When my family relocated to Highland Park six years ago, we chose this community based on its excellent schools. Now, the School Board’s decision to close four schools immediately (“BDR3”) jeopardizes Highland Park’s tradition of excellence in education. The decision to move forward with BDR3 is a textbook example of arbitrary decision making. It fails to address many important issues raised by immediate school closings.
First, BDR3 is based on a false sense of financial urgency. Current financial projections, with which the Board agrees, show that the district has cash reserves it needs to take adequate time to consider all of the options.
Second, BDR3 does not address costs of arbitrarily handing out pink slips to teachers. Firing teachers without carefully considering other alternatives is no way to treat our educators. I certainly hope we all recognize that teachers are the most valuable assets in our educational programs. Treating teachers poorly will make it difficult for Highland Park to retain and attract talented teachers in the future.
Third, BDR3 does not address logistical issues of relocating en masse large numbers of students to new schools, especially with respect to special needs students who have IEPs. The Board’s failure to adequately address safety issues raised by additional traffic and students at Edgewood is surprising. It is an about face from positions the Board took in support of its single middle school plan.
Fourth, BDR3 cuts off meaningful opportunities to develop alternatives to the single middle school plan rejected by voters. The single middle school offering was unpopular with parents, who did not want to send their kids on long bus rides to attend a super-sized middle school. For me, the issue was not money. I would not have voted for the single middle school plan if the Board had offered it to me for free.
The Board should, at the very least, postpone any pink slips or official actions to close schools until after School Board elections in the spring. An immediate decision to close four schools will have a major and negative impact on Highland Park for many years to come. The Board should instead allow Highland Park to choose how it would like to proceed as a community.
Sincerely,
Christine Kexel Chabot
Highland Park
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