I will not support the NSSD112 school referendum. At the outset of this process, the School Board solicited community input, promising to respect our values. The community recognized the need for change, but overwhelmingly supported neighborhood schools and rejected grade centers. Yet the School Board now seeks $198 million (plus at least $140 million in interest, over 30 years) to destroy our neighborhood schools and build a massive City wide grade center.
Some may wonder how this happened. After a two-year study by a 60-member citizen group, the School Board hired an architecture firm to develop costs for remodeling schools to facilitate consolidation. That firm pronounced the costs too high. Then that architecture firm (not educational professionals, by any measure) manufactured its own plan, apparently with the closed-doors input of a small, hand-picked group of people not from the citizen group. That plan was not a remodeling plan. No, it completely changed our educational model – moving 5th graders out of elementary school and busing them to a City wide middle school grade center.
Where did this come from? If the objective is a reduction in the number of school buildings, why would we ditch the K-5, 6 8 educational model that has served us well? Why this war on the K-5 model?
The School Board has failed its mandate of representing us. It has spent our own tax dollars to force this plan on us while merely pretending to consider alternatives. The Board won’t even fully cost out the two middle school option. The Board now threatens to close additional schools if the referendum fails. The Board is trying to extort us with fear tactics. This is not legitimate government. We control the purse and we should not let the Board steer us off course.
Be assured there is no emergency requiring immediate measures. The school district has run a budget surplus the last few years. Change is needed, but we can develop viable options that preserve our values and sense of community for the next generation.
Please join me and vote NO. A NO vote will allow a fresh start. If it takes election of new School Board members next year, so be it.
Jaimy L. Hamburg
Highland Park
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