The NSSD 112 Board of Education recently voted to place a $198 million referendum on the March 15, 2016 ballot — and claims we must hand over nearly $200 million to save our K-8 school system from financial collapse. But their plan entails closing 40% of our neighborhood schools and busing our 5-8 graders across Route 41 to a new big-box middle school (1900 students) in the southwest corner of the district. Unless we approve the largest property tax in our city’s history, the board has threatened to shut down schools, shuffle children from school to school, cut teaching staff, and redraw boundary lines – ironically, the same things that will happen if we approve that plan.
They have structured this referendum as a false choice between doing nothing and borrowing $198 million — and we’re not buying it. Historically, voters have supported education and approved school funding initiatives. But we will not be duped into voting for a plan so clearly wrong for our community, our finances, and our children. We need another option.
I have a daughter in the district, and like many parents I am deeply concerned about the documented harmful consequences (educational, social, and emotional) of moving 5th graders to middle school. The overwhelming preponderance of research shows that student academic performance and well-being suffer in large schools (and this one will be one of the largest in Illinois). Why would we risk putting our children in this environment?
We have pressed for an external, independent audit of the district’s finances before pouring more money into any plan. We need an objective, trustworthy analysis showing how any reconfiguration would effectively address the district’s financial woes. The administration has ignored these requests.
The community requires sensible alternatives to the board’s “all or nothing” approach to this referendum. Why won’t the board put the other plans through the same value engineering as the current plan? Why have they dismissed the community’s overwhelming desire for two middle schools?
Voters will not be fooled by the false choice offered by the school board. When the referendum is defeated in March, I hope the board will finally be open to working with the community on a middle way.
We deserve better than a choice between record-breaking spending and the board’s scorched-earth alternative. Vote no, and let’s get one.
Valerie Archambeau
Highland Park
Editor’s note: Letters to the Editor represent the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of Daily North Shore