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  • Protesters Holly Altemus Fingerle, front row from left, Constance Means...

    Ted Slowik/Daily Southtown

    Protesters Holly Altemus Fingerle, front row from left, Constance Means and Jamair Atkins demonstrate on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, along Cicero Avenue outside the Rich Township School District 227 administration center. They oppose a plan to close one or more high schools in Rich Township and bus students to the former Lincoln-Way North building in Will County.

  • The vacant Lincoln-Way North High School building in Frankfort is...

    Ted Slowik/Daily Southtown

    The vacant Lincoln-Way North High School building in Frankfort is shown on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019. The school opened in 2008 and closed in 2016.

  • Constance Means addresses the Rich Township High School District 227...

    Ted Slowik/Daily Southtown

    Constance Means addresses the Rich Township High School District 227 Board of Education on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, to voice her opposition to a proposal to close one or more schools and bus students to the vacant Lincoln-Way North building in Frankfort.

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Residents who protested in Matteson had a clear, simple message about a proposal to bus students from Rich Township High School District 227 to the shuttered Lincoln-Way North High School building in Frankfort.

“No way, Lincoln-Way,” they chanted on Tuesday evening.

They carried signs and marched outside the school district administration center prior to a school board meeting. Drivers passing by on Cicero Avenue sounded their horns in support.

“Honk if you want Rich Township schools to stay in Rich Township,” protester Constance Means of Olympia Fields said into a megaphone.

Earlier this summer, school district officials held a series of community meetings and unveiled six options to deal with facility needs at the district’s three high schools: Rich Central in Olympia Fields, Rich East in Park Forest and Rich South in Richton Park.

The first five options considered repairing, modernizing, replacing, consolidating or possibly closing existing school buildings. Enrollment in the district has plunged 26% to 3,057 last year from 4,167 in 2009 and is expected to continue falling, to about 2,300.

The district may no longer need three high schools.

That means the seven-member school board will have to make tough decisions. The estimated costs of various solutions are among the considerations. The financial burden of high property taxes and the loss of businesses in communities affect the discussion.

During a school board meeting Tuesday night attended by about 70 people, some residents said the school board should do more to involve community members in the discussion.

Constance Means addresses the Rich Township High School District 227 Board of Education on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, to voice her opposition to a proposal to close one or more schools and bus students to the vacant Lincoln-Way North building in Frankfort.
Constance Means addresses the Rich Township High School District 227 Board of Education on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, to voice her opposition to a proposal to close one or more schools and bus students to the vacant Lincoln-Way North building in Frankfort.

“You treat the community as if they don’t know better than the board,” Randall White said during public comment. “You need to listen to the people.”

White is a trustee in Park Forest-Chicago Heights School District 163.

“Park Forest as a whole clearly stated we want to keep our community school, period,” White said.

Other speakers echoed his sentiment.

“If we have schools empty, we will not attract people to buy homes in this area,” resident and former District 227 school board member Betty Owens said. “To take our schools out of this area will be more detrimental than taking our businesses out of the area.”

I thought she made a good point. I’ve talked with planning experts about how public high schools are “anchor institutions” around which struggling communities can be rebuilt. If students leave the area to attend high school somewhere else, what does that say about a community’s commitment to solve other problems?

Owens and others made it clear that community members are overwhelmingly opposed to the sixth option, which proposes that District 227 close one or more of its three schools and acquire the vacant Lincoln-Way North building.

“We’re hoping to have an up or down vote (by the school board) soon on removing option six,” Holly Altemus Fingerle said. She helped organize Tuesday’s protest and co-founded the citizen group Save Our Southland Schools.

Tensions flared as community members rallied to protest the possible closing of beloved institutions. Discussions grew heated as concerns about the community’s future prompted emotional reactions.

“I think there’s a lot of misappropriation of blame because people want someone to be mad at,” local business owner Gina Davis-Mireles told me prior to the start of Tuesday’s protest.

There’s plenty of blame to go around. District 227 school board members are easy targets. Infighting among factions has contributed to dysfunction. On Tuesday, some residents said they had themselves to blame for electing the trustees who serve on the board.

Members of an audience of about 70 people listen during a school board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, at the Rich Township High School District 227 administration center in Matteson.
Members of an audience of about 70 people listen during a school board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, at the Rich Township High School District 227 administration center in Matteson.

The quality of education has suffered, and there seems to be no consensus on the best way to address the problem. Some questioned the maintenance of schools, and how buildings could have deteriorated to the point where the district now proposes to spend up to $399 million to upgrade the three schools.

One could blame municipal leaders for not doing enough to attract and retain businesses in their communities. Businesses leave because the tax rates are too high, and the lack of businesses drives residential tax rates even higher in a crippling downward spiral.

Tax rates are macroeconomic factors beyond the control of most local officials, but an angry public wants to direct its blame somewhere.

Some believe District 227’s dire situation is the fault of Southland College Preparatory Charter School in Richton Park. When Matteson School District 162 launched the charter school in 2011, District 227 sued to block the move.

District 227 argued in court that the charter school would siphon resources away from the district’s public high schools, but Rich Township lost its case.

Southland has grown to an enrollment of 530 students and regularly makes news for its 100% graduation rate and how its graduates all go to college and receive millions of dollars in scholarship offers.

“Our home is Rich, our county is Cook,” protesters chanted as they marched along Cicero Avenue.

Lincoln-Way North is in Frankfort Township in Will County.

Other factors complicate the discussion. Some people on Tuesday night brought up race. Students in Rich Township schools are predominantly black — 88.7%, according to the Illinois Report Card.

Frankfort Township is predominantly white. Only 3.6% of students in Lincoln-Way are black, according to the Illinois Report Card. Some Rich Township residents are concerned about how neighbors would receive Rich Township students if they were bused to Lincoln-Way North.

The vacant Lincoln-Way North High School building in Frankfort is shown on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019. The school opened in 2008 and closed in 2016.
The vacant Lincoln-Way North High School building in Frankfort is shown on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019. The school opened in 2008 and closed in 2016.

Further complicating the discussion is an effort by residents in Summit Hill School District 161 to acquire Lincoln-Way North, detach it from Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210 and create a unit district.

Supporters of the plan have been working with state officials for nearly two years and nearing completion of a formal process to determine whether the proposal is feasible.

It would seem fair to allow Summit Hill supporters to complete that process, which is due to wrap up by November.

There seems to suddenly be a lot of interest in Lincoln-Way North, which opened in 2008 and closed in 2016. State Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Tinley Park, has taken state officials on a tour of the facility. He has proposed the state could acquire the building, use it as a new district headquarters for state police and house offices for multiple other state agencies.

Lincoln-Way taxpayers would love to be rid of their “white elephant,” since they’re on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in debt still owed for the building. Someone has to satisfy the bondholders. No one gets to walk away from that obligation.

Rich Township taxpayers deserve honest, transparent information about how much it would cost to acquire Lincoln-Way North. How much of the debt would Rich Township residents have to assume? The option may be far less attractive once actual costs are known.

Rich Township residents also deserve more details about construction estimates that run as high as $399 million. Some Rich Township residents feel that District 227 inflated construction costs to make option six appear more attractive.

District 227 Board President Randy Alexander said the school board would discuss the facilities issue in depth at next month’s school board meeting. There was no timetable for a decision, he said.

“This is not the time,” he told board member Cheryl Coleman as she sought to respond to criticism directed at her during public comment. Alexander told Coleman that the issue wasn’t on the board agenda Tuesday, and her defensive response to audience members was only making matters worse.

“What you’re doing, you’re antagonizing them,” Alexander said. Members of the audience murmured and some shouted loudly as Coleman attempted to speak.

“You’re supposed to shut the room down and allow me to talk,” Coleman told Alexander.