We have been River Forest residents for eight years and have two kids at Willard and one at Roosevelt.

Last year, for work reasons, we lived in Burlingame, Calif., a lovely, wealthy community approximately 10 miles south of San Francisco. In many ways, it mirrored what we have in River Forest: close proximity to the city, desirable housing, easy access to the airport, nice downtown area, all the amenities. What it did not have were desirable schools.

Approximately five years before we had arrived, the Burlingame school district, due to a failed referendum, had been forced to make substantial cuts to balance their budget, eliminating art, music, physical education, and library services. Sound familiar? As a direct result of the referendum failure, here’s what happened:

1) The parents and kids in the town, in an attempt to restore what had been lost, found themselves forced to fundraise, fundraise, fundraise. That’s all they did. Every third knock on our door was a parent or child asking for money for the schools. Every event was focused on making money. It was essentially all that was ever discussed—not making the schools better, not how to move forward, but how to regain what had been lost.

2) Through massive fundraising efforts every year, money was raised and some semblance of the axed programs were cobbled together. But they were by no means as broad, professional or effective as the programs that had been cut. We were truly shocked at the amount of effort that was poured into fundraising, and the low quality of the result.

3) Constant fundraising with meager results wore on the residents. Families started selling their houses and moving to the next town over, Hillsborough, which had unscathed schools with programs similar to those we enjoy in District 90 today.

In River Forest we have seen a significant increase in housing value in recent years. A huge reason for this is because our schools are excellent and provide not only superior academics but superb music/art/PE programs that the entire community can not only be proud of, but partake in. Without this, would River Forest be nearly as desirable a place to live? Poor schools with weak programs = undesirable scholastic environment = people selling/not buying = lower property values.

What we have is excellent, and we all reap the benefits. Let’s keep it.

By the way, if "Hillsborough" sounds a little like "Hinsdale" to you, maybe that’s more than a coincidence.

Roma & Brian Steinke
River Forest