like a siren across the South attendance area,” he said. “Central residents would never tolerate a 32 percent course rejection rate for their students.”
Two major factors affect whether a student can take a class. The staffing framework indicates classes in which 15 or fewer students enroll during the course selection process will not be offered in most cases. A student also might have an individual schedule conflict, with two desired classes offered only during the same period. The issue is complicated by the fact that Hinsdale Central (2,425 students) is significantly larger than Hinsdale South (1,370 students).
“Overall, when you look at the courses offered at South, the fact that they can offer as many as they do with the number of students they have is a testament to the creative scheduling that they do,” said Jodi Bryant, assistant superintendent of human resources. “It is difficult to have as many first choice opportunities as you do in a building with 1,000 fewer students.”
Board member Abed Raman said the minimum requirement of 15 students for a course to run is a problem with schools of such disparate sizes.
“We need to be more proactive,” Raman said. “There is a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed, and that is lower enrollment at South.”
Board members agreed they are not advocating to change school boundaries but said they would like to find a creative solution to making more courses available at South.
Board member Terri Walker said the staffing framework could include lower class sizes at South.
“We need to decide that if South is going to run at 15 plus or minus two or 18 plus or minus two, and then we figure out how much it’s going to cost us to do that,” board member Terri Walker said.
Board member Heather Kartsounes noted that the district does not have unlimited resources.
“We might want to offer every single section of every single course to both campuses, but we don’t have the resources to do that,” Kartsounes said. “It’s a balancing act.”
Board member Jeff Waters pointed to the 10 percent decline in district enrollment over the past five years, which was not accompanied by a reduction in staff.
“Both schools have less students but we have the same amount of teachers,” he said. “We have to efficiently utilize the excessive resources we have in this example because we have less to serve.”
Superintendent Mike Lach summarized board members’ comments.
“I’m hearing be creative. I’m hearing be student-focused. I’m hearing be fiscally responsible. I’m hearing that we really, really, really want to have the same opportunities as measured by course offerings that are running at both campuses.
“I’m hearing a little bit of concern about the fact that at South, there are more students who don’t always get their first choice of their course selection as an issue,” he added. “That happens after staffing is done. We can think about some ways to be creative around that as an option.”
Board members and administrators agreed to work together to compile data regarding students’ course selections and staffing and return to the discussion at a future meeting. The board also discussed forming a task force that would look further into the disparity in course offerings.
