Morton Grove Community "Bids for Kids" to Support District 67

On Saturday night more than 150 members of the Morton Grove community came out to support Golf School District 67 in the PTA’s first ever “Bids for Kids” auction event, where food, drinks and bidding paddles decorated the .

But amid the festivities of the evening, the district's budgetary woes were on the minds of the guests who also brought their checkbooks.

“Our district is in some trouble,” said event organizer and PTA Vice President of Fundraising Chris Hoffman.

Hoffman, who recently took on a role with the PTA in May of 2010, said the idea of an auction came up in a meeting with PTA President Pam Clark. And they ran with it.

“Our buildings are in need of serious repair,” Hoffman said. “They patchwork as much as they can, but we really need to start raising some money for our schools.”

So the PTA decided to change the way they operated. Instead of just providing funding for field trips and class parties, they are now raising money to give directly back to the school, she said.

“Obviously, everyone is hurting and if it’s a family, a business or our school, as a PTA we are changing our direction in what we are doing,” Hoffman said.

They sought donations from the local business, the community and families within the Golf district, and organizers were surprised by the amount of charity they received. They were taking last minute gifts up to and before the actual auction itself.

The boisterous crowd responded in kind to auctioneer Joel Mehr’s performance from the very start, bidding $260 for a ride to and from school in a Morton Grove fire truck -- Mehr’s personal favorite item of the auction -- and $150 for a pair of donated tickets to a Chicago Bulls game.

“The next item up for auction is the Golf Middle School...we’ll start the bidding at $1,” joked Mehrs, drawing dry laughs from the crowd.

About a week ago, many Dist. 67 teachers came out in favor of a plan that would sell Golf Middle School to an auto dealer and create a renovated “K-8” school on the Hynes Elementary property by fall of 2012. .

Last Thursday, the District Board of Education decided to hold off on three more studies for the proposed consolidation. .

Hynes Principal Carol Westley declined to comment at the event.

“Given some of the things that we are going through, it’s really important that the community stays unified when we make important decisions that are really going to impact our schools, our children and our teachers,” said Samina Hussain, a member of the Golf District Board of Education.

“We need to make sure that we are all on the same page, [and] that we are doing this for the kids of our school,” Hussain said.

Hoffman said she had a dream goal of raising $10,000, but realistically looked to take in $5,000 by the night's end. They had brought in $2,000 on tickets sales alone for the sold-out event before the doors opened.

Attendees included everyone from parents of students in the district to the mayor of Morton Grove.

“When the parents get involved and the people are out doing something within community, this really shows we are not just a bedroom community; people are involved,” said Village Mayor Dan Staackmann.

Library Board of Trustees President David Levin called the event a win-win situation for Morton Grove.

“It’s great for the school district and it’s great for the community to have evenings like this,” Levin said.

“I love the school district; I want to see the district continue; it’s a concern with the sale issue,” Hoffman said. “Originally, we were living near Niles West [High School], but I just knew that the teachers are outstanding here [in Dist. 67], the administration is outstanding, and I would really hate to see us have to go elsewhere."