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glenviewlantern.com sound off
the glenview lantern | April 12, 2018 | 27
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go figure
The 7th Band concluded the “International
Music Tour” unit today by performing pieces
from 9 different countries and answering trivia!
A special thank you to our judges (parents, @
DaneDelli, and two of our @glenview34 board
members!) @SpringmanMiddle #WeareD34
#ROAR34
@ArtsSpringman tweeted on April 3
$36.3
million
Top Web Stories
From GlenviewLantern.com,
as of April 12
1. Glenview residents make wrestling
history
2. Titans baseball ready for next level
3. OLPH student competes in annual
Shamrock Shuffle
4. Lacrosse holds special place in North
Shore
5. Coach Talk: This ramblin’ man working
overtime
Glenbrook South junior Aaron Gallegos
and senior Alison Krolopp won second
place at the JCC Chicago Jewish Film
Festival on March 11 at Evanston 12/
CineArts 6.
An intriguing number from this week’s edition
$36.3-million bond
referendum begins to pay off
with groundbreaking for new
Maple School, Page 3
From the Editor
Taking advantage of a good thing
CHRIS PULLAM
chris@glenviewlantern.com
A
few years ago,
while I was away
at college, my
parents were heavily
involved in pushing two
referendums affecting
Cherry Grade School and
Hall High School — my
old schools growing up in
the heart of rural Illinois.
My father, who served
on the grade school’s
board of education,
supported the school’s
consolidation with nearby
Dimmick Grade School,
even though that meant
our building would shutter.
Dimmick’s school,
freshly renovated a few
years earlier, boasted
some of the equipment
and learning spaces common
throughout the North
Shore. Cherry’s school,
on the other hand, was
built with brick and mortar
so long ago that both
my mother and grandfather
once roamed the
halls as grade-schoolers.
In fact, when I first
started with The Glenview
Lantern, I was immediately
blown away by the
area’s technological superiority.
Glenview kids, I
hypothesized, would rule
the world some day.
While I’m still amazed
by your local school
system every time I visit
for a story, I’ve come
to realize that my initial
shock was due more to
my humble roots than
the quality of Glenview’s
facilities (even if they
do compare favorably to
every school district in
the area).
So it was an easy call
when my father and other
community members suggested
that Cherry consolidate
with Dimmick,
a school that benefitted
heavily from the tax dollars
of nearby commercial
properties like the local
mall and Walmart. Back
then, Cherry boasted two
pubs, two churches and
one gas station. The gas
station closed last year.
Still, nearly every resident
of Cherry attended
that school as a kid, and
the referendum split the
community along some
very obvious lines. Basically,
the older you were
(and the least likely you
were to have school-aged
children), the better the
chances that you wanted
to maintain Cherry
Grade School, even at
the expense of higher tax
rates and lower education
levels.
Ultimately, the referendum
passed without a
hitch. Even my grandfather,
the mayor of Cherry,
came around toward the
end.
That same year, my
mother pushed a referendum
to build a new high
school, which was in
equal need of ... something.
I’ve only been inside
the new high school’s
gymnasium, so I can’t
speak with any real authority
on the benefits of
the new building, but the
old building was about
as similar to GBS as a
moose and a goose.
The moral of the story:
my little brother, who
attended the new high
school his senior year,
and my little sister, who
benefitted from Dimmick’s
facilities from
sixth- through eighthgrade,
have a much better
chance of finding success
in this crazy, complicated
world thanks to those
referendums.
Maybe it was the
wrong decision. Maybe a
slightly better education
wasn’t worth the loss of
Cherry’s very own grade
school and the increased
tax rates attached to the
new high school.
Maybe.
But as long as Cherry
kids at least try to take
advantage of those new
resources, there’s a
chance it was all worth it.
The same goes in Glenview
and Northbrook.
Residents living in
Northbrook/Glenview
School District 30
supported the referendum
to build a new
Maple School with a
three-quarters majority,
meaning one in every
four people believed the
consequences outweighed
the benefits. I’m guessing
none of them attended the
groundbreaking ceremony
last week, which was
filled with smiling faces
and boisterous cheers.
But while 25 percent is
a small number when referencing
a political vote,
it’s a very large chunk of
the D30 population.
So, hopefully Glenview
and Northbrook gradeschoolers
can prove the
decision’s potential value
in the near future.
The Glenview
Lantern
Sound Off Policy
Editorials and columns are the
opinions of the author. Pieces
from 22nd Century Media are
the thoughts of the company as
a whole. The Glenview Lantern
encourages readers to write
letters to Sound Off. All letters
must be signed, and names and
hometowns will be published.
We also ask that writers include
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for verification, not publication.
Letters should be limited to 400
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Glenview Lantern. Letters that
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Glenview Lantern. Letters can
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Lantern, 60 Revere Drive ST
888, Northbrook, IL, 60062.
Fax letters to (847) 272-4648 or
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