The District 112 school board hasn’t yet voted on whether to put a $150 million borrowing plan before voters in April. That’s slated to happen on Jan. 15.
But that hasn’t stopped groups for and against the referendum from organizing.
Last month, a political committee called Citizens Against the District 112 Referendum – called “CARE” by its supporters – filed with the state. Their opposition is out of concern with the proposed seven-school model that would mean a middle school campus where Red Oak and Sherwood elementary schools are currently located, said Davis Schneiderman, a Highland Park parent speaking on behalf of the opposition group.
Likewise, a political committee in support of the referendum, YES for District 112 Referendum, also filed last month. Members of both groups are expected to make their voices heard at Tuesday night’s District 112 committee of the whole meeting.
“We don’t want big box schools,” Schneiderman said in an interview Monday. “Mega schools cause mega problems. I worry that a solution that calls for a number of scalpels is being executed with a bulldozer.”
He referred to the proposed middle school campus, which would include one school for fifth and sixth grade and the other for seventh and eighth. Each grade would have about 500 students, according to a fact sheet on the district website.
As father of two Ravinia School students, Schneiderman said he was also worried that closing Ravinia’s elementary school would negatively affect that the Ravinia neighborhood and business district. Recently, school board members have considered a proposal to close Ravinia, instead of Braeside Elementary, as part of the plan.
But he said the opposition group’s larger concerns had to do with the educational impact and traffic of the middle school campus. The group knows the district needs to reconfigure its facilities for long-term sustainability, he said, but opposes this particular plan.
The referendum is coming “too soon,” Schneiderman said, and with “too many unanswered questions.”
On the other side, the pro-referendum group’s chairman is Len Tenner, a Highland Park resident who also chaired the Superintendent’s Citizens Finance and Facilities Advisory Committee, the group that studied the consolidation issue last year before making recommendations to the superintendent.
The SCFFAC committee called for an architectural and engineering firm to study the possibility of both an eight- and a six-building model. The district currently has 12 buildings.
But representatives of Nagle Hartray, the architectural firm contracted by the district, have said the seven-school model is the cheapest model with the most educational potential.
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In an interview Monday, Tenner said he supported Nagle Hartray’s findings and thinks it’s imperative for District 112 to get its bond referendum before voters in April.
The interest rates will continue to rise, Tenner said. And soon, the district will be forced to sink more money into its aging facilities, he said.
Passing the bond issue will give the district the flexibility to solve the problem, Tenner said, even if the plan needs to be adjusted later to meet the needs of the community.
“This problem has gone on longer than I would have liked,” Tenner said.
Twitter: @NorthShoreTrib