The Oak Park and River Forest High School Citizens Council will no longer be referred to by that name after the group unanimously voted to change its bylaws on Feb. 9.
The group — which is responsible for “encouraging community and parent awareness of the high school and understanding of school issues and needs,” according to its bylaws — will now be called the Community Council.
“It was brought to the attention by one of our board members, my co-chair [Wendy Daniels], that in the 1950s, there were groups who called themselves White Citizens Councils, or Citizens Councils, and their main purpose was to harass people of color through economic, and [other] means,” said Karin Danganan, the council’s co-chair.
“We do not believe that the Citizens Council at OPRF had any connection to those groups, but we also want to eliminate any possible negative connotation,” she said. “In addition, we felt the name Community Council connotes a more positive reflection of who we are working together.”
District 200 board member Jennifer Cassell said that, over the last year, she had been hearing from citizens who were concerned about the name and that she brought the issue to “prior district leadership.”
Cassell thanked the leadership of the Community Council for making the name change and she thanked Dr. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams for putting the discussion about the name-change out in the open.
“It’s important that we’re mindful of these daily micro-aggressions that our students of color and our families of color are dealing with,” Cassell said. “The name of the organization was one of them.”
District 200 board President Jeff Weissglass said that he was informed of the previous name’s troublesome connotations by Cassell.
In addition to the name-change, the council also changed its bylaws respecting membership. Now, no members of the council can receive automatic renewal of their membership if they don’t have at least a 50 percent attendance rate or haven’t provided sufficient explanation for the poor attendance to a council member. There are currently 45 council members, Danganan.
“The large majority of council members are very, very good attendees, but every year we get one or two out of the 45 who either very rarely, or don’t, come to a meeting,” she said.
In the past, anyone who completed a two-year term would automatically be considered for a second term.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com