Residents come out to support Gurnee School District 56
It was a beautiful fall afternoon at Esper Peterson Park in Gurnee for the rally to support the "Say Yes and still Pay Less" campaign spearheaded by local parents and residents of Gurnee Schools District 56. The effort culminated at the park just west of Gurnee Grade School on Kilbourne Road, which is the original site for the Gurnee Schools just east of the Des Plaines River.
A few hundred people came together to hear music, local speakers, and munch on donated baked goods and coffee from the local Caribou Coffee in Gurnee.
Current students came in their yellow shirts or scarves with their parents, while others like Kylie Mohrmann, an alumnus of GGS, spoke of the importance of their school experience, but also of the constant threat that disrupted their education on more than one occasion.
Dr. John Hutton, D56 School Superintendent, watched on as local candidates, Michael Bond and Steve Carlson, shared their views and support for the referendum. Chuck Crowley, a continual supporter of Gurnee Schools, gathered the children at the rally to the podium to show who the real winners of the referendum will be when it is passed ... the students.
Mayor Kristi Kovarik came out also to lend her support, as well as Greg Garner, a Village Trustee, who has children at the old ravaged school building. Much talk on the sandbagging over the years, moving and dismantling classrooms or the library reconfiguration because of seepage whenever the Des Plaines River would rise over its banks was vocalized. However,it was most real when Dave Schopf, teacher and father of three children at Gurnee Grade, spoke of the disruption in the educational process he has experienced throughout the years.
His comments were similar to many in the crowd. Not just the staff and students at Gurnee Grade or in the District Office housed there, but the sacrifices of everyone as the classrooms are moved from one dry place to another,the making-up or tearing down of the sandbag walls, and replacing or repairing ruined material over and over again.
Principals struggling to keep education the priority, teachers making room for teachers, students sharing their space with kids from Gurnee Grade, and schedules for all being interrupted as another crisis threatens to destroy the building for good.
The referendum when successfully passed will allow the district to demolish the building with the help of government funds, move the K-8 students to the O'Plaine School by Village Hall, and build a new structure for the third through fifth grade students from O'Plaine on already owned property on Wadsworth Road near the HeatherStone subdivision of Cambridge Homes in Wadsworth.
With the low cost of construction today, the retirement of old bonds, and the government help in place, the passing of this referendum will relieve the district of the continuing plight to keep Gurnee Grade safe and healthy for the 420 children attending there.
Their homework done, the administration is looking for a brighter future for its students with a "Yes" vote on Nov. 2. The battle that Gurnee District 56 is slowly losing with each passing storm will be over and their motto: "Education that inspires ... Opportunities for All" will be all the more meaningful.