Single Middle School Plan is 'Ill-Conceived': Letter

The following letter was written and submitted by Carla Garfinkle.

The current District 112 single middle school reconfiguration plan is ill-conceived. 1. The proposed location is at the very SW edge of town. This will make for long commute times for many middle school children throughout the district. 2. The plan leaves the SW quadrant without a neighborhood elementary school. Very young kids will have long commutes to Edgewood, which will become (but is too big to serve) K-4. This will also add to the horrific traffic problems in and out of this neighborhood. 3. If the District re-draws boundaries so that some of the current RO community could attend Braeside (which is closer than Edgewood), that will displace many current Braeside families. On the other hand, if this is not done, it is patently unfair and an obvious attempt to solely burden one area of town. Neither alternative is acceptable. 4. They will build roads (to connect Ridge and Red Oak) and middle school fields on the site that is currently West Ridge Park. That will leave the SW side of town without an accessible community park/play area for young children (in addition to no local elementary school). 5. It will create overcrowded and unsafe traffic patterns in the winter, particularly by the HP police station where over a thousand middle school families will drive on open house and cold winter days. This is frightening since the police station needs unrestricted access to all parts of town every day at all times of day.

This plan must be dropped for the good of our community.