Dist. 7 managed to alienate community
To Superintendent John Corbett and members of the District 7 school board:
Congratulations! Kudos! Well done! You all thoroughly and successfully managed to simultaneously anger and alienate half of a community.
Please, if you will allow me to indulge myself a bit further. Being a former vice-president of a laborers' union in Chicago and a former delegate to the Laborers' International Union of North America, a delegate to the Laborers' District Council of Chicago and Vicinity, a delegate to the AFL-CIO, a delegate to the Chicago Building Trades and a former member of the Chicago Building Trades Central Safety Committee, let's just say that I fully grasp and certainly appreciate good, old fashioned politics. However, NOT when it bleeds into the lives of my family and friends.
I found your hollow concern for our children's well being and our community as a vehicle to drive this grade level thing home to be somewhere beyond any adjectives that my consciousness can summon.
I also found the information in your report useless. There wasn't any real criteria established when it came to measuring the emotional as well as the financial attachments (geographical locations of our homes) we share regarding Oakbrook School.
And your meetings to hear our concerns, opinions and suggestions … bogus. Just another buffer added to cushion and ready us for a decision made long ago. And your Dec. 5 board meeting left me with nothing more than a sticky residue of deceit.
And what was with the blueprints of the new configuration pasted all over the walls of the board room? It appeared to be some sort of early art slap-in-the-face. Seeing that really solidified the fact that you never explored other options or alternatives.
As a whole, this carnival sideshow was offensive and insulting. What's the real motivation? A gymnasium? C'mon. Someone has been boning up on their Machiavelli.
Well, so long small, tight knit community … hello, little Chicago.
Oh, by the way, I know you're thinking that in time, we'll learn to accept this and it will all go away, but all I can do at this time is quote the infinite wisdom of Sponge Bob: "Well … good luck with that."
Bill Milano
Wood Dale