Statement by Golf District Superintendent on Proposal to Sell Golf

Released as a statement on Friday from the office of Superintendent Jamie Reilly, the following article is printed verbatim. 

Decision Regarding Interest in Purchasing Golf Middle School

During the first week of July, 2010, Superintendent Dr. Jamie Reilly was approached by a broker regarding his client’s potential interest in purchasing the Golf Middle School property for use as a car dealership. Subsequently, Dr. Reilly relayed this inquiry from the broker to the Board of Education at the July 15, 2010 public Board meeting. After careful consideration and thoughtful discussion, the Board determined that it was incumbent upon the District to explore this potential interest as the District has been experiencing facilities and financial challenges over the past several years. The Board of Education is fully aware of its fiduciary responsibility to thoroughly investigate all possible options for preserving and improving the future education of the children in Golf School District 67.

Concurrently, Golf School District 67 was approached by the Village of Morton Grove regarding this interest as they, too, had been contacted by the broker. The Village offered to assist the District in further exploration of this interest as the Village would benefit from potential additional tax revenue generated by the car dealer.  Furthermore, the Village emphasized the importance to the community of good schools and expressed its keen interest in supporting such a high performing school district.  The Village offered to consider expanding a current TIF district adjacent to the Golf Middle School’s property that could fund the difference between the appraised value of the property and the total financial needs for building a new facility to house the Middle School students on the Hynes Elementary School site. 

The Board discussed several potential benefits that could be gained through building a new school at the Hynes site.  A new addition to Hynes School could house the Middle School students and also include a complete renovation of Hynes because the new addition would require a complete overhaul of the Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) system.  Operating costs could be reduced due to the implementation of more efficient and green-friendly systems and further reductions in personnel could be realized as well.  A new facility would allow revenue to the District to be directed towards learning requirements for the 21st Century, rather than being used for the ongoing maintenance repairs and high operating costs currently associated with the two older facilities.

Although the broker had expressed potential interest on behalf of his client in early July, a letter expressing interest was not received by the Board until January 19, 2011. Immediately upon receiving this letter of interest from the broker, and in an effort to gather input from the Golf School District Community on this potential way of addressing District financial/facility issues, two Community Forums were held on January 27th and February 7th.

The District followed up on all leads and questions raised by the District’s constituents; this follow-up and related research took several weeks as the District wanted to ensure a thorough examination of all issues surrounding this topic.  Community members passionately expressed opinions for and against this endeavor. The forums were held in the spirit of gathering data and giving the community an opportunity to comment and ask questions. The Board had never previously reached any final conclusions as to the best direction moving forward, nor did they ever receive a formal offer.

Ultimately, the Board of Education Finance and Facility Committees concluded that the potential interest in purchasing Golf Middle School and the proposal by the Village of Morton Grove to partially fund a new facility through a TIF expansion were not a viable solution to meet Golf School District’s financial challenges.  Due diligence revealed that the complicated issues surrounding the Frank Hren Park as well as the time frame proposed by the Village and car dealership  would make it extremely difficult to pursue this interest. The fact remains, however, that other options will need to be explored in order to meet the facilities and financial needs of the District.

The Board of Education thanks the Golf School District 67 community for their input and patience throughout this process, and gratefully acknowledges all of the support that the Village of Morton Grove contributed to the District. Furthermore, the Board looks forward to working together with the District’s constituents to meet the challenges ahead to ensure that the same high quality education for which Golf School District 67 is known continues.