I join Wednesday Journal in “Thanking Tom Cofsky” [Our Views, Viewpoints, May 7] for his 12 years of service on the OPRF High School board and for changing District 200’s policy of always taxing to the max. But I disagree that the high school changed its “free-spending ways” during his tenure. For example, the administrative staff grew more than 50% since 2020 [1] though enrollment fell over the same period [2]. And OPRF continues to run up surpluses, as Monica Sheehan documented in her May 14 One View [3]. Nor is it the case that D200 is no longer arrogant, as WJ implies. What else can we call its decision to avoid a referendum on the $100 million+ Project 2?
WJ also tends to play down or omit negatives in its OPRF news coverage. Take the May 14 story on the departure of Assistant Superintendent Fiorenza, who oversees D200 academic matters. It fails to mention low marks in state-mandated Five Essentials surveys of teachers, including most recently poor marks in instructional leadership, professional development, innovation, and program coherence [4]. Or consider last week’s story on a new app-based emergency system for teachers and staff to initiate lockdowns or shelter-in-place directives [OPRF rolls out new tech safety measures, WJ News, May 14]. It doesn’t mention that this was an issue in the 2025 high school board election. Candidates Gertz and Mellman proposed a timesaving badge-based panic-button system that avoids fumbling for a phone in an emergency [5].
Public institutions like OPRF make progress in response to thoughtful criticism and balanced reporting. The opposite is also true.
Judith Alexander
Oak Park
Sources:
[3] https://www.oakpark.com/2025/05/13/tom-cofskys-d200-legacy
[4] https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/06/oprf-administrator-fiorenza-resigns
[5] https://www.gertzmellmand200.com/priority-1-keep-our-kids-safe. “II. Be better prepared for worst-case scenarios”
