Have the District 201 Cuts Changed Anything?

District 201 made some drastic cuts in the spring including laying off many teachers (mostly electives like arts education) and reducing the number of credits required to graduate. Students, parents, teachers and community members spoke out about the cuts, but offered few alternatives since the district is broke, the state is broke and the system is broken! So, our community that voted down a tax referendum 3 times to better fund our high school system, raised a fist in outrage at a few meetings before being told "We told you so". A few weeks into the school year and we're already used to the lower expectations, with hardly a peep out of us about the low standards we've set for OURSELVES!! I'm reminded of the grieving process stages: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Have we completed these stages in our grieving of the idea of educational excellence in Berwyn? Have we accepted that hope is dead? We MUST fix this. Our high school students are now in study halls that are unproductive and are at risk of rejection from colleges and universities because there is no opportunity to take the classes necessary to get in. Please read the following comments written and spoken at a District 201 meeting last spring by a current senior at Morton West. He gets it!

Hello, my name is Justin Wych and I am currently enrolled as a Junior at Morton West. I am ranked 8th in the Junior Class and I am currently taking 4 Advanced Classes, Gym and Theatre Studio. I am also a member of NHS and President of the Thespians Guild. Next year I plan on using my three electives to take Theatre Studio, for preparation for my major, AP Chemistry and AP Calculus, to strengthen my college resume.

According to pages 3 and 12 of the Budget Reduction Plan, Seniors are only going to be allowed to take 4 classes, one and half of which are electives. With my projected schedule of 3 full year classes, I am forced to choose one of the classes. All three are going to benefit me in college and look great, not only for a Theatre major, but also acceptance into a selective college. I am not the only student with this sort of dilemma. While I accept that the district is acting on the large budget deficit and applaud the general action taken, I cannot agree with the idea that students are being deprived of classes that are going to help us later in life. I fear that without the option to take the aforementioned classes, students like myself are going to be at a disadvantage to competing students who were able to take and pass such classes.

I did some research and found college acceptance recommendations from collegeboard.com. Let’s say that I am an extremely fortunate freshman and I already know from the get-go that I want to go to the University of Illinois. While, with the new schedule plan, I can scrape by the minimum requirements, it is difficult to even come near the recommendations. The University of Illinois recommends a student take 4 years of each Science, Social Science, Math and Foreign Language. While such a feat is difficult with the current schedule, it becomes impossible with the updated version. After calculating a possible outcome, eliminating any college major/minor specific electives, I graduate with 3 Science credits, 3 Foreign language credits, 3.5 social science credits, and 3 math credits. All in all, I come 3.5 credits short of the college’s recommendations. Other schools such as University of Michigan, Boston University, Northern Illinois University, and Purdue all have similar recommendations.

What I ask of the board is to modify the budget reduction plan so as students such as myself can take these essential additional without an extra cost. The idea of strengthening a student’s chances to be accepted into a prestigious college should out-weigh any cost issue. With our phenomenal teachers and staff who truly care for us students, and with an array of Advanced Placement classes to choose from, there is no doubt in my mind that we, as students, have the opportunity to receive as good, if not better an education here at Morton than anywhere around. However, with a tight restriction on our class choices, I feel my doubts beginning to grow. Thank you.

PLEASE reread this note every time the urge to accept the current standards (and the death of high expectations) creeps into your mind. The kids at Morton only have ONE SHOT at high school. They deserve the same chance as kids in other suburbs who get to take one or two more classes EVERY DAY! The specifics of the plan Justin refers to in his comments may have been modified. But the reduction of credits required WILL prevent some students from the opportunity to take classes that are preferred/recommended for acceptance into universities. Our community needs to get out of the Acceptance Stage, go backward through the grieving process and realize that the patient is not dead! Bleeding, yes! In critical condition, yes! But hope is still alive. We need solutions and those solutions need to come directly from the community. Get involved. Be informed. District 201 School Board Meetings are on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, usually at about 7:00 pm.