Parents upset over a late December vote to shutter two schools packed the Summit Hill Elementary District 161 Board meeting Wednesday in hopes the school board would change its mind.
Since Friday, mom Lisa Brace collected 325 signatures of parents who are against the planned closings of Arbury Hills Elementary School in Mokena and Frankfort Square Elementary School in Frankfort.
During the two-hour board meeting, another 40 parents signed her petition, she said.
District 161 serves just over 2,400 students in areas of Frankfort, Mokena and Tinley Park. On Dec. 20, the school board voted to shutter two of its six schools, citing a decade of declining enrollment.
Parents say the decision was made in haste without their input, and some board members said they want the option of rescinding the December decision.
Brace, whose twin daughters are third graders at Arbury Hills, said students get individualized attention at the Mokena school. The principal, teachers and school staff not only know all the students, but they get to know the parents too, Brace said.
“Arbury Hills is such a lovely school,” Brace said. “It’s one of the gems of the community.”
She said her kids are passionate about saving their school.
“We don’t want to be up here screaming and yelling, but closing our schools is a very big deal,” Brace said. “We don’t feel all the facts were presented in a forthright manner.”
Arbury Hills parent Patrick Oliphant said the decision was rushed and made without community input. He said residents found out about the possibility via a news article on Halloween, and the vote was taken less than two months later.
Children and parents love their teachers, faculty and leadership at Arbury Hills, he said. They don’t want to leave their home school. They feel upended and they face uncertain transportation times.
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Parents need more information about transitional plans, he said.
“This really wasn’t transparent,” Oliphant said. “This seemed to be rushed.”
Oliphant said if the board doesn’t vote to rescind the decision to shutter the schools, the community should have an opportunity to weigh in through an advisory referendum.
Bill Curtin, a father of three, said it’s important to have a community school.
“Enrollment ebbs and flows,” he said. “But you can’t go backward because if schools are left to sit, the cost of reopening will be prohibitive. And if the schools are sold, you can’t go back.”
After public comment Wednesday, school board member John Winter asked if the board could discuss the school closures. A vote to have more discussion failed.
Winter told the board that parents collected hundreds of signatures, in subzero weather, opposed to the closures.
“This is not going to go away,” he said. “These people are really upset.”
Winter said he didn’t think district policies were followed and wants rescinding the closures addressed at another meeting. He said he was unaware the board was going to vote to close the schools Dec. 20, and thinks he received misinformation. He wants committees to review the district’s data to ensure it’s accurate.
Board member Stefanie McCleish, who voted in favor of closing the schools, said she would like time to process what parents said Wednesday.
“I would like some time to digest what was given to us,” she said.
Board President Jim Martin said the board followed all policies and laws required to close the schools.
But parents said the district did the bare minimum. They want officials to hear them without the three-minute limit for public comment at board meetings. Several parents said they don’t feel the district has been responsive to their questions.
Brace said she does not believe the issue could be a financial one when the district has $20 million in reserves.
Other parents questioned the district’s data and said the cost of school repairs was inflated.
Oliphant said capacity data was misleading. Arbury Hills, for instance, has no empty classrooms, with 12 rooms used for grade level teaching and seven rooms used for specialties, he said.
Superintendent Paul McDermott said information about the school closures can be found on the district’s website, www.summithill.org.
Arbury Hills, 19651 S. Beechnut Drive, Mokena, was built in 1960 and has a capacity for 456 students, according to the website. The school had 262 students in 2013 and an enrollment of 187 students.
Frankfort Square School, 7710 W. Kingston Drive, Frankfort, was built in 1973 and has a capacity of 426 students. The school had 239 students in 2013 and now has 168.
The conversation to close the schools began before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the website. The district once had more than 3,600 students, and now has 2,433 students enrolled with more eighth grade students expected to graduate than incoming kindergarten students next year.
District documents also state the district has historically seen a drop in achievement scores as students reunite at Hilda Walker Intermediate School for fifth grade, and officials want to ensure each student is exposed to the same experiences and education.
District officials said they do not intend to maintain the buildings once they are closed. The district would entertain options to sell the buildings or enter into an intergovernmental agreement where maintenance costs are the responsibility of someone else. If the buildings are sold, the district would use the funds for educational needs and to stop deferring maintenance costs, documents said.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.