Admin Parking Lot Should Not Be Priority

It’s not a simple parking lot resurface, but a complete excavation and the adding of 19 new parking spots by the front door so all the newly hired administrators don’t have to walk too far. That project costs taxpayers about $700,000 by our estimate of district records. Not to be outdone, District Administrators are getting a brand new roof on their Administration building for another almost $3 million of taxpayer dollars.

 That’s almost $4 million on that building this summer with no upgrades to sports facilities or really anything beneficial to the students at all.  Didn’t these guys tell us they didn’t have any money to maintain the high school? 

We find it abhorrent that so many resources are being directed to feather the Administrator building nest while:

• High school campus is left in disrepair, at least according to the District’s political campaign last Spring.

• Simple accommodations for our children with physical disabilities at Deer Path Middle School and other District 67 elementary schools are callously left on the shelf

• Teacher’s Aide positions are put on the chopping block at District 67

And most importantly, all this administrative building spending while academic performance is at all time lows.  

How out of touch is this leadership regime that they prioritize spending millions on an admin building overseeing a school where just 24% of last year’s 8th graders were proficient in basic English skills? Here is a wild idea: How about we spend taxpayer dollars on improving our kids’ educations?  

 

The only thing we can discern is that our Administrators and School Board have lost their sense of priorities. 

Our schools exist for the primary and sole purpose of educating our children. It’s past time they start to act like it.  Accordingly, Parents Care call on the Board and Administrators to cease additional spending on the West Campus building:

• Until Superintendent Montgomery produces his long overdue measurable metrics for academic success for District’s 67 and 115

• Until all education campuses are 100% ADA compliant so that our children with disabilities can earn their education with dignity

• As long as there are imminent plans to cut staff.  

See Parents Care talk more about these issues on The Lake Forest Podcast