Reconfiguration is 'Solution Looking for a Problem': Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Sangeet Singh-Gasson.

As we’re thankful for all the good things in our lives this week, I wanted to say that I’m thankful for our school system. We’re lucky to live in a beautiful city with excellent schools and teachers. Both my kids attended 1st-8th grade in District 112 (Wayne Thomas and Northwood Junior High) and overall it was a very good experience, not just for the quality of the education, but also for the atmosphere of the schools and the ease of having the schools in our neighborhood. So now when some people want to spend $200 million in tax dollars for a reconfiguration of District 112, I have a hard time understanding why.

We have not had a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, or other natural disaster that has damaged our schools. What is broken that we need such a drastic expensive solution? It’s not clear to me from the various presentations, mailings and articles. The “Why Reconfiguration Is Necessary” page on the district’s website mentions air conditioning. I remember the schools being closed sometimes because it was too hot. Wouldn’t it have been prudent to set up some portable air conditioners and keep school open? Even upgrading all the HVAC systems wouldn’t cost many millions of dollars. How about treating improving the schools the way we address personal home improvement projects -- by being creative, by being proactive, by prioritizing, by being careful with money? We should also avoid waste. For many years Northwood, which has fewer than 500 students, had two co-principals, which was expensive and unnecessary. Some people say that District 112 needs to modernize to be suitable for “21st century learners.” Well, we’re 15 years into the 21st century now and many metrics (tests, rankings, performance in HS) show that Highland Park kids are doing just fine learning. There’s also already plenty of 21st century technology (Promethean boards, chrome books, ipads, pcs, macs, even a 3D printer) that Dist 112 kids already use hands-on.

My fear is that the reconfiguration plan is a solution looking for a problem. I am not going to try to analyze and respond to every bullet point on the page mentioned above, but I want to point out that where the district writes “Most importantly, reconfiguration leads to improved education for students,” this is just a hypothesis, not a fact. Putting it in bold does not make it a fact.

I’m not saying that there are not problems to address in District 112, but I think there is much in our current system to be thankful for and we should try for practical and economical solutions rather than expensive projects that are trying to be sold to the public. Let’s be as careful with public money as we are with our own money. And let’s be thankful for our beautiful city, wonderful library, great park district and excellent schools.

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving,

Sangeet Singh-Gasson

Highland Park