I agree with Laura Huseby’s letter [Improving OPRF facilities is way past due, Viewpoints, July 13] regarding the need for, and urgency of, embarking on Imagine Project 2 at OPRF High School. While Project 1 has thankfully addressed improvements of critical learning and common spaces at the school, there is equal need to address physical education, performing arts, and related infrastructure at the school.
I believe staff and administration at OPRF have done their very best over decades to make outdated and inadequate facilities as useable and functional as possible in their current configurations. Our present circumstances are not a result of misuse or neglect, rather the passing of time and changes in needs and functionality.
I am hopeful proposed field reconfigurations and collaboration with the park district will address some of the needs of track team members, not to mention the multitude of other users, including marching band.
As someone who participated in track at OPRF, I never imagined a quarter-mile oval was possible in the west fields, and I hope it happens. While this doesn’t solve all the issues with the field house or needed indoor improvements, the new track and fields provide resources we have never had before, also much needed with the inability to use Concordia in the future.
Imagine Project 2 is an extension of this work, and I also believe the time to move forward is now.
Peter Ryan
Oak Park
