At their last meeting, the District 200 Board of Education chose to limit public comments for the first time ever, citing a policy it approved in January 2020. There was just one problem, the board and administration didn’t comply with the policy, making no “attempt to ensure that a representative sample for and against any agenda item will be read as public comment.” The board debuted this policy in a meeting in which OPRF’s longest-running and most controversial topic was on the agenda: the high school’s pools. What resulted was an orchestrated, one-sided parade of comments and bad optics for D200.
The 30-minutes of public comments came exclusively from students, recruited to speak by the physical education (PE) department, and a PE teacher. Almost all the students talked of rodent and cockroach infestations and the deferred maintenance of the southeast corner of the building, the PE wing and the pools. Several students talked about the dance studio needing renovations. The students shared their love of the PE program and, of course, their love of swimming. From their comments, one would assume that the community opposes all PE improvements. That simply is not true. No other comments were permitted at the meeting.
The bad optics didn’t end with public comments. What happened next was just as problematic. No board member questioned Supt. Greg Johnson about the alleged building issues. With nearly $100 million in the cash reserve, there is no excuse for infestations and deferred maintenance, and there is no excuse for the inaction of the board, failing to hold Johnson and his administration accountable.
The string of student comments about rodents and building issues was nothing new. Students highlighted the same issues in the Imagine propaganda video that premiered at the Town Hall meeting in October 2018, and Johnson used the same propaganda messaging in his opinion letter in Wednesday Journal [This is what equity looks like, Viewpoints, March 23]. If anything needs to be repaired at OPRF, fix it, don’t use it to manipulate the community to support the controversial $65 million Project 2.
Imagine’s presentation of Project 2 was paired with a disingenuous renovation-only comparison. Nothing about the sham exercise was sincere, nor was the architect who said that the pools had been well maintained.
The closed west pool was also on the agenda, with the board again failing to hold the administration accountable. D200 received the Larson Report in August, which stated that the west pool required an “immediate” structural repair, one that would necessitate its closing. The administration waited six long months before closing it, placing students’ safety at risk.
The board voted to spend nearly $800,000 to repair the west pool when it’s superfluous, and the space should be repurposed to expand the cramped Field House for the school’s largest and most diverse team: track and field. The track in the Imagine Plan will likely never be built, as it’s in the fifth and final project of the $219 million plan/wish list.
All bad optics for D200.
Monica Sheehan is an Oak Park resident.
