Parents Rally To Save Local School, Defeat $90 Million Referendum In District 37

WILMETTE, IL — Voters in Avoca School District 37 set to consider whether to consolidate its two schools into a single campus while increasing property taxes.

The District 37 school board placed an $89.8 million bond referendum on the March 19 ballot that would result in the closure of Avoca West Elementary School in Glenview and the construction of a new elementary school beside Marie Murphy School in Wilmette.

A New Trier High School feeder district, Avoca School District 37 includes portions of Glenview, Northfield, Wilmette and Winnetka. The district has 655 students, of which 381 attend Avoca West, according to its Illinois Report Card data.

Avoca West was built in 1959 and expanded six times. According to district representatives, renovating it or building a new elementary school at its 235 Beech Drive location would wind up costing more than building a new one on the existing middle school campus at 2921 Illinois Road.

District 37 officials said community feedback gathered in their "All in for Avoca 37" community engagement process had shaped the referendum question now put to voters.

“The proposal approved by the Board represents a milestone in the community-led work and our community engagement," Superintendent Kaine Osburn said after board voted unanimously in December to put the referendum on the ballot. "Most importantly, if passed, it will improve our schools for our students and staff while taking steps to make sure the quality of our facilities is on par with the quality of education we provide for our families.”

According to a final report from the All in for Avoca 37 process released two weeks before the board's vote, community members were presented with three options: building a new combined pre-K to 8th grade school, refurbishing Marie Murphy and building a new elementary school on its property, or doing the bare minimum to keep both campuses going. Two of the three options involved the closure of Avoca West, while the other was described by district officials as a "band-aid fix."

When district officials commissioned an online survey of the community, they received more than 600 responses. About 40 percent favored doing only necessary maintenance, and more than 15 percent were opposed to all three options. About a quarter favored a new, combined school, the most expensive option. And less than 20 percent of respondents favored the option adopted by the board in the referendum.

A tax calculator provided by the district shows the added cost to area homeowners if the referendum is approved. The owner of a home valued at $600,000, the median for Glenview, would pay an extra $1,771 in annual property tax. And the property tax bill for the median New Trier Township home, which has a $900,000 assessed valuation, would pay an additional $2,711 a year in property taxes.

The chair of the All in for Avoca 37 engagement process, Peter Lekerling, has gone on to chair the Vote Yes For Avoca political committee, which received a $8,000 donation from an architectural firm that has worked with the district shortly after it returned a$10,000 donation from the local parent-teachers organization amid complaints from opponents of the referendum.

Parents have organized to defeat the bond issue in a 177-member social media group called Concerned Residents of Avoca District 37, creating the website SaveAvoca37.org and distributing lawn signs with the message, "Save Avoca West, Vote No Property Tax Hike On March 19."

More than a half-dozen referendum foes showed up at last week's District 37 school board meeting to speak in opposition to the bond issue.

Board President Sumitrajit Dhar thanked attendees for coming to the Feb. 22 meeting.

"I'll take a wild guess and assume you're here to speak about the referendum, and sincerely, thank you for sharing your views with us," Dhar said, prior to opening floor to comments from the public.

"We have chosen the option that we believe is the best long term investment for the community — not everybody has to agree with that," he said. "That particular option is going to be on the ballot March 19. We very much appreciate that we are asking the community to make a larger contribution to the schools, no question about that."

Lili Martinka, one of the speakers during public comment, questioned the logic of pro-referendum campaign materials distributed by the district.

"The reason I'm voting hard no — hard no — is I found this pamphlet to be extremely disingenuous. It was insulting. It was offensive. I have many questions about who put what spin on here," Martinka said.

Martinka disputed the claim that approval of the bond would lead to higher property values in the district.

"How so? I'm sorry, I have a degree in economics," she said. "If your cost goes up here, in the interest rates that we have here, the affordability of your home goes down. It will not go up."

Clare Mitchell, one of the organizers of the concerned parents group, said that those who oppose the referendum had been unfairly maligned as "misinformed" and "conspiracy theorists" for questioning the contributions to the pro-referendum campaign.

"We've been accused of not caring about our teachers when challenging the significant costs involved and questioning if the proposals are representative of wants versus needs," Mitchell said.

"Some have suggested that because not everyone attends board meetings that our concerns are invalid, but let me assure you, many of us have done extensive research meticulously scrutinizing every detail available to us through the publicly available agendas minutes and watching live stream playback," she said. "And it's because of this we are actually well-positioned to question the integrity of the decision-making process."

John Rick, a parent of a student in the district and the spouse of a teacher, said he had seen some concerning changes in the district over the past 20 years.

"I've seen support staff cuts at both schools. I've seen facilities in need of replacement, not just short-term fixes, current facilities that don't match up with curriculum goals that have been expressed and finances that, to be honest, have slowly dwindled, putting us in a position to make some difficult decisions down the road," Rick said.

"I'm afraid that without passing this we're going to continue to increase fees and we're going to have to cut things, programs, things of that nature. I don't want to see that happen," he said. "But I am empathetic to all my neighbors and I understand. I don't want a tax increase. I don't want to see a Avoca West move, I understand that completely, I'm empathetic to that, but the reality is that something needs to be done to move our district forward and make it something better than it is."

Early voting in Illinois' March 19 primary election begins on Monday. District 37 is hosting a pair of open houses this week, with administrators due to take questions about the proposal the potential future plans for Avoca West from 5 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Avoca West and the same time Wednesday at Marie Murphy.