Retired Glenbard West science chair sorry to see school's garden cleared
Much of George Zahrobsky's beloved botanical garden east of Glenbard West High School is gone, and what remains are tree stumps and sawdust-covered ground.
Zahrobsky hasn't seen it and doesn't seem to want to.
"I get people stopping me and talking about it and they're all sorry to see that it's going, but nothing is permanent is it?" Zahrobsky said Thursday.
The former Glenbard West science department chairman fought to preserve the woods from housing developers with the help of his students in the 1980s. Together, they used it as a mini arboretum.
After Zahrobsky retired 1994, and the garden was no longer used, he thinks that history wasn't fully known to school officials in the early stages of planning a science addition through the heart of his namesake garden.
While he supports the new science labs, he wishes the school district gave more consideration to the garden.
Construction began Wednesday on the $16.5 million project to build the addition, renovate old science classrooms in the main building and relieve overcrowding. A chiller plant also will air-condition the whole school. After trees are cleared - some have been spared - excavation of the hill will begin.
Zahrobsky planted "little sprouts" as memorials for former teachers and benefactors, some of which grew to stand taller than the school. He helped the assistant principal do an inventory of those trees that were removed, with plans to rededicate new ones.
He praised the school for "paying homage to that." But he says he would "weep" at the bare land.
"I don't want to lose any more sleep over it," he said.