Boundary Adjustments from a Williamsburg Patriot/Geneva Viking Mom and Batavia Resident

As a parent in area 20, the Batavia Highlands, my family will be affected by the apparent imminent move of area 20 from Williamsburg Elementary School to Western Avenue School.   

I, along with many other parents, attended the public forum at Williamsburg.  At that forum, we were told the move was to avoid a possible future crisis of overcrowding.  However, after a lengthy “presentation”, the Board decided last week to leave all Geneva residents as is, and now are considering moving only our Batavia kids. 

Our children are few.  There are approximatley 16 total that would be affected by the move.  Their absence will not be felt in a statistical sense. But Williamsburg's absence will change their lives. 

The move would place some kids into more crowded classrooms than they are currently in. They would enter the new year without the kids they've known, played with, grown with and leaned on for support over the past 4 years. They won't know anyone, from the janitor to the lunchroom monitors to the principal.  They will face an unfamiliar school layout.  They will lose their comfort with school.  They will lose their identity, no longer being allowed to call themselves Patriots, all they've known since kindergarten. Nothing in the move will be advantageous to them. Their parents won't be closer to family, or getting better jobs, or a nicer home or even starting a new life, as would be the traditional reasons to move a child. 

Being from Batavia, our children have to work hard to overcome the natural rivalry between the cities. As fun as the rivalry is at a sporting or scholastic event, it is difficult for our kids.  A decision by the District to switch their school will make that even more difficult. They will have to "train" an entirely new school (students and staff) that they are not the enemy. They are future Vikings and will someday bleed blue just like all of the other Geneva kids. 

I've come to find when speaking with others, that most people in Geneva don't realize that we in the Batavia Highlands pay Geneva taxes just like everyone else in District 304.  While our zip code is 60510, we are in Geneva Township, we belong to the Geneva Public Library and the Geneva Park District.  We are not unincorporated.  We simply divide our municipal services between Batavia and Geneva.  Our kids deserve the same respect and solid education that every other kid in this District gets.  Passing them around without just cause, as if their educational and emotional well-being is less important than those residing in 60134, is simply unjust, unacceptable and discriminatory. 

To pull a handful of kids from the only place they’ve ever known and throw them into a group of strangers, is unconscionable.  To do it without justification and only to our small neighborhood is prejudice.  

Please support us in our fight. Our children may be few but they are not expendable! It is not in their best interests to be moved, particularly in such a tiny group and without just cause.