Common Sense Reasons to Vote Against Referendum: Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Bob Meuser.

I may not be the most “informed” voter, but I would like to offer my common sense reasons why I’m voting against the Highland Park school referendum on March 15.

I believe things go in cycles. The stock market goes up. The stock market goes down. We have harsh winters. And we have mild winters. And remember when gasoline cost around $5.00 a gallon? Last week I paid $1.55.

About 25 years ago when my kids were in grade school, the local population increased so much they had to bring in mobile homes! They parked them on the playgrounds and called them classrooms!

But today our population has gone down. The mobile classrooms are gone. And the size of the classrooms has gone back down.

Seems to me the school board’s knee jerk reaction to this population decline is to close our neighborhood schools and spend $200 million to build a new “centralized” school. This is a really bad idea. As Aaron Rogers said, “we all need to RELAX.”

Remember when the geniuses on the city council decided to buy the Highland Park theatre building? How many years has that sat empty, and all they’ve done is spend gobs of money on consultants to come up with ideas on what to do with it? What a brilliant move!

Has anybody stopped to think, once we build this new $200 million school, what happens to all the empty neighborhood schools? Will they sit empty, too, just like the Highland Park theatre building?

I remember back when Clinton was President, all the schools had big banners over the front doors that said, “Character Counts!” I never really understood what these banners were all about. But I, too, believe that character does count. As Ray Geraci’s letter alluded, our neighborhood schools are a huge part of Highland Park’s character. I know the buildings are old, and repairs and maintenance are needed. So lets take the necessary steps to fix them! Don’t just let them sit empty and rot.

We’ve already just spent millions of dollars putting huge additions on the Highland Park and Deerfield high schools. I suggest we take a break from borrowing and spending a lot more money to build yet another new school. It just makes no sense!

Bob Meuser