My wife Gail and I have lived in River Forest for nearly 60 years. We attended local schools, sent our children to District 90, and have the good fortune to see one of our children and his family move back to River Forest.

District 90 is the best it has ever been! It has achieved excellence by every standard. A dozen years ago District 90 board members and their superintendent set a plan to accomplish this. Make a special effort to improve every student in his or her weakest subject area

State testing results might be described as a "success ratio." Ours is 91 percent. River Forest is consistently among the 10 best of the 900 school systems in Illinois; first, twice, during the past six years. This is the result of the River Forest style of teaching to every child’s needs.

River Forest has been a magnet for great teachers and for enthusiastic parents and children. This year District 90 received over 1,400 applications for three teaching positions.

During the time I have been a member of the village Board, student count has nearly doubled, while home values have more than tripled. As village president, I am uniquely aware that new construction, additions and remodeling expenditures have increased to about $40,000,000 per year. Student population will not decline during the next five years.

More students require more teachers. Even though our teachers are paid less than some neighboring communities, more students require more revenue.

Interestingly, I expect that the largest part of a property tax increase will be paid by the parents of District 90 students because homes that have been recently added to or remodeled experience a greater increase in Equalized Assessed Valuation, the means by which tax increases are distributed.

A community is never better than its schools. Vote YES for our schools.

Vote YES for our community.

Frank Paris
River Forest Village President