I write in regard to the referendum to renovate and expand RBHS. I would like to thank you for your thorough and even handed coverage of this important issue. Few in the district would disagree that the aging facilities need to be updated. If the District 208 leadership would ask for the money to do that, I think the referendum would pass easily.
Instead, we get a proposal that is approximately $30 million for renovation and $30 million dollars for various projects. I ask if anyone besides an athletic coach or a building contractor thinks that the already huge RBHS athletic facilities need to be expanded?
And this new athletic center will be on the site of the current faculty parking lot adjacent to First Avenue, requiring the building of a new parking structure costing $2 million.
Great schools require intelligent, active students, parents that care about their children’s accomplishments, well-paid motivated teachers and an administration that supports them.
Making RBHS into a sports center with a high school attached will not keep RBHS great or make it better. I have elementary school age children but believe that the current plans do not serve them well.
I will not vote to support a referendum that goes beyond asking for money to modernize the athletic facilities but also wants to expand them. That money is better spent on something else or not at all.
Guy Adami
Brookfield
