The next decision about Project 2, the renovation of the OPRF High School physical education facilities, is a funding decision, not a community engagement decision.
Community engagement happened over the past seven — or truly more — years as a master plan was developed to guide upgrading the century-old facilities. Community engagement happened through hundreds of hours of work by volunteers on the Imagine team and through listening sessions, student and family surveys, tours of peer institutions, meetings with teachers and staff, inventories and investigations of countless spaces in the high school — the list goes on. Even last spring, programming meetings were held to independently reconfirm the Project 2 scope to ensure the scope remains relevant.
The District 200 school board, elected by our communities, unanimously agreed with the results of this engagement and approved the Project 2 scope.
The D200 board received a fiscally responsible funding option from the Community Finance Committee that allows Project 2 to move forward now, without referendum, breaking ground in late spring 2024 and finishing by fall 2026. Approving to fund the project without referendum bonds offers a check and balance on the board and administration, encouraging fiscal responsibility by managing the budget within the standard operating tax levy versus adding a second taxpayer levy for any referendum funding.
Between now and September 2026, more than 2,400 new students will enter OPRF High School and experience the subpar facilities desperately needing renovation to meet today’s curricular needs. Current fifth-graders, who will be freshmen in the fall of 2026, were barely in preschool when the last referendum was held.
Alison Welch
Oak Park and OPRF parent