We all complain about government waste, myself included. Here is an opportunity to save money in the grand scheme of things. Milton has rising enrollment, Janesville has declining enrollment. DO NOT build new schools, redraw the lines and save us all a little money.

No, gwendt. "People" are not saying that.
My children are honor students, one skipped a year in school.
They happen to play hockey, and have since they were five, and enjoy it.
Now, is that enough of an explaination for you, or do you need more to continue to judge?

All the other comments aside, people that purchased those homes knowing they were in Milton School District are not going to just sit by and let Janesville take it back. They bought there homes there knowing they were in Milton District. There are many people who would NOT send their kids to Janesville.

I would never expect them to merge districts. That would be a mess and have no real benefit to Milton. I think this is more of Janesville's idea to help them out without any help to Milton.

Ok deweeze if what you are saying is true then ALL Janesville students should not be able to read a simple picture book by the 4th grade. If I pull my student from Janesville and put him into Milton and he drops academically does that automatically mean the Milton school district is a failure?

gwendt - welcome to the real world. Sports are the number one reason students switch school through open enrollment.

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Like I said before- it is all about the dollars. Milton will never give up the dollars that come with all those students, and Milton residents will never allow a merger that would raise their taxes considerably. Compare mill rates for Milton and Janesville School Districts. Milton has always been much lower.

Hmmmmm so are people saying their kids go to schools with their sports taking priority over their education ??? Interesting.

Well, I guess I am the oddball, here. I moved to Janesville, thinking my children would be in Janesville schools. Yet I was informed they'd be in Milton schools.
My girls are in hockey, which Milton does not offer. So I had to rush to to paperwork for open enrollment.
Guess if Milton wants to "compete", they should offer the same opportunities Janesville schools do.

I personally know a child who attened Janesville Schools K-4. At the end of 4th grade they could not read a SIMPLE picture book, nor did they like school. After attending 5th grade in Milton,they were reading above grade level and we could not (and still cannot) get thier nose out of a book. They are now finishing thier Jr year at Milton and is on Honor Roll. This is why many choose the convience of living in Janesville, close to "thier needs", but WANT thier children to recieve a GREAT education from Milton. Not one the just shoves children through the system.

Rocky and BalancePoint hit the nail on the head!! Watch the Extra here for annexation notices. If you see another petition for land in the Milton School district to be annexed into the City of Janesville, call, e-mail or best yet, go to the meetings and voice your opinion!!! You will get two opportunity's to stop things. First at the planning commision meetings, and secondly at the city council meeting. People need to be more proactive and pay attention instead of realizing to late that it's "weird" how all that land got into the City of Janesville, but the kids go to Milton Schools.

"If they are upset now because they "didn't know" they were in Milton Schols or are surprised that Milton is looking at building a new school because of all the new students that live in Janesville then that is their own ignorance."

Who said anything about that?

BTW, Milton & Janesville school districts looked at this situation not that long ago (not in the 90's at the latest) and decided to leave things status quo.

People who have bought homes on the north side of HWY 14 knew they were in the Milton School District. It is clearly stated in the home info sheet you pick up on any house that is for sale. That was actually a big selling point made clear by numerous real estate agents as my wife & I looked at buying our first home. We bought our house because it was close to all the things we like in Janesville, i.e. shopping & grocery & restaurants and we would still be sending our kids to the Milton School District. If they are upset now because they "didn't know" they were in Milton Schols or are surprised that Milton is looking at building a new school because of all the new students that live in Janesville then that is their own ignorance.

I don't understand the open enrollment laws. Can parents choose what school their children attend? I live in the Milton school district but pay Janesville taxes. What does the zoning matter?

The current boundries were set in the very early 1960's by the usual political process. They erroneously forecast Janesville and Beloit to grow closer rather than Janesville and Milton. There should be nothing sacred about that decision almost 50 years ago. The community leaders and boards need to set aside exceesive community attitudes and put taxpayers first. There are three existing high schools which could handle the total enrollment for the forseeable future. Why should taxpayers have to pay for even more buildings? The best business decision would be for the Milton and Janesville districts to merge and really share resources and programs. Second best would be a boundry shift and third best would be extensive cooperation to make programs available to students in both districts. The least desirable choice is the status quo.

The City of Janesville should restrict growth of the City, to areas within our own school district.

But why if you live with in the J'Ville city limits, do you have to go to Milton... the School District (J'Ville) is shrinking and Milton School district is growing, to me If you want to keep the Tax base down ,, get rid of the idea of building a new school (Milton) and add another tax burden on the public and move some of your students into the city where they live... IMO

There is nothing "weird" about this. People have chosen to move into the Milton district instead of Janesville for various reasons. If the Janesville district is so worried about this growth pattern the solution is to get the city council to stop approving growth in the Milton corridor and shift it to areas within the district.

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Milton will never give up one inch of district territory. The financial reality is that students = dollars, so overcrowding is a much smaller problem than declining enrollment. Moving the line to shift students from Milton to Janesville would be a financial disaster for Milton requiring dozens of layoffs without corresponding hires in Janesville. And haven't we had enough of that around here already?

I'm not sure why this is weird. School district boundaries were decoupled from municipal boundaries a long time ago. In Illinois, school districts are potentially even separate for K-8 and 9-12 and can overlap (or not) in very unexpected ways. Most suburban Chicago high school districts are one or two townships in size, no matter what municipal boundaries have been established over the years.
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While it may seem to make sense to have all of the city of Janesville within the Janesville School District, and Milton may well consent, it also will mean a smaller tax base and enrollment for the Milton schools. It should only be done if it really addresses mutual concerns. That may be the case if it turns out that Janesville could avoid closing a school and Milton could delay building one.
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But there's no need to do it for aesthetic reasons.