More than 40 years ago, my husband persuaded me to move from my beloved Chicago lakeshore to the western suburbs and our home in River Forest. He offered three convincing arguments:

1) We would live among beloved family and friends;

2) He would have only a brief 15-minute daily commute to his office in Oak Park; and

3) The most persuasive, our babies would grow up and enroll in the world-class Oak Park and River Forest High School and the similarly well-regarded River Forest elementary schools.

More family, more father, and a first-rate start in life for our children—who could say no? Turns out, he was right. For the most part.

I made new friends, many of them my Willard School neighborhood parents. We began to exchange notes about our children’s school experiences. Just like our children, we came to love Willard’s greatly talented teachers, including the revered Harriet Oncken, Jean Faszholz, and Florence Hild. We loved our beautiful school building. But we had some problems with what our children were learning, and with some things that they were not learning.

One friend, who would eventually become District 90 board president, decided to subscribe to a set of monthly science experiments. Her son loved science, but there was little, if any, in River Forest’s 1960s-era K-6 curriculum.

Our children learned "world" history, but the implied geography of that "world" encompassed little more than ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and the Crusades.

Over time, several parents noticed that some of our brightest students were increasingly distracted, rebellious. At first, Dist. 90 resisted the notion of special attention to their quick-learner needs. If these children were indeed the cream of our crop, the thinking went then, they would rise to the top on their own. Parents persisted. Improperly cared for, they insisted, cream curdles.

Previous generations of River Forest residents had brought our schools to the heights that drew us here. Now it was our turn to do the heavy lifting.

We asked for and received, at least in some measure, more attention to the different ways that children learn, whether they were "special education," "gifted," or the conventionally ready-to-learn River Forest variety. Again, as over the generations, neighbors brought their ideas, their time and their tax dollars to the service of the schools. Smart, strong administrators, teachers, and board members listened and responded creatively, professionally, and courageously. In subsequent years, our schools considered and acted on new ideas about math, writing, and technology. As a result, even though the world continues to change at an astonishing, accelerating rate, we continue to excel, according to our own expectations and in comparison with communities throughout the area and nationwide.

I have no doubt that River Forest public schools today are superior to the schools that drew my family here in the first place. In truth, I wish my children could have enrolled in schools like the ones we now offer.

When families evaluate the cost/benefit equation of making their homes in River Forest, they look at test scores and comparative rankings, and they visit our classrooms. With or without children in school, with or without family ties to the village, our newest River Forest neighbors, including our own daughter and her husband, choose to live among those who share their civic values, including strong support of education. Our strong property values reflect their decisions.

A couple of years ago, when our son and his family chose to live in River Forest, they were persuaded by three convincing and familiar arguments: 1) They would live among loving family and friends; 2) he would continue to have only a brief daily commute to his office in downtown Chicago; and 3) foremost in their minds, their children would grown up and enroll in the world-class Oak Park and River Forest High School and the equally world-class River Forest elementary schools.

After all these years, I will not now betray that excellent decision, nor will I betray my own civic and financial investment in this community. I will not betray the trust of my children or the educational futures of my grandchildren, and I will not betray the effort and investment of generations who came here before me, and those who will arrive later.

Count on it. I will be at the polls, and I will vote "yes" on March 21 when the future of our better-than-ever schools will be, as ever, in our hands. I trust that you will join me.

Leah Marcus has written and reported on schools, colleges and community issues for local and metropolitan newspapers. She served on the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 Board of Education from 1979 to 1985 (president 1984-85) and most recently served on the District 90 Fiscal Action Team.