Schools

Still No Vote, But Residents Make Themselves Heard

Both sides got into the discussion over Memorial Field enhancements at Monday night's District 87 school board meeting.

Glen Ellyn residents were literally lining up at Monday night’s District 87 school board meeting to state their opinion about possible enhancements to Memorial Field.

While recent board meetings have been a platform for residents in opposition to adding stadium-style lights and increased seating at Memorial Field, Monday night’s meeting saw a significant increase in residents attending who would like to see the enhancements made to Memorial Field.

Our Town, Our Field Opposes Enhancements

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Opening the night’s discussion was Tom Koprowski of Our Town, Our Field—a group created to oppose the enhancements to Memorial Field.

“This is the result of putting too much in too little a space,” Koprowski told the large crowd in attendance, which filled the Glenbard West library.

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Koprowski passionately went through his list of arguments against adding lights and additional seating at Memorial Field. Central to his concerns was the issue of traffic safety on Crescent Boulevard, but also included concerns about noise and neighborhood loitering.

“I don’t want this to be about one issue, because there are many here,” Koprowski said later in the evening. “But safety is the most important, and it needs to be addressed before [the District] moves forward.”

 Kirk Berger—who had also spoken at several board meetings in opposition and is also a member of Our Town, Our Field—calmly went through a list of concerns, mainly focused on the issue of lighting at Memorial Field.

Berger took his time to argue that the board had two choices: make the lights bright enough to be safe for kids on the field, or make the lights safe for driver on Crescent. Berger argued that because of how the stadium lighting would direct the light onto the field, the lights could blind drivers on Crescent Boulevard, resulting in more accidents.

“You’re eyes need time to adjust,” Berger said of the glare he said the lights would bring. “You already have an accident ridden area, and adding lights will make it worse." 

Our Town, Our Field’s third presenter, Don Pydo was cut short during his slideshow by a timer keeping track of the group’s presentation to the board. The District made attempts to cut the speaker off, but the crowd called for the presentation to continue, at which point the board relented.

Despite the heated debate between the two sides, the discussion remained largely civil. Board President Rose Malcolm reminded residents they would be asked to leave if they talked without having the floor after a group of residents yelled, “That’s not true,” as a speaker spoke.

Residents in Favors of Enhancements Come Out in Force

Those residents in favor of the proposed enhancements to Memorial Field had previously been largely absent, or at least not as vocal, at recent District board meetings and presentations on the issue. But on Monday night, they came out in full force.

Former physical education teacher and Glenbard West coach Karen Judge was the first speaker to advocate for the enhancements to Memorial Field.

“That facility across the street has opened up so many options for our students already,” Judge said. “To not take the next step would just set us back again.”

Judge said she believed not moving forward would be a waste of the time and talent that helped rebuild the field in the first place, and cited keeping students on campus and not bussing to practices and games as reason for continuing with the second phase of the District’s plans for Memorial Field.

Following Judge’s comments to the board was student athlete Nick Burrello, who argued that bussing students wasted student’s time and the school’s resources as well.

“For four years I’ve waited outside of Biester [Gym] for buses to come pick us to take us off campus to take us to another field,” Burrello said.

A litany of residents, teammates and members of various sports teams who said they would greatly benefit from adding lights to Memorial Field echoed Burrello statements.

For the better part of an hour and half, residents went back and forth, largely repeating the same points as they debated to pros and cons of adding lights to Memorial Field.

After Malcolm announced the public participation portion of the evening closed, the library saw a mass exodus of residents, much to the dismay of Chris McClain, assistant superintendent for business services and representative for the District’s plans going forward.

“Everyone leaves when you’re going to hear what the real deal is,” McClain said to residents as they exited the library before his presentation to the board.

District Offers Solutions Based on Resident's Concerns

McClain’s presentation varied little from his previous presentations to the District, but included some solutions to residents concerns that had been addressed at previous forums. To traffic safety concerns, McClain said he was working closing with the Glen Ellyn Police Department and suggested not allowing drivers to park on the south side of Crescent Boulevard when cars could not pull completely up to the concrete blocks, or simply not allowing any parking on the south side of the street at all as possible solutions.

 McClain also told the board the lights were being reduced from 43 lamps on six posts to 34 lamps to reduce glare, said that no outside sound systems would be allowed by third party users of the field. McClain also stated that he sees little potential to rent the field out and could make any rental of the space subject to board approval.

District Divided Over How and When to Move Forward

For the District’s part, board members largely agreed that soon or later, lights would be added to Memorial Field, with several board members calling it the next logical step. However, the board was divided over how exactly to proceed.

Board member Steve Sebby wondered why the board was moving so quickly on the issue and echoed a frequent talking point during the night about it taking Oak Park River Forest six years to come to agreement on the same issue.

“I firmly believe lights will occur and it will happen there,” Sebby said, but added the issued needed more time and more community input before moving forward and that he was in no rush to vote. Board member Yadav Nathwani echoed his statement.

A perturbed President Malcolm asked Sebby and Nathwani what additional information they could possibly want and reminded the board they were simply discussing a vote to send a variance request to the Village, not deciding the ultimate fate.

By 11 p.m. the Board was still debating whether additional time and information was needed, splitting into two camps, those who want to delay and those who want to move forward, at which point, the call came to end the discussion and move into executive session.

The Board was scheduled to vote on whether to ask the Village for a zoning variance request on Monday night, but a vote is now scheduled for the March 7 meeting, although whether a vote will actually occur is unclear. 


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