Let them know your concerns - Upcoming Meetings on 6/26 and 6/28

Next Up - TUESDAY, JUNE 26 at 7:00 PM in Room 293E
and THURSDAY, JUNE 28 at 7:30 PM in the Board Room at OPRFHS
On Tuesday, June 26 the OPRF Imagine Facilities team will present its findings and three concepts to the D200 School Board and initiate discussions with the Board about a potential long-term facilities master plan at a special board meeting. This is a public meeting, and all are welcome to attend.

On Thursday, June 28 at 7:30 PM a regular monthly meeting of the D200 School Board is scheduled.  Public comments are taken at the beginning of meetings.  Agendas (when available) will be posted HERE.


On Tuesday, 6/19 - D200 Committee of the Whole met and heard public comments from many Pragmatic Pool supporters urging a closer look at the high school's swimming requirements and a facilities solution less drastic than total demolition of the Field House.

This meeting comes one week before the Imagine OPRF team will discuss renovation proposals with the Board of Education. Although cost estimates are not yet included, all 3 proposals:

1. Necessitate full demolition of the Field House,
2. Include a 30-40 meter pool (larger than a standard 25-yd competition-sized high school pool)
3. Include a larger, 200-meter track to replace the existing track

Important to note: The IMAGINE plans have NOT taken into account any possible update of the 18-week PE swimming requirement at OPRFHS.  This requirement is significantly lengthier than what other high schools in the Chicago area require. In addition, unlike other high schools, the current PE swimming requirement at OPRF does not provide an option to "test out" to students who already know how to swim.

It is important to understand that these two points create the argument for a larger pool. This significantly affects the price tag - AND our property taxes.
Please attend on June 19 - and consider making a public comment.  Urge the D200 School Board to update its current PE swimming requirement and seek a more equitable pool solution.

In addition to the weak rationale for an overly large pool, the rationale for many of the other suggested facilities improvements do not seem to have been clearly articulated.  The presentations at the community meetings on February 27 provided the best summary of the high school's needs and the issues to be resolved by the facilities updates - focused on these four main areas:
* Academics & Student Achievement (link)
* Fine & Applied Arts (link)
* Extracurriculars, Athletics & Physical Education (link)
* Whole Building (safety, security, the physical plant) (link)

More information is available at the "Frequently Asked Questions" file from Feb. 27.
Details on the concepts for the new facilities were provided in our June 3 post.  Read it HERE.

New Concepts include BIG CHANGES - Learn more below

Provide your FEEDBACK about the  FACILITIES CONCEPTS HERE
ATTEND a Special  SCHOOL BOARD Meeting on Tuesday, June 26 at 7 PM
 
The OPRF Imagine team held two "Community Conversations" on May 19 & 21 where their revised CONCEPTS for the Facilities Update were presented.  Each of the three concepts (color coded TEAL, AMBER and MAGENTA) included plans for the three major areas of the building - the Academic Core (the North end of the building); the Commons/Services/Support (the Central part of the building) and the PE/Athletics core (the South end where the Field House is now).  The parts of the plans are interchangeable - in other words, you can take the North end of the Teal plan and put it with the Middle part of the Amber plan and the South end of the Magenta plan and have a complete plan for the entire school.

NO COST ESTIMATES were provided for any portion of the project, and are not expected for several months, until the D200 School Board provides its feedback.  However, one SIGNIFICANT expense in all three concepts will be the cost to redo the South End (PE/Athletics core) since all concepts call for REPLACING the existing Field House, even though engineering studies recently commission by the high school determined that the Field House is in good structural condition, and the necessary refurbishment could take place without demolition (LINK pg 2 - LinkB - LinkC)

Click on image to view enarged format or use this LINK

To the right is a summary of the three plans. At the top are the "Common Components" - those elements that are essentially the same in all three schemes.  Listed next are highlights specific to each individual concept. Each of the three concepts is presented in more detail at these links: MAGENTA - AMBER - TEAL.

Whether you attended one of the May sessions or not, please consider completing a FEEDBACK form at this LINK.  It is designed for anyone to provide input, whether or not you attended a session or reviewed the plans online.  If you did attend a session and/or if you have examined the concepts online, you might be able to be more specific in your comments.  But if not, if you have an opinion - please let the committee know!

It is asks just two questions of each concept plus a final question for "other thoughts/additional feedback" - so if you don't have comments about specific concepts, just include your overall thoughts at the end.

The NEXT STEP will be on TUESDAY, JUNE 26 at a special board meeting of the D200 School Board.  That's when the Imagine Committee will initiate discussions with the Board about a potential long-term facilities master plan. The meeting is at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room, 2nd floor at the high school. This is a public meeting, and all are welcome to attend.

Refined Options to be presented on MAY 19 and MAY 21

The IMAGINE team has scheduled two dates for their Community Conversation #4 where they will share potential facilities concepts that have been refined from earlier concepts based on community feedback from the April session. NOTE: They will not yet have cost estimates. This is still the conceptual phase of the master planning process, and the committee is looking at all possibilities to address facilities needs before beginning to cost out and prioritize specific elements of the concepts.

TWO MEETING DATES (same content at both)

Saturday, MAY 19 at 9:30 AM

Monday, MAY 21 at 7:00 PM

both take place in the South Cafeteria at OPRFHS, 201 N. Scoville Ave.

Most of the proposed conceptual changes centered on the south end of the school building - the Field House.  This is where the 2 existing swimming pools are placed, and where any new pool is proposed to be set.  Linked HERE is a summary of the April session, including links with more specific information on the three areas of the building under consideration: the North end (primarily the Academic core), the Middle (the commons areas - cafeterias, auditoriums, meeting spaces, bookstore, student center, etc) and the South end (primarily athletics, the Field House)

A good deal of information based upon feedback from the April session is included in the FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) linked HERE.  One of the questions (or "complaints") heard from many concerned the very lack of specific detail that was included in the presentation, including no mention of the actual size of the swimming pool - read the answer below:

Why didn’t the April 16 conceptual diagrams include dimensions for specific elements?
The diagrams represented concepts that Imagine members are considering.  The goal is to explore and get public feedback about general locations and ways of organizing such components.  The blocks of color on the diagrams do not represent agreed-upon dimensions for any element.  That holds true for the library and the Special Education Transitional Education with Access to the Mainstream (TEAM) space, as well as the pool, the locker rooms, and most other spaces. Indeed, the Imagine Group has not yet established the dimensions of a right-sized pool for the school.

Continue reading below for a link to an informative Chicago Tribune article about property taxes

JOIN THE COMMUNITY CONVERSATION - WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?  

TOURS of the school building will be given SATURDAY, APRIL 14 starting at 10 a.m.  and MONDAY, APRIL 16 starting at 5:45 p.m.  Meet in the OPRF South Cafeteria.

Tours last about 30 minutes and depart in 15 minute intervals.

Check HERE for more information.

On MONDAY, APRIL 16 at 7 p.m. following the building tours, the IMAGINE committee will be sharing the facilities OPTIONS developed after months of research and input from school staff and members of the local community. Please come to learn what they're thinking and offer your input.

Meet in the OPRFHS South Cafeteria, 201 North Scoville Ave.

Please attend and provide YOUR INPUT.  Learn what the IMAGINE team has discovered over the past eight months of research and data collection, including site visits to area schools that have completed significant facilities improvements in recent years. The outcome of the Imagine process could have a significant impact on our property taxes - please stay informed.  

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WE ARE NUMBER TWO!

Illinois, as a state, is  #2 (behind New Jersey) in having the highest average tax rate in the nation. The AVERAGE annual effective property tax on a single-family house in Illinois is 2.13 percent. If that seems low, well compared to Oak Park's average, it probably is. To find YOUR actual effective tax rate, get out your 2nd installment 2016 bill, look at Tax Calculator section at the bottom, and DIVIDE the Total 2016 Tax (bottom number, right column) by the 2016 Property Value (second number, left column).
For many homeowners in OAK PARK, the tax rate is EVEN HIGHER - closer to 3.75% or more.

A VERY INFORMATIVE article in the Sunday, April 8 CHICAGO TRIBUNE (LINK) explains this in greater detail.

(Keep in mind that factors such as a homeowners exemption and senior citizens exemptions can effect the result.  Also keep in mind that the last tax bill does NOT reflect the reassessment that took place in 2016)