Oak Park and River Forest High School’s fiscal outlook shows signs of distress just two years after then-board President Tom Cofsky and his six-member board (Fred Arkin, Gina Harris, Kebreab Henry, Ralph Martire, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Sara Dixon Spivy) voted to ignore best practices and bypass the more than 50,000 District 200 voters to use a funding loophole to push through the estimated $135 million (construction, borrowing and geothermal costs) for the controversial Project 2. (1 & 2)
OPRF’s formerly strong financial position took a major hit from the board’s decision to issue debt certificates, tacking on $3.2 million to its annual operating budget for 20 years, and drain the cash reserve by $44.2 million to circumvent a taxpayer vote to build the oversized pool/PE addition.
At the Oct. 14 Community Finance Committee meeting, the message was clear that it’s the start of a new fiscal era at the high school, with its mountainous cash reserve of unauthorized taxpayer dollars drained and potential structural deficits on the horizon, amid union contract negotiations. Finance Director Brian Imhoff says the cash reserve will fall under its low target range of 25% by June 2028 and promotes a “blended approach” to address the shortfall, requiring increasing revenue and potentially recapturing property taxes from 2023 and 2024, as well as cutting expenditures, to bring the cash reserve up to at least 33% of annual operating expenses, a level that he believes is needed due to recent delays in property tax distributions. (3)
Monica Sheehan
25-year Oak Park resident
investigating District 200 since 2014
Sources:
1) 4/28/23 Wednesday Journal story: OPRF unanimously decides financing for its Project 2 (https://www.oakpark.com/2023/04/28/oprf-unanimously-decides-financing-for-its-project-2). Also OPRF website: https://www.oprfhs.org/about/news/news-details/~board/home/post/board-approves-funding-for-imagine-oprf-project-2
2) Cook County Board of Elections Registered Voters in D200: https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/elections/results-and-election-data/election-data/registration-statistics
3) OPRF Community Finance Committee meeting, Oct. 14, 2025, the information is stated in the linked Community Finance Committee meeting, and it’s also listed on the PowerPoint slide that appears when one clicks the meeting link, see the screenshot, “Recap of August Financial Projection Discussion.” https://www.youtube.com/live/1RFq7t155XY?t=4945s