I’ll keep this brief. As a village we have been debating improvements to the physical education wing for over a decade.
I think we can agree that there is consensus that it needs improvement. Construction costs escalate annually, sometime at a steep rate as we recently have seen. Pragmatism is expensive.
The cheapest financing option is the option that gets us to construction quickest. I humbly ask the District 200 school board to remember your duty to the school in this regard.
We know that there is an anti-pool, anti-tax, pro-referendum group that will lobby heavily against the project and any associated referendum. They have no shame in cherry-picking facts, making false equivalencies, inventing conspiracies, or dragging up obsolete plans to delay, obstruct, and derail any improvement plan.
Unfortunately this, in my opinion, makes a referendum untenable. Unless of course we are willing to risk another decade of delay and associated cost inflation. It’s not an “end around” to not have a referendum, you are just avoiding an unnecessary mudslinging fight in the town square. Ultimately, you know the work is needed.
Please select the financing option that expedites this long-overdue improvement. We are a progressive community and if we follow our values it is clear that we should invest in our schools.
The sooner the better — 3,383 kids are counting on you!
Tom Powers
Oak Park
