Proposed Referendum Would Harm Kids: Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Wendy Anderson Van Akkeren.

I am opposed to Highland Park School District 112’s referendum for restructuring schools not because of its whopping cost of $198 million, plus another $150 million in interest -- the largest per-capita tax increase for education in Illinois history. I am opposed to the referendum because its proposal for a single mega-middle school, housing more than 1,900 students in 5th to 8th grade, overlooks the harm to our children. Mixing such disparate age groups in a grand, impersonal edifice is wrong, and could lead to self-esteem and academic issues for the younger students. Negatives for the community include disengagement as neighborhood schools close, added commute times, and extensive busing and traffic woes.

I think back to when my kids transitioned from fifth grade at Ravinia Elementary School to sixth grade at Edgewood Middle School -- which isn’t even a third the size of the proposed middle school. It was a harsh adjustment, even for self-confident children. The expectation seemed to be an abrupt abandonment of childhood -- playtime recesses, easy banter with teachers, and a nurturing culture were replaced by rules, deadlines, and discipline. This attitude heightened insecurities, which already teem at this time of life, and fed an anxiousness to fit in. Cliques trying to root in grade school blossomed into sticky venus fly traps in the larger, hothouse environment of a middle school. If a sixth grader struggled to deal with such dramatic changes, how well would a fifth grader cope among older kids at a much larger facility?

I grew up in a small town with a contained school system that eventually consolidated with a bigger one. We were bused and unmoored. I know firsthand that smaller schools, with neighborhood support and kids who know one another by sight, are most conducive to a comfortable, quality education. District 112 used to put the well-being of students first. This referendum indicates a willingness to let at least some of those kids languish instead of thrive.

Wendy Anderson Van Akkeren