Nearly a dozen elementary schools on the Far Northwest Side experienced double-digit enrollment growth this year, according to Chicago Public Schools data. View Full Caption Flickr/US Department of Education

NORWOOD PARK — Nearly a dozen elementary schools on the Far Northwest Side experienced double-digit enrollment growth this year, significantly worsening overcrowding in already packed schools, according to data released by Chicago Public Schools officials.

Two elementary schools — Farnsworth and Norwood Park — saw their enrollment jump approximately 18 percent from last year to this year, according to the data released this week.

Six other Far Northwest Side schools — Hitch, Bridge, Beaubien, Canty, Wildwood and Oriole Park — saw their enrollment jump approximately 10 percent.

Three schools that have been overcrowded for at least three years — Dever, Prussing and Smyser — saw more modest enrollment growth, with their population rising approximately 3 percent, according to the data.

Taft High School View Full Caption DNAinfo/Josh McGhee

All of the Far Northwest Side elementary schools deemed overcrowded nevertheless earned the district's top rating this year, "Level 1+", which is defined by district officials as a "nationally competitive school with opportunity to share best practices with others."

Imminent relief from the space crunch is on the horizon just for Canty Elementary School in Dunning, with construction set to start in June on an $18 million annex. It is scheduled to open in September.

New annexes opened at the beginning of the 2014-15 school year at Wildwood and Oriole Park to relieve years of overcrowding after a concerted campaign by both parents and school officials.

Oriole Park Elementary, in Norwood Park, is now rated efficient, with 709 students studying in a building district officials say has an ideal capacity of 810 pupils.

But Wildwood — like Lincoln Elementary in Lincoln Park, which also got a new annex in September — is now deemed underutilized. Although district officials say it can now accommodate 600 students, its enrollment is 475 pupils. That is an 11 percent increase from last year, according to the data.

The most crowded elementary school on the Far Northwest Side — and the second most-crowded school in the city — is Bridge Elementary School in Dunning, where enrollment grew 15 percent during the last year.

Even with two campuses, with the junior high separated from the lower grades, Bridge is still overcrowded, with an adjusted utilization rate of 137 percent. Without that extra space, the school is operating at 231 percent of its capacity, according to the data.

At Beaubien Elementary School in Jefferson Park, 1,117 students study in a building meant for 900 students, giving it an utilization rate of 124 percent. Norwood Park Elementary is just as crowded, with 401 students studying in a building meant for 330 children. Both schools are among the most crowded in the city, but have no mobile classrooms.

If not for mobile classrooms and rented space, eight other Far Northwest Side Schools would be rated overcrowded by CPS, including Ebinger Elementary School in Edison Park.

At Ebinger, 776 students study in a building meant to house 510 students, giving it a utilization rate of 150 percent, among the highest in the city. Its enrollment grew 9.3 percent from last year to this year.

But the school has an eight-classroom modular building, giving the school an adjusted utilization rate of 112 percent and a rating of efficient, according to data provided by CPS.

Efforts to convince district officials to build an annex at Ebinger erupted in controversy earlier this fall when Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st) said Mayor Rahm Emanuel made it clear that plans for an annex at the Edison Park school could be threatened if Napolitano voted against his budget.

Napolitano was one of 14 aldermen to reject the $7.8 billion spending plan, and the largest property tax hike in modern Chicago history.

A new pot of money may — eventually — offer a permanent solution to overcrowded schools across the city. Emanuel earmarked $45 million from the property tax hike to relieve overcrowding, but it is unclear what projects those funds will be used to complete.

The mayor has repeatedly said CPS must address overcrowding "to ensure our students will live up to their full potential” and said it is unacceptable for students to be forced to study in hallways and closets.

Napolitano has asked the Board of Education to build annexes at Ebinger and Dirksen elementary schools.

At Dirksen, 859 students study in a building meant to house 540 students, giving it a utilization rate of 159 percent, among the highest in the city. Its enrollment grew 10 percent from this year to last.

But, like Ebinger, the school has an eight-classroom modular building, giving the school an adjusted utilization rate of 119 percent and a rating of efficient, according to data provided by CPS.

Thirty percent of the elementary schools deemed overcrowded by CPS officials are on the Far Northwest Side, according to the data.

That is bad news for Taft High School in Norwood Park, which is already the most crowded public high school in Chicago, with 3,212 students studying in a building meant for 2,184 pupils.

Taft's enrollment dropped slightly during the past year, putting its utilization rate for the 2015-16 school year at 147 percent, according to CPS data.

Last year, the Chicago City Council extended the Dunning Tax Increment Financing district, which could help pay for a proposed new high school near Oak Park Avenue and Irving Park Road in the heart of Dunning that would relieve overcrowding at Taft.

But that proposal — which has been floating around for years without concrete plans — could be stymied by concerns that construction could disturb a long-forgotten cemetery that holds the remains of Chicago's poorest and sickest residents who died between 1890 and 1912.

Meanwhile Steinmetz College Prep High School in Belmont-Cragin — which draws students from parts of Dunning — is underutilized, operating at only 70 percent of its capacity, according to CPS data.

The district's utilization rate is generated by a controversial formula that multiplies CPS' ideal classroom population of 30 by 75 percent of the classrooms in a school to determine the building's capacity. In 2013, the report was used to justify the closure of 50 schools.

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