North Shore Views

New Trier High School Renovation: Yay or Nay?

On February 2 residents of New Trier Township will vote on a referendum for the renovation of New Trier Township High School. The proposal has been three years in the making and has sparked quite a bit of controversy. Several alternative plans have been explored, including a total tear-down of the Winnetka campus, expanding the Northfield campus and moving the upperclassmen there, a partial renovation of  the Winnetka campus and maintaining the status quo (making repairs to the existing plant on an as-needed basis)

In a nutshell, what’s currently being proposed is the replacement of the oldest, least accessible and least coherent buildings on New Trier’s Winnetka campus, which are on the east and west sides of the campus. The Tower and north buildings would be retained. The estimated cost of the project is $174 million and the impact to the taxpayer will amount to about $250 per $10,000 tax bill. This is the first “bricks and mortar” referendum for the Winnetka campus since 1953.

There are two web sites dedicated to the issue. Our New Trier is pro-renovation and provides some compelling arguments in favor of the project. New Trier Choices is against the project. Rationale includes project cost as well as impact of construction on surrounding homes (noise, congestion, short term property values).

I have read everything I could find on both sides of the argument and I have taken advantage of the tour of the facility that is being offered almost daily through January 30th. If you can’t make the tour in person, you can take a virtual tour here. In fact, even if you can make the physical tour, take the virtual tour first – it provides a helpful overview of what you will see and hear when you go on campus. The tour I took was led by Principal Tim Dohrer and was extremely informative. We saw all of the problem areas and the plans to address each of them. I was  impressed with the thoroughness of the analysis and work that has been done so far to explore alternatives, respond to concerns and to make this project as cost-effective as possible.

For me the facts overwhelmingly support going ahead with this project. New Trier has long been recognized as one of the best high schools in the country, and is one of the reasons many of us moved to the area. However, some of the buildings date back to the early 1900s. They are expensive and inefficient to maintain. They are not designed for modern technology or for today’s teaching methods. Much of the campus is inaccessible to those with disabilities. New Trier is one of the only high schools in the area without a field house.  If we want to continue to provide top quality education to our children we need to address this obsolescence. As for the price tag? No one wants to pay more in taxes, but we have chosen to live in one of the most expensive areas in the country. What’s another $250/year to ensure that our children and future generations have the kind of education that they deserve.

Wherever you ultimately come out, if you are a New Trier resident you owe it to yourself to become informed on the issue and to vote accordingly, because the decision will have far-reaching implications for our community and for the education of our children.

Tags: New Trier, New Trier Township, Winnetka

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Living here, Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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