Community members gathered Tuesday at the Park Forest Public Library to talk about how they could potentially reverse a decision to close Rich East High School.

Residents have exchanged ideas and suggestions in online groups in the wake of the Rich Township High School District 227 Board of Education’s 4-3 decision on Oct. 15 to close the school.

Immediately after the vote, people reacted with shock and sadness to the imminent end of an institution that has been a cornerstone in a town of about 22,000 people since 1952.

But the mood in the library meeting room Tuesday night was one of calm resolve as people discussed various strategies to challenge the board’s decision.

“Our focus has been on what’s best for the district,” said Gina Davis-Mireles, a local business owner and one of the leaders of the citizen group Save Our Southland Schools.

Community members acknowledged enrollment in the district has declined nearly 30% over the past decade, and consolidating to two schools from three may be a reasonable response.

The board provoked backlash, however, with how it arrived at the decision to close Rich East instead of Rich Central in Olympia Fields or Rich South in Richton Park.

“They closed the wrong school,” said resident Constance Means, another leader of Save Our Southland Schools.

In public comments before the vote, the board majority appeared to place a lot of weight on financial considerations and facility needs. Members mentioned facility assessment studies of the three schools that consultant STR Partners provided to the district a year ago.

The district has published the studies on its website. Each report is 65 to 70 pages long. The reports concluded that Rich East would need $30.6 million in physical improvements over the next 10 years, compared to $26 million for Rich Central and $18 million for Rich South.

One line of criticism is the board’s decision to close a school should consider factors beyond the costs of facility repairs and renovations. Deliberations seemed to lack context about how facilities were part of an overall strategy to address student academic performance.

“The process was problematic,” said Holly Fingerle, another leader of Save Our Southland Schools.

For example, a two-hour presentation before the board vote included information about the impact closing a school would have on transportation costs. Reports showed that closing any of the three schools would increase transportation costs by $1.8 million to $2 million a year, since more students would ride school buses for greater distances.

Critics said if the board placed so much weight on the costs of 10-year facility projections, it should have given more consideration that transportation costs would increase by $18 million to $20 million total over 10 years.

In the months since district officials in July publicly shared facility options, community reaction coalesced around opposition to a proposal to acquire the former Lincoln-Way North campus in Frankfort Township.

Almost immediately after rejecting the so-called Lincoln-Way option last week, the board voted to close Rich East.

There seemed to be little consideration given to factors such as how much of the district’s student population is concentrated in Park Forest, and how the eastern part of the district will have no school.

Meanwhile, the western portion of the district will have two high schools within a few blocks of each other, as Southland College Prep Charter School, which operates independently of the district, is down the street from Rich South in Richton Park.

How fair is it for one community in the district to have two high schools, while Park Forest loses its school? Rich East boosters would like board members to give more consideration to how closing a high school will affect home values and impact the business environment.

Southland College Prep was chartered by the state and is affiliated with Matteson School District 162. District 227 does not govern Southland, but it does control Rich South.

How Southland is funded by the state and whether it draws resources from District 227 is a topic that some Park Forest residents want to explore in greater depth. Others want to discuss long-term options, such as whether Park Forest could break away from District 227 and form a preK-12 unit school district to serve the community.

Other potential responses are more immediate. The District 227 board discussed moving ahead with a $105 million bond issue to finance improvements to the two remaining schools and demolition of Rich East.

One confusing aspect of the board’s decision was that while the vote included funding to demolish Rich East, the board also directed administrators to explore converting the school building into a regional trade school.

Citizens potentially could delay the bond issue by gathering signatures from registered voters and forcing a referendum on the bond issue. Save Our Southland Schools seeks to raise $1,000 in donations to pay an attorney to help file a petition regarding the bond issue.

“We cannot do this alone,” Means said. “This has to be a community effort.”

Another legal strategy involves reviewing whether the District 227 board complied with the Open Meetings Act during deliberations. Citizens want to know more about how much information was presented to board members outside of public meetings.

A political strategy involves recruiting candidates from Park Forest to run for seats on the District 227 board during the next election in spring 2021. Supporters hope to oust board members who voted to close the school and elect candidates who could potentially vote to overturn the decision — if that possibility remains a viable option in 18 months.

The four seats up in 2021 are board members Janice Preston and Delores Woods — who voted to close Rich East — and Mia Carter and Sharon Newman, who voted against the closure. Board President Andrea Bonds and member Cheryl Coleman also voted to close the school, while Randy Alexander dissented.

Another aspect of the process that concerns citizens is how board members indicated at a public meeting in September that they wanted to discuss options in October with an eye toward making a decision in November.

Instead, community members were stunned when the board voted to close Rich East at about 11:25 p.m. Oct. 15 after meeting for about six hours.

Also, the board sent mixed messages during a special meeting on Oct. 7 when members discussed rebuilding trust with the community by forming a Facilities Advisory Committee.

The district posted applications and information about the committee on its website and set a Nov. 1 deadline to apply. Seven community members and a student will be selected to serve with two administrators and two school board members on the committee.

“The FAC will provide the board and administration with expertise, oversight and guidance on the district’s facilities and infrastructure, master facilities plan, strategic plan and proposed capital improvement projects,” the district said in a notice about the committee.

Some community members question why the board decided to close Rich East before creating the committee, if the intent of forming the group was to rebuild trust with the community.

The District 227 board’s next scheduled public meeting is Nov. 19.

tslowik@tribpub.com

Twitter @tedslowik1