Leyden Community High School Dist. 212 Board of Education agreed to move away from the long-time practice of only offering the "behind the wheel" portion of Drivers Education during the summer.
The board approved the change during last Thursday's (Dec. 19) meeting. Dr. Dominic Manola, Dist. 212 assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said that, out of 25 school districts around Dist. 212, only one requires the driving portion of the instruction to happen during the summer. He also noted that the requirement gets in the way of students' summer jobs and family trips.
In a follow-up interview, Manola told Journal & Topics that the change would take effect at the start of the 2025-2026 school year "at the earliest," so the currently enrolled 16-year-olds would still need to take the behind the wheel potion this summer.
While the change will require the district to hire more instructors and buy driving simulators, it would also save Dist. 212 money in the long run. With fewer students trying to get their behind the wheel at the same time, the district can reduce the number of instructional vehicles, and there will be savings from not offering a class during the summer.
Under the current state law, school districts must offer at least six hours of behind the wheel time, and that behind-the-wheel time must be offered during the same semester as the classroom portion. Manola told the board that the district got a waiver from the State Board of Education to keep holding the driving portion during the summer.
According to the presentation shared during the meeting, for the past four calendar years, only around half of all Dist. 212 students who took the classroom portion of driver's ed during the school year, took the driving portion during the summer. Manola noted that students had an option to get in the hours with a private instructor.
Manola said that the behind the wheel option would be made up of three hours behind the simulators "to get all the crashes out of the way" and three hours driving an actual car.
Under the enrollment model that assumes 329 students from each school would want to take driver's ed, there would be one class per period. Each period would require three extra staff members -- one to teach the classroom and the simulator portions, and two to teach students behind the wheel in actual cars. That would translate in having to hire five new full-time employees (or some part-timers to achieve similar hours) across the district -- up from about three instructors who currently handle driver's ed.
Manola said, without a waiver, Dist. 212 will get reimbursed by the state for providing driver's education to low-income students at the rate of $250 per student. The district will be able to reduce the number of student vehicles from 16 to 4. Manola also said that shifting both components to the regular school year would save the district around $100,000 a year.
Supt. Nick Polyak said that, while there was no getting around the fact that the change would require "a big initial investment," he believed that it would pay off.
"I think it's the right thing to do for our kids and our community," he said.
Board member James Lima also expressed support.
"In our economy today, the majority of our students have full-time jobs," he said. "They have to give up jobs to do Drivers Ed."
Manola told Journal & Topics that the start of the next school year is a goal, not a firm deadline.
"Many logistics and planning steps are still needed, but we wanted to ensure the [Board of Education] was supportive before proceeding with these next steps," he said. "We are going to work hard on this right after break."