A big THANK YOU to each and every Oak Park and River Forest resident
who voted on the referendum question. The referendum was defeated.
What's next? Trust must be built. Transparency must be apparent.
True LONG TERM PLANNING must take place thats meet the needs of the many, not
the wants of a few.
At a special meeting held on Tuesday, December 13, the BOE approved a Resolution
for the school administrators to create a plan for a revised and
improved stakeholder committee consisting of OPRFHS staff and
administrators, community thought
leaders, but NOT hired consultants, architects, etc. The discussion
must revolve around Those Things That are Best (for the students).
A
non-partisan professional facilitator will be hired to create and guide
the committee. The
details are to be announced at an upcoming BOE meeting.
The high school issued a statement on December 15 that was sent to families and the community via Huskie e-mail. Read the full statement HERE. It says, in part:
What happens next? In the past five years, the district has led two long-term facilities planning committees and multiple pool committees, as well as a strategic planning process. With the community at an impasse regarding facilities issues, district administrators have recommended initiating a different process, one that includes pools, locker rooms, performing arts classrooms, etc., but goes even further to ask: What are the instructional needs of the next generation of learners, and how should the high school’s facilities be altered to meet those needs...
.
..Administrators are planning to make recommendations to the Board in January regarding creating the committee.
(post updated December 17)
The OPRFHS School Board holds its next regularly scheduled meeting on THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17 at 7:30 PM. When available, the AGENDA will be posted HERE (scroll down the page to the Nov 17 meeting date and click on the "agenda" in the right column)
The best way to follow this issue and know what the next steps will be is to attend these meetings. See our update from November 9 HERE for more information.
ABSENTEE BALLOTS - As these are counted, the vote totals are changing and the NO lead has narrowed. NO now leads YES by 68 votes. The final count may not be certified by the county clerk for another week or so. This LINK has updated totals.
From the high school's website (Link)
Community votes down bond referendum question by 0.34% margin
...With the failure of the referendum, the Board will begin new deliberations to determine next steps and will keep the community apprised of developments in the project.
Results are in - it looks like the NO vote prevailed in a close race. Results posted here: LINK
Updated (11/17) totals here: LINK (the NO lead has narrowed as absentee ballots are counted)
Suburban Cook County unofficial results for this election are displayed below. The tally (as of 11/9/16):
17,384 votes NO
17,266 votes YES
Thanks to a community-wide, grassroots effort, the voters of Oak Park and River Forest defeated the District 200 pool referendum today. We appreciate the efforts of everyone who worked to make sure that the community understood the issue.
We encourage everyone to stay informed and stay involved on the pool and related issues at the high school and in the community.
*note: Certified results may not be available until 11/29.
THE REFERENDUM QUESTION IS THE VERY LAST ITEM ON THE BALLOT. THE QUESTION IS MISLEADING AND VAGUE. WE ARE VOTING ON WHETHER OR NOT TO SPEND $45MILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS. FOR A POOL.
BTW - THE VOTE YES COMMITTEE (many of whom have driven the mega-pool conversation for years) REALLY KNOWS HOW TO SPEND MONEY. FOR A POOL.
