The Evanston/Skokie District 65 School Board faced support and opposition when it discussed a controversial Lincoln Elementary School parking plan at its meeting Monday night.
The president of D65’s teachers union and members of the Lincoln Parent-Teacher Association, including an Evanston alderman, spoke about the plan during the meeting’s citizen comment period.
The $40,000 plan — an intergovernmental agreement with the city — would eliminate a teacher parking lot at Lincoln, 910 Forest Ave., in order to provide more green space. To replace the lost spaces, the district would expand the main parking lot by 10 spaces and lease 14 spaces from a city lot on Judson Avenue.
After the main lot is expanded, the Lincoln PTA would lease spaces in the lot at night and on weekends, which would bring in about $5,000 a year, PTA members said. The money would pay the rental fees for the 14 spaces in the city lot, with the remainder going to Lincoln for school activities.
The board approved construction of the teacher lot in 1995 without holding public meetings to discuss the issue. Since the lot was completed, some parents have asked the board to remove the lot and restore the green space upon which it was built.
Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd), whose city council district includes Lincoln, said the parking lot should be removed because the neighborhood needs green space. Wynne serves in the Lincoln PTA and has children at the school.
“Creating more green space is very difficult” in the dense Lincoln area, Wynne said. “So we must use the space we already have.”
But John Lalley, president of the 600-member District Educators Council, said that the plan would move teachers’ parking off school grounds without their consent.
“We support open play space for children,” Lalley said. “But we also support the right of teachers to do something as simple as to park where they work.”
Lincoln parent Kyle Morrison told the board that the plan raises safety concerns. He said some children walk through the city and school lots to go home, and an increase in traffic would put them at risk.
“Is it worth the risk of a child getting hit, or worse?” he said. “For parents and community members, the resounding answer is no.”
But Wynne said a city study done in 2000 on the safety issue showed that students do not often use the city lot as a pathway. She also said the city lot is actually closer to the school than the teacher lot.
Board member Rosie Rees said the 1995 decision to build the lot may not have been the best choice, but the current board should not spend more money to remove it.
“It’s throwing good money after bad,” she said.
Board member Lisa Kupferberg said D65’s budget, operating on a deficit this year, cannot support the removal of the lot.
“I don’t think (the teacher lot) should’ve been there in the first place, but now we don’t have $40,000 to fund the damn thing,” Kupferberg said.
Superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy told the board that he would explore alternative funding options before the Nov. 5 meeting.
Although the city approved the intergovernmental agreement in June 2000, the district has kept the project on hold. Originally part of a plan to renovate Lincoln’s playground, the issues were separated when the the board approved the playground.
Some board members suggested the issue be held until the new board takes office next month. Board President Walter Carlson disagreed.
“Through the hard work of a lot of people, a good solution was brought forward,” Carlson said. “I don’t think it is an issue for a new board.”
In other action Monday, the board:
• approved a partnership with District 202 to oppose large property tax appeals that are submitted to the county. The districts will employ law firm Franczek Sullivan. D65 will pay 60 percent of the legal fees and D202 will cover 40 percent.
• hired Sheldon Good and Co. Auctions, LLC, to prepare the sale of the 1314 Ridge Ave. administrative building. The district will move offices in that building to its new education center when it is completed in 2002.
