Lincoln Hall Construction, More Discussed by D-74 Board Candidates

Lincolnwood residents got a glimpse of who may serve on Lincolnwood School District 74’s Board of Education at a candidate forum hosted by Patch at village hall on Wednesday. Board candidates spoke about their top priorities, if elected, and a range of issues the district faces including communication with the community, the district’s reputation, how to bolster student achievement, if there are ways the district can cause property taxes to be lowered and more.

Candidates for D-74’s board of education also spoke about the feasibility of building a .

Scott Anderson, currently board president, said while a facilities committee was formed, he did not know what their recommendations would be.

“I don’t know what the right answer is, but we can find out what the right answer is,” Anderson said.

The process for evaluating the needs of the middle school would restart, Anderson said.

“The process will start over; it has to, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Anderson said.

Related: More pictures from the D-74 candidate forum hosted by Patch.

Four of the seven candidates will be elected to serve on D-74’s board on April 9. Four of the seven candidates ­— Anderson, Kevin Daly, Georjean Hlepas-Nickell and Kathryn O’Brien — spoke at the forum. Three candidates were invited by Patch, but were absent: Mahmood Khan, Meetal Vakil and John Vranas.

O’Brien, an architect, said, while Lincoln Hall Middle School was an old building, it needed maintenance as any other building would. O’Brien is also the mother of a student at the school, and that influenced her position, she said.

“Yes, the building is old,” O’Brien said. “As a parent of a child physically in Lincoln Hall, watching her child get educated, I don’t see how getting my son a different building to sit in is going to result in his education being different or better.”

There was no reason Lincoln Hall Middle School could not be maintained, O’Brien said.

“I would rather invest in the teachers, the curriculum and the students than in a building at this point in time,” O’Brien said.

Daly said there was never a need for the existing facility to be demolished, but there was a need for renovations to Lincoln Hall Middle School.

“We do need renovations; there are safety issues that need to be addressed,” Daly said. “Whether or not folks believe those are money pit issues; they don’t seem to be. Certainly, there are maintenance issues, but it’s maintenance for a building that, to me, is a very solid, very healthy building.”

Hlepas-Nickell is the only candidate running for a board seat that has a two-year term; she is unopposed. The three remaining seats, four-year terms, are being sought by the other six candidates.

Hlepas-Nickell said she did not support constructing a new facility for Lincoln Hall Middle School, but it would still cost a certain amount of money to renovate the current building. She said some of the renovations did not need to occur immediately.

“I think this board is very committed to not only preserving Lincolnwood campus as a whole, and, as a member of the facility committee, and attending the finance committee, I think it’s doable,” Hlepas-Nickell said. “I think it’s going to be something we’re going to be able to accomplish in a very simple way.”

Hlepas-Nickell said she would not vote in favor of anything that enhanced administrative spaces, and she was glad Lincoln Hall Middle School was not going to be torn down.

“I definitely want our dollars targeted to instruction for students,” Hlepas-Nickell said.