Readers Like 113 Leadership Team Ideas

for and , the majority of readers responding to Patch’s latest unscientific poll prefer the less specific ideas presented by the .

Of the 209 people responding to the poll, 115 like the ideas of the leadership team best, 51 chose the Education First proposal while 37 want the District to find a common ground between the two sets of ideas.

Walter Trip Hainsfurther, who was one of the two people who presented the leadership team’s findings at the District 113 School Board meeting May 21, believes the final plan will be somewhere in between the Education First proposal and the $133 million plan rejected by voters just over a year ago.

“Parts of their plan have merit,” Hainsfurther writes. “They were presented to the various task groups and will be considered going forward. In my opinion, the plan presented does not address all of the pressing problems facing the schools, such as accessibility.”

David Greenberg voices concern about too much taxpayer money being spent on athletic facilities even though both the Education First and leadership plans both recognize the need for new swimming pools for both schools. He worries about taxes overall.

“Sure, they're important, but why should all the taxpayers fund every extracurricular and athletic activity out there,” Greenberg asks about extracurricular activities including sports? “One thing's for certain - if we want to bring taxes down, we need to rein in salaries and benefits.”

Beth Kopin-Shapiro sees the ideas presented by the leadership team and Education First as not ripe for comparison. She wants to see the District’s proposals more thoroughly defined.

“The Leadership Team did not present a plan for comparing to what Education First is now touting as the better plan,” Kopin-Shapiro writes. “You are asking the community to compare apples and oranges and sowing further seeds of misunderstanding.”

Meanwhile, David Trotter wants to District to release the raw data from the community survey before either plan goes any further.

“Until the full results of the community survey are released, and we know what the entire community thinks, both plans should be tabled,” Trotter writes. “It looks to me like the supporters of District 113 are stuffing the ballot box.”

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