Kathy Scortino leaving youth commission

Kathy Scortino's years on the Arlington Heights Youth Commission serve as bookends for the village's latest Teen Center.

After 19 years, Scortino will leave when her term expires at the end of this month, the co-chairman told her fellow members at a recent meeting.

In 1995 Scortino was instrumental when the center moved to the former library at 112 N. Belmont Ave. And she fought hard in a losing campaign last year against closing the center because of budget issues.

“I'm not quitting as a protest to that decision,” said Scortino, who admits to being “devastated” by that decision.

“I am just as committed to addressing the needs of the kids and advocating for them as I ever was,” she said. “But I was really disheartened by that decision, and I think the Youth Commission needs and deserves to have members who aren't feeling disheartened.”

Convincing the village board to continue having a teen center when the old one on North Vail was torn down was probably one of her proudest accomplishments, she said.

Scortino supports renting the center's building to Metro Youth for Christ/Campus Life, and the issue is tentatively scheduled to be discussed by trustees at May 9, Village Manager Bill Dixon said Monday.

The Youth Commission supported that group over three others who applied to rent the building that has been vacant almost a year.

“What they were describing very closely mirrored what the Teen Center did,” said Scortino. “The drop-in aspect where young people can be with their friends and with caring and knowledgeable adults, creating that safe place.”

Dixon said the staff report to the board will not highlight the issue that Metro Youth is a religious organization.

“We are making it clear to the board, and the trustees probably already understand this, a lease of this nature means the village will step away from the whole programming question,” he said.

There are precedents of governmental bodies such as school districts renting property to religious organizations, then having no role in the programming that goes on in the buildings, said Dixon.

The board wants to retain ownership of the building, said Dixon. While it works as a public building, the market for it would probably be limited since it is in a residential neighborhood, he said.

Scortino said one reason she is leaving the Youth Commission is to make room for someone who works in the schools, which she knows makes many commission projects much easier. She is a counselor at Wellness Place in Inverness.

Village President Arlene Mulder called Scortino “a remarkable person who has dedicated her entire life to making certain that communication with young people takes place.

“She has served on the commission with great distinction,” Mulder added.

Mulder said the person she has in mind to replace Scortino is a teacher and a parent, and she hopes to be able to make the appointment within a month.