District 300 needs to be careful

Recently, the Eastside Study Committee presented three scenarios to the District 300 school board to help alleviate overcrowding and provide extended day kindergarten and preschool opportunities for qualifying students. This was a difficult issue to tackle and the options presented are reflective of much thought and consideration of how to best serve these students. The passage of the 2006 referendum promised class size averages of 26 students per room and clearly, some schools on the east side have not been able to fulfill this promise. Something must change.

Having said that, I would like to respectfully remind the board the money paying for any changes to eastside configurations are available only as a result of the promises made during the referendum. Every school was promised improvements with the passage of the referendum and some schools have already had to accept delays and/or adjustments in these improvements because of a lack of funding. While accommodations to the eastside schools are necessary, I would like to urge the board to responsibly consider the impact the spending will have on the promises made during the referendum. Please, please be respectful of the work that was done at that time that gave our district the chance to move forward for all students. You can't keep allowing for variations from the original plan and expect to maintain the public trust.

Leslie Russo

Algonquin