'Big Box' Middle School Wrong for Children, Wrong for HP: Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Kelly Haramis.

A year and half after we moved to Highland Park, my husband and I adopted our daughter from China, and I soon after gave birth to my second daughter at Highland Park Hospital. I have called this wonderful city my home for more than 10 years, but I come from a family far less settled.

My family members have attended schools of almost every configuration in New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Delaware, Greece, Missouri and Florida, and I cherish this history. My Puerto Rican abuela loved to tell us how she rode horses to school in the 1920s in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. My Greek yia-yia attended school in the 1910s on the island of Lemnos, Greece. I also moved from state to state as a child, and I attended a variety of configurations: K-12; K-3; 4th grade center; 5-8 middle school; K-6; 7-9 junior high; and 9-12 high school. I can tell you from experience that not all grade configurations are equally effective.

This history helped me know what I wanted for my children’s education, and I was thrilled to find it in Highland Park, with its small elementary schools and middle schools. My two daughters--3rd and 4th graders at Ravinia--love hearing about their great-grandmothers, and I love being at their school. I’m a room mom, on the PTO exec board and a volunteer at the school’s annual Fun Fair.

I know that District 112 needs to consolidate schools, and I strongly believe in investing in education. However, I cannot support the proposed $198 million referendum that includes the single middle school plan, which puts one huge middle school in the southwest corner of the district, far from the homes of many families in Highwood and the Highlands.

I also worry about the educational and social impact not only for my children, but also for all of the children in the district. In fact, many of my friends in Chicago are considering moving to other suburbs over Highland Park because of the proposed referendum. They don’t want to exchange the chaos of CPS for the uncertainty of a giant middle school.

I am particularly concerned about our children being together from grades 5-12. Labels and cliques form early, and it’s difficult to erase those labels when you are with the same people during the entirety of those turbulent preteen and teenage years. I also worry about reduced participation in sports and performing arts. Will we have one soccer team for 1,800 students? Will we have one school play? As an actor, I know how important performing in a school production can be for student, and that will be much more difficult when the competition is from a pool of 1,800 students.

I’ve heard so much from the district about 21st Century learning, but it’s already happening in our schools. My daughters used iPads and laptops in kindergarten. Our children have Chromebooks they can use at school and home, from 3rd through 8th grade. The future of education is wireless, and it’s already here.

I also know that the middle school will be two wings of one building on a single campus. That does not reassure me. To me, that’s like saying New York isn’t a big city because it’s divided into 5 boroughs.

And don’t tell me that there’s no “Plan B.” As a former newspaper journalist, I know that even the best story can be edited and made better. And this plan needs not only creative editing, but also a whole new lede. Let’s try this: We can have a better story, but we have to vote “no” to get there.