D57 not listening to FRC or taxpayers
To the editor: The "Lemon Law" was created to help fight unscrupulous salespeople who deliberately mislead.
What recourse do the voters of District 57 have considering the same act has been perpetrated against us? When Michael Withey and Rich Benson ran for school board their platform included being fiscally responsible to and communicative with taxpayers.
Withey and Benson promised to listen to the community when making fiscal decisions. In order to get more input, they insisted a third committee review the district's facilities (Facilities Review Committee) when similar committees did the same in 2000 and 2002. They asked that the FRC return with a suggestion that could be implemented to ease crowding at Fairview and Lions Park.
After three months, the community spoke through the FRC, and said an early childhood center is the best option. After the presentation on Dec. 13, certain members of the board, led by Withey and Benson, decided not to follow the recommendation.
Withey, Benson and Joann Harms would like to spend even more time investigating options the FRC rejected. It is difficult to be a good listener when you already know to which set of answers you won't give any consideration.
While the district will have spent over $5.9 million on the Westbrook rehabilitation/land acquisition, it will remain under-utilized for yet another year.
Furthermore, what is the cost of heating/cooling, lighting an entire building? Withey and Harms mentioned that "if" more room was needed at LP and FV, the computer lab could be a mobile one, freeing up another room. Wouldn't that cost an arm and a leg, not to mention being wasteful? And, there's room at Westbrook!
Is that being a good steward of our tax dollars? I want my money spent on education, not personal agendas of board members.
It took a short time for their true colors to emerge, but now we can see that the good of all the district's children is not the true motivator for some members.
By the time the next election rolls around, at least one more group of children will have had to endure the overcrowding at Lions Park and Fairview; hopefully, we can remedy that with our vote.
Brad Wilson
Mount Prospect