Decaying D112 Schools Need Fix Now: Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Andy Hamilton.

District 112 is a relatively wealthy north shore suburb boasting large expensive houses, fancy sports cars, high-end shopping and able to boast of a top ranking high school. Below the high school level, the community has a plethora of WWII era schools dotting the neighborhoods that are half-filled, costly to maintain, lacking infrastructure to support the latest technologies, and lack sufficient configurations for modern educational practices. This is fact, not opinion.

As citizens of this community we owe it to the thousands of District 112 elementary school kids to take action NOW to fix our decaying elementary and middle schools.

As a community we have to face the harsh reality that many of our local 70-year-old schools have met the end of their useful lives.

As a community we have to meet the harsh reality that schools we went to as kids no longer meet the standards and criteria for team-based teaching and supporting today’s and tomorrow’s technologies.

As a community we have to realize that the strength of our community is not based on the school across from our house, but rather on our ability to prepare and equip our kids with the skills to succeed in a rapidly changing, technology-based world.

As homeowners we have to realize that the value of our home is not based on the quantity and proximity of local schools, but rather the quality of the district’s overall performance with test scores and the modernization of facilities.

The District 112 referendum is the product of 3 years of research, design and planning to turnaround the continued decline of our school district. It’s important to realize that the committee for the plan is not comprised of faceless bureaucrats, but rather our neighbors and local educators committed to helping our community, our kids.

The plan has the support of the non-partisan League of Women Voters. The League did a deep dive into the plan with months of interviews and research, leading to ultimate approval. 

The plan will increase our taxes. Doing nothing will also likely increase our taxes. Supporting the plan is action that will build a modern facility capable of supporting the teaching methods and technologies to equip our kids for success. Further delay on action puts 1000s of our community’s kids back into ill-equipped facilities lacking the tools to prepare them for tomorrow.

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing” – Theodore Roosevelt.

Don’t sit back and say we’d rather do nothing with a “No” vote. We owe it our community to take action today. We owe it to our kids to take action today. Vote “Yes” for the referendum.