This week’s meeting was held at the Winnetka Park District’s Community Room. There were 31 persons present, including the guest of Patti Van Cleave, Becky Hurley. Also present were ‘future members’ Laura Cunningham and Bob Sanfilippo who were guests of Marie Kuipers and David Grant, respectively. The Club was also glad to see Jean Wright return, thanks to her chauffer Peter Skalski. There were also some of our speakers’ staff members and fans of our speakers, Trisha Kocanda, Winnetka Schools Superintendent and Brad Goldstein, the District’s CFO.
After lunch President Tom Nash announced the birthdays of Patti Van Cleave, David Grant and John Ford for the week. A pretty good rendition of Happy Birthday was sung by those in attendance. Tom also announced and congratulated Sally Gotaas (2 years) and Connie Berman (16 years) for their club anniversaries being celebrated this week.
Tom also reminded the Club of the upcoming District Conference being held in Sheboygan next week as well as the Rotary Peace Conference being held at the South Shore Cultural Center on June 2nd. He noted that many of the conferees will be staying at the Orrington Hotel in Evanston and that there will be a free bus to the Center that morning.
Bill Leske announced that he had 77 reservations for Friday night’s Winnetka-Northfield Rotary Benefit so there is little doubt that it will be a big success. The theme is Cinco de Mayo + Six and it is being held at a private business in Wilmette, the A. Perry Homes. It will be held on their second floor that has two outdoor patios, one is heated. Bill encouraged members to come and enjoy three types of margaritas and Mexican food. He also promised great items will be available in the silent auction.
This week’s Happy Buck$ came from Marie Kuipers who just got 4 baby chicks to eventually lay eggs for Marie and her husband. Rich Lalley also threw in some happy bucks as he was really happy to see Jean Wright.
David Birkenstein introduced the speakers, Trisha Kocanda and Brad Goldstein, top administrators from District 36, Winnetka’s local elementary school district. They were here to talk about the District’s Educational Master Facility Plan has been labelled "Future Ready D36." The staff of the district has been working on this facilities plan for some time and Dr. Kocanda told us that parents and students have also been involved in the discussions. We were told of the shortcomings of the current facilities. The district owns five buildings, two are over 100 years old (Greeley and Hubbard Woods). Skokie School is 98 years old, Crow Island is 78 years old and Washburne is 51 years old with additions/modification made in 1982, 2007 and 2009.
In addition to the age of the buildings the demographics of the district have changed and enrollment imbalances are being experienced at the three lower grade centers, with enrollment dropping at both Greeley and Hubbard Woods schools and increasing dramatically at Crow Island. Additionally, the lack of air conditioning is a problem at all but Washburne. Electrical grids do not support the technology needs of the staff and students. The size and shape of many of the classrooms is not conducive to today’s educational needs. Also, when the older schools were built almost all student went home for lunch, which is certainly not the case today as 80% of the students eat lunch at school. There is additional financial pressure for increased specialized services to offer the least restrictive environment, the infusion of new educational technology and offering equal access to programs at the three lower grade centers.
The study that started several years ago condensed the results into three major approaches to the problems encountered. The goal is to make a recommendation by this summer as to which approach will be used. Trisha announced that the Board of Education removed one option at its meeting on Tuesday night. The three options were titled 1) Maintain, 2) Enhance and 3) Transform. The cost estimates were presented by the district’s CFO, Brad Goldstein. Brad pointed out that non-construction costs for things like ADA accessibility issues, HVAC, excluding air contioning, health-life safety issues and cosmetic total about $22.5 million and with AC it increases to as much as $38.2 million for those items alone.
The “Maintain” plan would call for three lower grade centers, as now exist; they would be for K-4 grades and the attendance boundaries would be changed to better balance enrollment. Washburne would become a 5-8 grade school and Skokie School would be decommissioned. Skokie could be rented or repurposed. This plan is estimated to cost $53.5 million’
The “Enhanced” plan would also call for three lower grade centers though they would serve the K- 3 grades. Wahburne would become a 4-8 grade school. Washburne would require structural modifications. Skokie School would have its north and south wings demolished. This would leave an auditorium and some offices and could serve as a community facility. The cost for this plan would be approximately $84.5 million.
The “Transform” plan would eliminate the neighborhood lower grade centers. Crow Island would become the district’s lone K-1 school. Skokie School would be totally demolished and a new building would be constructed on the site to house 2nd graders through 8th graders. The Wahburne gymnasium would be preserved as a community resource. Greeley and Hubbard Woods would be decommissioned as schools and rented or repurposed. This is the plan that was most recently removed from consideration. Mr. Goldstein gave some projections on the costs of these plans to the owners of an average home in the district valued at $1.2 million that would be pay for via a bond referendum.