Bonds need further scrutiny

Regarding the two bond measures on the ballot for the Oak Park Unified School District, I am concerned that the bond funds will not be used to repair our schools, but instead will be spent on remodelling the district headquarters, building a preschool, installing interactive dry erase boards in all of the classrooms, and building a cardio-fitness center at Medea Creek Middle School.

My concern is based on past experience. A few years ago, money was supposed to be spent to repair and modernize the Brookside Elementary School multipurpose room and to install a functional cafeteria there. Instead, the superintendent and the school board allowed the former principal of Brookside to hijack those funds to build herself a new office complex. The needs of the students were ignored. Based on their prior conduct, I cannot trust the superintendent and the school board to take the money from these bond measures to repair our schools prior to remodelling the school district headquarters.

It's also interesting how much hostility there is towards the district's policy of allowing 470 nondistrict student to attend Oak Park schools, and the fact that the parents of those children do not have to pay increased property taxes if the bonds pass. A few individuals brought up the issue of the district's declining enrollment to suggest that one of the elementary schools be closed in order to avoid having to pay for its repair.

I'm surprised the superintendent says he would not want to consider the option of renting out one of the elementary schools to a private school instead of spending millions to fix it when the district demographics do not require three elementary schools because parents might send their children to that private school instead of Oak Park schools. Donna Klugman Oak Park