How can OPRF High School even consider spending tens of millions on a new pool while the festering issue of the achievement gap, or as it has oddly been translated for our day as “equity,” goes unaddressed?
That was the crux of the email I received last week from an occasional correspondent who was troubled by the Journal’s editorial restating, for likely the 100th time, that in some shape or form, OPRF needs a new pool.
My response to that sincere and passionate critic was that it is a false choice to suggest that a school district as rich in resources as OPRF — including a still staggering pile of taxpayer cash in its vault — can accomplish just one of those two things.
Now given how thoroughly botched the half-decade-long pool debate has been and the distinct likelihood that local voters will put the kibosh on a pool tax hike come November, it is worth discussing how our high school’s leadership has been backed into this corner.
Assuming the referendum loses — and why on earth the OPRF board would choose to go to ballot in a presidential election cycle where voter turnout will be enormous is beyond me — OPRF’s pools will still be obsolete and some sort of solution will still be necessary.
I am fully unclear what those next steps on the pool will be.
But nothing related to the pool, to the larger plan for renovating other spaces in the building for an anticipated enrollment spike, should impact school board and administration efforts to aggressively address the academic gap and the discipline gap that largely separate OPRF by race and economic class.
Nothing except a history of sincere lip service but modest attention to the complex issues related to equity. Nothing except starting a new school year with an interim superintendent in place.
In last week’s Journal, Michael Romain reported that school board members were pushing back against critics who felt the board had become consumed by pool issues and was not focused on equity. Not so, said board members, including some new members who ran for election precisely on the equity issue. We are addressing equity, we’re going to address equity, they said.
Prove it, I say.
This school board and previous ones get credit for initiating frank internal discussions on race and class. Lord knows these are tough talks to have. But we’re now three boards into these discussions, there is some headway in addressing discipline inequities, and there is a strategic plan in place that is all about equity and doesn’t even mention chlorine. But what is the full plan for going full speed toward closing the gap?
The previous superintendent, Steven Isoye, said the right things about the gap. But he moved so incrementally that any progress was hard to see. Attila Weninger, the superintendent before Isoye, was making steady and vital changes in key staff with an eye on the gap — until a wobbly board, pushed by a wary faculty, shunted Weninger out the door.
Now we have an interim in Joylynn Pruitt. Typically, interim supers keep the lid on until the permanent hire is made. But being short-term can also be liberating and Pruitt has talked clearly about equity issues. And maybe she is looking to be considered as a permanent hire.
The challenge of the gap at OPRF isn’t primarily financial. It is about finding focus on a very complex challenge. It is about willingness to take bold steps, some of which will fail. It is about collaborating with obvious and unexpected partners. It is about knowing that if not in Oak Park and River Forest, creating equity is impossible anywhere. It is about catching fire on the moral imperative of equal opportunity for each of our children.
No excuses. No delay.
