The District 97 school board will convene tonight to discuss another round of budget cuts. The district, to its credit, has been diligent about cutting in preparation for a tax-hike referendum, whose date is yet undetermined.
The latest proposal includes cutting one teacher position from four elementary schools, all of which are located in the eastern half of the village and which have a higher percentage of minority students.
On the surface, it may look as if these schools have “a teacher to give.” But that’s a short-sighted approach. Since class size appears to be one of the primary factors correlating with academic success in early grades, even one position means cutting “the muscle,” not “the fat,” to use a familiar metaphor of school finances.
The board in recent years has had some disagreement over whether all schools should receive resources equally, or if schools demonstrating greater needs deserve extra help. Philosophy aside, when it comes to taking teachers out of classrooms where a third of the black students aren’t testing at grade level, that’s cutting too close.
While the belt-tightening process has caused the district to lose a few unnecessary pounds, it has to exhale sometime.
We believe the district would be better served by setting the date for the referendum instead. Once you start raising class sizes, it’s time to ask the taxpayers for help.
ER plan looks good so far
West Suburban Hospital finally unveiled its plan to build a new Emergency Department, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, they want to build it on their property to the west. That, of course, is what the neighbors were hoping to avoid, but we doubt they had high hopes, so it always came down to a matter of West Sub unveiling what it was planning all along.
The neighbors are still studying the proposal, but our initial reaction is: So far, so good. We’ve maintained all along that the new ER was badly needed, but had to be built with minimal disruption to neighbors. And the hospital did attempt to address the neighbors’ concerns with their initial drawings (see page 20), which include a shielded area for the ambulances, plus landscaping to create a buffer to the west. The structure is only one story (as promised), which is another positive.
West Sub needs to be careful not to break (or fudge) on any promises it makes. Neighbors are not unreasonably suspicious because large institutions have a history of running roughshod over neighbor concerns. Trust-building efforts must continue.
How the neighbors react remains to be seen, and there is still a possibility that progress will be held up over the existing greystone that would have to be demolished. We hope it does not become the impediment because in isolation, the building does not truly “contribute” to the surrounding area.
Neighbors may have other, more substantive concerns that need to be addressed, but so far, we’re encouraged by what we’ve seen.
Pay attention to the primary
State primary elections usually elicit a yawn from local voters, and that may well be the case this year with elections looming on March 21. Usually incumbents are either uncontested or win without even breaking a sweat, which reinforces for many jaded voters the futility of paying attention.
But there are races that deserve your attention this time around, particularly the 8th District State Rep race where missing-in-action incumbent Calvin Giles has his hands full with a legitimate challenger, West Side Realtor La Shawn Ford, who is articulate, energetic and smart.
Oak Parkers living south of Madison could make a difference in this election.
Corrections
? In our Feb. 8 Sports section, we dramatically shortchanged the St. Luke eighth grade girls basketball team, which finished undefeated this season with a 39-0 record. Not only that, they’ve gone undefeated in their league for the past four years and compiled an overall four-year record of 124-1. We apologize for the short shrift and congratulate them on an amazing run.
? Meanwhile, in last week’s LifeLines section, if you were wondering about the anonymous article on DivorceCare at First Baptist Church [How can you mend a broken heart? Feb. 15], it was authored by Tom Holmes. We apologize for the omission.
