Last Chance to attend Mandatory Meeting for Facilities Committee

Be part of the solution and help create a plan to improve facilities at the high school. Apply for a spot on the IMAGINE OPRF Work Group. Tasks will include: Review previous work, explore new options, and gather community input.



You must attend ONE of the required pre-application meetings at OPRF High School. 
The first is MONDAY, MARCH 20, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Others will be Thursday, APRIL 6, 6:30 - 8:00 PM 
and SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1:00 - 2:30 PM.

Deadline to apply is APRIL 14.  The link below has more information.
http://www.oprfhs.org/about/Imagine-OPRF-Work-Group.cfm

This LINK explains a bit of the recent history of the pool process and why this new committee was proposed.  It is a good review for those new to this issue.

Results and Info - VOTE Today - Polling Places and Election Results

Today is the DAY - be sure to VOTE!  These off-year spring municipal elections often have very low voter turn-out so EVERY VOTE COUNTS!  If we learned nothing else in the D200 Referendum vote last fall, we certainly learned that lesson.

If you're unsure where to vote, this link will help you find your polling place based upon your registered address: www.cookcountyclerk.com/elections/voterprofile/Pages/default.aspx
Polls close at 7:00 PM.

Results of the races** (see below) will be available after the polls have closed as precincts report their votes - it can can some time for all the results to trickle in to the County Clerk's office.  Here are links to look up results for some of the major races:

D200 School Board (OPRF is the second from the top): http://electionnightresults.cookcountyclerk.com/StaticSummaryeid040417jurHIGHS.html

D97 School Board (Oak Park) and D90 School Board (River Forest)
 (a long list, these are pretty far down, RF is above OP)
http://electionnightresults.cookcountyclerk.com/StaticSummaryeid040417jurELEMS.html

Village Boards - Oak Park Board of Trustees (President, Trustees and Clerk)
and Library Trustees  - same link for River Forest - a LONG list in alphabetical order
http://electionnightresults.cookcountyclerk.com/StaticSummaryeid040417jurMUNIS.html

D97 Referenda - Oak Park is near the bottom of the list http://electionnightresults.cookcountyclerk.com/StaticSummaryeid040417jurREFER.html

Good luck to ALL THE CANDIDATES.  We appreciate your hard work during campaign season; and to the incumbents, all your hard work throughout your term in office and the continuing hard work done by those who are elected.   
THANK YOU TO ALL for your willingness to serve.

**and the winners are...
D200 - Matt Baron - Craig Iseli (both new) - Tom Cofsky - Jackie Moore (both incumbent)
D97 - Rob Breymaier - Keecia Broy - Katherine Murray-Liebl (all newly elected)
VOP Board of Trustees - Deno Andrews - Simone Boutet - Dan Moroney (all newly elected)
D97 Referenda - YES on the tax levy increase, YES on the capex bond issue
edited Friday, April 7

Our voting guide for the April 4 election

Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 School Board

MATT Baron       JACK Davidson       DOUG Springer

Oak Park Elementary District 97 School Board

HEATHER Claxton-Douglas

 

Village of Oak Park Board of Trustees

DENO Andrews       SIMONE Boutet       DAN Moroney

            Like our school board candidates, our endorsed trustee candidates will help restore trust in our elected boards. They will support responsible development and hold the village accountable to its Intergovernmental Agreement commitment, to retain and maintain the community/high school garage. We do not endorse and are not voting for any other candidates in the above races and are not casting a vote in the village president’s race. We are not endorsing candidates in any other races.

District 97 Referendum Questions

IMAGINE - channel your inner John Lennon for OPRFHS facilities

Be part of the solution and help create a plan to improve facilities at the high school. Apply for a spot on the IMAGINE OPRF Work Group. Tasks will include: Review previous work, explore new options, and gather community input.



You must attend ONE of the required pre-application meetings at OPRF High School. 
The first is MONDAY, MARCH 20, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Others will be Thursday, APRIL 6, 6:30 - 8:00 PM and Saturday, APRIL 8, 1:00 - 2:30 PM.

Deadline to apply is APRIL 14.  The link below has more information.
http://www.oprfhs.org/about/Imagine-OPRF-Work-Group.cfm

This LINK explains a bit of the recent history of the pool process and why this new committee was proposed.  It is a good review for those new to this issue.

D200 Listening Sessions with Dr. Pruitt Adams this week

If you haven't yet participated, this is a good chance to have your voice heard
regarding D200 issues.  Attend one of the last "listening tour" sessions
with Dr. Pruitt-Adams on March 15 or March 18: 

Wed., March 15, 2017, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Irving Elementary School in Oak Park 
or Sat., March 18, 2017, 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. at Roosevelt Middle School, River Forest

A light meal will be served at the beginning of the session.
More information is available HERE.

Elections and Issues in Oak Park and River Forest

Voting day is TUESDAY, APRIL 4 for municipal elections in Oak Park and River Forest although early voting is available beginning March 20.  River Forest residents should check HERE for information on polling places, early voting locations and individual RF races.  Oak Park residents should look HERE for information on early and regular voting locations.

Other than the races for RF Village Trustee (4 candidates for 3 spots) and the OPRFHS D200 School Board, most of the RF races are uncontested.  That is certainly not the case in Oak Park, where there are heavily contested races for OP Village Trustee and Village Clerk, OP Elementary D97 School Board, the OP Library Board and OPRFHS D200 School Board.  This Chicago Tribune/Oak Leaves article from last December includes all the races in both communities, though some candidates mentioned in the article have since withdrawn.  But it gives a good overview of all the races.

Also on the ballot in Oak Park are TWO referendum questions for D97.  One is a tax levy increase question that seeks to boost funds for operating expenses; the other is a bond issue referendum that will replace bonds maturing within the next year or so.  

You can read more about the OPRFHS D200 candidates in our recent website post HERE.  Information about the D97 referendum questions and a list of Voter FORUMS is on our page HERE.

D200 - It's Time for a CHANGING of the GUARD!

One sign that it's time for some new blood on the D200 School Board was the adoption of spending "limits" for daily travel reimbursement.  Under the heading "Expense Control Measures" the D200 board at its  February 14 meeting, approved a maximum allowable reimbursement for travel, meal and lodging expenses of $900 per day. Part of the reasoning behind setting a fairly high limit was to avoid putting undue burden on the Business Office personnel who review reimbursement requests that exceed a certain threshold.

One board member did question the limit, thinking it might be a bit excessive, but in the end the measure was approved unanimously. READ MORE in this article in the Chicago Tribune.

So now, with municipal elections coming up on APRIL 4, we encourage you to support these "pragmatic" candidates for the OPRFHS - D200 - School Board:

MATT BARON - visit his website and facebook
JACK DAVIDSON - visit his website and  facebook
DOUG SPRINGER - visit his website and facebook

They'd LOVE your SUPPORT and your active engagement in their campaign.  Learn about them and encourage others to do the same.  All the candidates have literature and yard signs. 
Perhaps you'd be willing to host a coffee or cocktail hour for friends and neighbors to meet the candidates?  Sharing their facebook posts is a good way to build name recognition.  Small steps can become very powerful when leveraged using social media!  For more ways you can help, either contact the candidates directly via their facebook or websites, or send us an e-mail: D200Pragmaticsolutions@gmail.com

The New COMPREHENSIVE Facilities Process and the Expert's Solution

A new comprehensive facilities process for the high school is underway. The process was first presented on December 13 and approved by the D200 School Board at its meeting on Dec. 22.

While internal stakeholders clearly need to be involved in answering these questions, the administration recommended undertaking a process that would also more broadly and deeply involve community residents and community partners. The Board agreed and approved a resolution charging administrators with “establishing a community engagement and outreach committee to review previous processes, make recommendations, and strengthen community partnerships pursuant to District goals related to equity, academic programming needs, facilities to support those needs, and finances, in order to ensure that the District meets the educational needs of the next generation of learners.” Administrators are planning to make recommendations to the Board in January regarding creating the committee. (SOURCE)

The first step is the creation of a "Launch Team" that will work to determine the desired attributes and qualifications for the members of the Community Engagement and Outreach Committee and the process by which those committee members will be selected.  The Launch Team includes school faculty and staff as well as community residents known have supported both the Vote No and Vote Yes campaigns.

The new process will be one that includes not just pools, locker rooms and performing arts spaces but goes further and looks at the instructional needs of the next generation of learners and how the facilities should be altered to meet those needs.

NOW back to the topic of the SWIMMING POOL situation at OPRFHS!

Pragmatic Solutions recently submitted an opinion piece published in the Wednesday Journal titled "The Expert's Pool Solution" (LINK) to advocate that the high school should go back and adopt recommendations in the report by Stantec Consulting issued in March 2013.  Stantec Consulting is a renowned engineering and design firm that was commissioned by the D200 School Board in 2012 to complete an in-depth study of the pool situation at OPRFHS.  Their report (linked HERE) concluded that the best solution, given the constraints of the land-locked campus at OPRFHS, a single 8-lane, 25-yard standard high school competition pool in the East Pool site, expanding into the South Gym as needed.