Referendum is a Decision on What We Value: Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Becky Mueller.

Budget gridlock in Illinois and political polarity in Washington DC cause most of us to be skeptical about our government. Approving a tax increase, which seems like a nod to giving away hard-earned money, is especially difficult. In the case of the upcoming District 112 referendum, I have personally wrestled with the decision about how to vote.

As a property owner and taxpayer, I certainly don’t look forward to opening my 2016 tax bill and seeing an increase in the steep payment. And as a parent I understand the desire for the neighborhood schools that my own children attended. These seem to be wide-spread objections to the proposed reconfiguration plan. Yet my career as a teacher, my sense of our community values, and my understanding of what the school system has done for my own children trump those concerns. I am writing to express my support of the referendum and ask you to do the same.

My thirty years of teaching English at Lake Forest High School taught me that education is a messy business. I often wished for a manual about how to teach but found instead that the quality of the student-teacher relationship is one of the key components to success. It sounds simple, but when there is trust, a student feels comfortable taking the risks posed in a challenging learning environment.

The educational foundation of the proposed middle school provides a structure that will facilitate the development of rapport. The proposal calls for a team of six teachers to work with approximately 150 students on core subjects. This school-within-a-school model ensures that your child will not be an anonymous face in a “big box” school. Rather s/he will become part of a tightly knit community. In such an environment, teachers will come to deeper understandings of individual learning styles and social-emotional needs, creating a culture where students will feel safe enough to experiment and make mistakes. The end of the equation is genuine learning and growth.

Another benefit of the proposed team approach is exactly that: teaching teams. As a teacher, having regularly scheduled time to work with peers on cross-curricular planning was a wish of mine that went largely unfulfilled. Sophisticated curriculum and instruction evolves as professionals work together and discuss the needs of their students. Teachers simply need more time to collaborate. The proposed school-within-a-school model creates a structure which allows exactly that. And your child will benefit.

In our District 112 community, we have a history of nurturing positive experiences in our students.

Certainly we couldn’t feel pride about the many achievements of our student body without such commitment. As a parent of three children who graduated from our local schools, I believe the education they received transformed their lives.

Th success of our community is in large part thanks to the many obstacles we have overcome. In 1993, consolidating three districts into one helped to compensate for deficiencies in federal funding. This was a significant step in uniting our community. Now we face another challenge, the aging infrastructure of the twelve buildings that are remnants of our former three-district system. It is time that we adopt a facility plan that supports a unified district.

The proposed reconfiguration is a means to such integration. It tells prospective homebuyers that we are willing to pay the price for our children. It promotes financial stability in the district. It provides our students with a twenty-first century environment in which to learn. It offers our teachers opportunities to implement curriculum in the most sophisticated ways. And it gives our community a renewed sense of pride as we continue our culture of excellence.