D112 Applies 'Vote YES or Else' Pressure: Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Michael Starkman.

At the D-112 school board meeting on February 16, 2016, we saw the district apply pressure to coerce support for its referendum.

The school board voted preemptively to close either three schools or four in the event the referendum fails.

Why not wait four weeks for election results, then discuss next steps? Because pressure only works when applied before votes are cast, not after.

This is unprecedented. A "vote YES or else" school closing plan, weeks before a referendum election. Vote YES or we close the school you love, and it will happen automatically.

When the board’s vote was held, the enormous impact of closing a neighborhood school was barely mentioned. We were told that Lincoln, Elm Place, and Green Bay families knew these three schools would be closing so this was no big deal. Keeping Ravinia School, the "fourth school" open would cost $400,000 yearly. This free-spending district (endless consultants and public relations firms) has spent several times as much needlessly and wastefully promoting and refining a single middle school plan that may never be approved by the voters. (At the same board meeting, the architect reported on some neat ideas for configuring the middle school kitchen). The board’s vote: four schools to be closed.

At a board meeting in October of 2015, potential cuts were said to be 5 to 7 years away if the status quo remained. Yet in January of 2016 PTO presidents were told that school closure plans would be implemented immediately following an unsuccessful referendum. Closing a neighborhood school impacts students, parents, local businesses, and our sense of community. It should be the last item on a long list of options to strengthen future balance sheets, not the first.

And now we’ve learned that due to errors in financial projections disclosed by the D-112 CFO on February 9, this referendum will not provide the financial benefits previously claimed. If it passes, the district will need more money in 2026 and beyond. Yet there has been no meaningful attempt to inform all taxpayers about what we now know were exaggerated claims of financial sustainability.

D-112 has rejected the idea that a failed referendum is an opportunity to reassess, open the process, and look for ways forward that would be more acceptable to the broader community than the current plan.

A year from now, when at least 4 of the 7 board seats will be open, we can undertake a different kind of reconfiguration process.

On March 15th, I will vote NO.

Michael Starkman - Highland Park