How involved or not to get in the existence and location of a new community center was the topic of quite a bit of discussion at the July 19, 2011 ISD166 school board meeting.
When the meeting began, Hal Greenwood of the ISD166 Education Foundation used the public comment period to urge the board to avoid endorsing either the existence or the location of a new community center. The location of the proposed community center, one of several projects tobefundedfroma1percentsales and use tax, is up in the air after objections were made to the first site that was proposed because it would require relocation of new tennis courts just west of the school.
Greenwood told the board that the proposed community center would not be a good investment fiscally. He said he was not opposed to amenities that did not pay for themselves, such as municipal pools, but wanted to see the Community Center Steering Committee appointed by the county board consider rehabbing current facilities such as the Grand Marais Municipal Pool.
Superintendent Beth Schwarz and school board member Jeanne Anderson have been on the community center committee for about a year. Schwarz told the board that the committee started considering the possibility of attaching the new community center to the school this spring after objections were raised to the first site they recommended. Another site the committee recommended to the county board was the corner of Fourth Avenue West and the new Gunflint Trail.
The county board decided to conduct soil borings on four sites: the one that would require replacing tennis courts, the one on Fourth Avenue West and the new Gunflint Trail, one between the current community center and the tennis courts, and one that would require replacing the west wing of the school complex.
Schwarz said she went to the Cook County Community Center Board of Trustees, which she belongs to, and asked them to write a letter to the county board asking them to consider attaching the new facility to the school complex. She said she thought this would provide “a significant financial benefit to the school district” and taking it out of consideration “would be a mistake.”
School board member Leonard Sobanja agreed with Hal Greenwood about the school staying out of discussions regarding whether and where to build a community center and said he was against the idea of attaching one to the school. He suggested that they consider rehabbing the west wing of the school rather than replace it. He said that while the school board had approved of Superintendent Schwarz talking to the county board in July about the possibility of attaching the facility to the school, the board did not ask her to advocate for it.
Superintendent Schwarz is also on the Community Center Steering Committee and said that if the school board was not interested in attaching the new facility to the school, then maybe she should step out of the process and leave only Jeanne Anderson on the committee. She pointed out that replacing the west wing of the school would cost the district nothing if the community center were located there.
“It’s not the school’s responsibility to make the community center work,” said school board member Deb White. Whatever is done on school grounds should be for the benefit of students, she said. She expressed concern about losing control over a portion of the school complex if the facility were located there. She also said the Arrowhead Center for the Arts was an example of a nice facility, built with grant money, that the school could not afford to maintain. She said the Grand Marais Municipal Pool could be renovated instead of building a new building.
“It’s too much of a shot in the dark, period,” said Sobanja.
School board member Terry Collins said he agreed with Greenwood that they wouldn’t want to appear to endorse any particular position regarding the community center because it’s a contentious political issue in the community. He wondered if they would be able to turn the county down if the school complex turned out to be the only viable option. “That’s going to leave residue of an odoriferous nature…,” he said.
Schwarz said she couldn’t imagine the school complex being the only viable site option.
The roof is leaking and things are mildewing in the west end of the school, school board member Mary Sanders said. “It seems like it would be prudent to at least look into what the county can offer us,” she said.
Schwarz estimated that having a community center in place of the west wing would save the district roughly $30,000 in custodial staff, heat, and maintenance, and it would be seen as an asset to young families considering moving to Cook County.
The board considered a motion expressing its desire to not advocate for any particular outcome regarding a new community center but also discussed tabling any action. Superintendent Schwarz said she thought if they tabled any action, the Community Center Steering Committee would drop the school as an option the next time they met.
The board decided to vote on the following motion:
The school board of ISD166 is neutral on the question of whether to build a Cook County community center.
The school board of ISD166 has before it on July 19, 2011, a request that land now occupied by the west gymnasium and Community Education be considered by the Cook County board as one of several possible sites for a proposed community center. The school board of ISD166 is not opposed at this time to such consideration by the county board. The school board of ISD166 does not, with this motion, anticipate future approval of a proposal from the county board related to construction of a community center on an ISD166 site, nor does it solicit such a proposal.
The motion passed with ayes from Terry Collins, Deb White, and Mary Sanders, a nay from Leonard Sobanja, and an abstention from Jeanne White, who said she was not comfortable voting on the motion because she is on the Community Center Steering Committee.
“We’re just saying if you have a proposal, bring it to us,” said Collins, “and if you don’t, that’s fine.”
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