Very heartening to read that Oak Park and River Forest High School and the Park District of Oak Park will be collaborating on rationing athletic fields for the benefit of students and taxpayers.
Further heartening to read Wednesday Journal’s editorial of May 11 [OPRF, parks make a plan, Our Views, Viewpoints] supporting this common-sense, fiscally-responsible effort to maximize finite public resources. The editorial rightly noted “the high school’s abject failure years back to engage with the park district to discuss a shared pool and recreation center at Ridgeland Common” and “the high school, deep in its arrogant phase, refused to engage even as its own pools deteriorated. It was a low point and it brought us endless and unnecessary tensions and costs.”
The collaboration on athletic fields needs to include the pool issue. The pool at Ridgeland is within eyesight of the school, same with the park district athletic fields. Blending use of the park district and school campuses makes sense, given that they are in close proximity. They are adjacent.
The current District 200 high school board has a golden chance to correct the mistake of past boards by collaborating with the park district to cover the pool at Ridgeland Common as a reasonable, cost-efficient means of addressing the pool issue once and for all. Past estimates for doing so have been about $15 million, which is about 23% of the cost of the pool-driven Project 2 Imagine plan. Take the approximate $50 million/77% savings from covering Ridgeland’s pool and use it judiciously on new locker rooms and especially the academic-oriented priorities in Projects 3-5. In fact, repurposing the existing pool space could generate three floors of space in a space-constrained school. D200 already set aside $20 million from the surplus toward the pool in Project 2, so that could be used to cover Ridgeland Common’s pool, which has a long lifespan ahead.
The Ridgeland Common pool schedule for 2022 begins May 31 and ends September 5. That is a maximum pool season of 98 days, assuming no closures for weather; a maximum pool use of just 26.85% days of the year. In other words, no one can use the pool at Ridgeland Common 73.15% of the time. That is serious underuse of a fixed public asset. Public use of this pool could be expanded to almost 365 days per year. The school year is basically late August through early June and does not overlap much with the traditional Memorial Day to Labor Day pool season. Any overlap could be addressed by reasonable compromise.
Past D200 boards’ legacy includes a festering pool issue going back many years. What a legacy it would be for the current board to settle this issue once and for all in a manner that satisfies the school, the park district and the often ignored and abused taxpayers.
Are D200 and the park district willing and able to set aside egos, their fiefdom/silo mentality, and do right by students and taxpayers? That’s the $65 million question.
Jack Powers is an Oak Park resident.