The consolidation of Red Oak Elementary School’s K-5 dual language program seems all but certain, but it is moving forward in an atmosphere of mistrust and frustration as some parents continue to voice their opposition.
According to North Shore School District 112 leaders, the school board is expected to vote on an upcoming proposal for consolidation during a special board meeting on June 26. During a previous special meeting, District Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld was clear that he supports consolidation.
The Highland Park-area district has pointed to falling enrollment numbers, especially among primarily Spanish-speaking students, as the primary driver for the move. The program would be consolidated to just Oak Terrace Elementary School.
Red Oak parents opposed to the consolidation question the need for what they consider a drastic move, raising concerns about a process they feel has been “backwards” and left out vulnerable families, and criticizing the district for breaking promises.
Consolidation
It’s not the first time the school’s Spanish and English education program has faced consolidation. In 2022, Red Oak was in a similar situation, with the district concerned about declining enrollment. Various promotional efforts, including those by parents themselves, managed to increase enrollment in the program.
Lubelfeld had said in previous communications, including a 2023 video answering parents’ questions, that if enrollment remained up, the dual language program would continue at two sites — Red Oak and Oak Terrace elementary schools.
Late last year, when consolidation was again raised, strong backlash from families was followed by the district assuring parents that no decisions would be made at that time, and that the district was bringing on consultants to conduct “a thorough review” of their educational programming.
But that review was a source of disappointment for parents when its findings were presented last month during a special board meeting. While many praised the credentials of DePaul University professor Sonia Soltero, who ran the review, they felt she had been purposefully constrained by the district.
“We were told that the consultant would be performing a comprehensive review of the dual language program,” said Red Oak parent David Etlinger. But that didn’t happen. “In fact … the consultant’s scope was basically narrowly limited to a yes-no answer on the consolidation question.”
During the presentation, Soltero noted her contracted scope of work “did not include an evaluation or needs assessment” of the program. She provided four sets of recommendations, including reprioritizing English learners, redesigning the dual language programs, a “culture reset” to revamp the community’s negative perception of Oak Terrace and finally a consolidation plan.
While parents generally voiced support for the first three recommendations given, and many said they wanted to address those before considering consolidation, Lubelfeld argued it must be decided first.
“Consolidation is the foundational decision that will allow for meaningful progress on those areas,” he said in a statement.
Stolero’s analysis “confirmed that consolidation is a sound step, but her report is just one part of the overall recommendation,” Lubelfeld said. “The core issue remains the ongoing decline in enrollment of Spanish-dominant students, which impacts the sustainability of the current two-site model.”
For parents, it feels like “they’ve started from the outcome that they want,” and “worked backward to construct a narrative to support it,” Etlinger said.
Soltero’s review also raised concerns around busing that took some parents by surprise. Primarily Spanish-speaking students are facing “long and inconsistent bus rides,” and general “transportation challenges,” Lubelfeld said. According to Soltero’s presentation, 67% of English learners at Red Oak are being bused from Oak Terrace’s attendance radius.
Lubelfeld also said several Spanish-speaking families have requested placement at Oak Terrace instead of Red Oak for next year, “due in part to transportation challenges, and the administration is listening to these concerns and needs at a deeper level.”
According to Red Oak parent Maria Barraza, she and other parents hadn’t heard about busing issues until the district brought it up, even after talking with Spanish-speaking families.
“I feel like (the reason) changes with the board and Lubelfeld depending on what makes sense for them,’ Barraza said.
According to data presented by Soltero, both Oak Terrace and Red Oak have seen a considerable decline in enrollment in a five-year period, although Oak Terrace has seen more than double that of Red Oak; about 31% compared to Red Oak’s 13%.
But closing Red Oak is too big a step without looking at other avenues to address declining enrollment, Barraza said.
“Up to this point, we as a parent community wanted to look at the dual language program as a whole,” Barraza said. “How can we make such a big decision of closing a school when, truly, I think there are other factors of the dual language program that need to be looked at before considering closing a school altogether.”
Barraza echoed a sentiment Cathy Curran, head of the Red Oak PTO, has shared several times throughout the controversy. Barraza said she’s not fundamentally opposed to consolidation, if it’s the necessary step that will best benefit the community’s families. But she’s not convinced yet that there’s been enough planning by the district.
There’s also confusion around what a consolidation would look like, and how Oak Terrace will be able to absorb the additional student population, Barraza said. How does the district plan to address class sizes, and support students, teachers and families?
Etlinger shared Barraza’s concerns. Parents don’t know “what the high-level goals of the program are, who the key stakeholders are,” he said. “We don’t know what target class sizes are. We don’t know what special services are required. We have a lot of information that we don’t know.”
Lubelfeld said they have “preliminary plans” in place outlining the next steps if the board approves consolidation. A task force — including administrators, dual language staff and parents — will be created to “help guide the consolidation process.”
And then there’s the controversial topic of Oak Terrace’s reputation, which was raised during Soltero’s review. It’s “generally viewed as less desirable” and “faces higher scrutiny,” Soltero said in her presentation.
Some parents pushed back against what they considered a false narrative of a divide between the two schools, with Eltinger saying the dual language community was “very strongly united.” Still, other parents seemed to share concerns about its reputation.
In a statement, parents of the Oak Terrace PTO said they were “proud” to be part of a “deeply committed” school community that fosters an “inclusive, respectful, and nurturing environment where every child is given the opportunity to succeed.”
“Comments suggesting that Oak Terrace is a ‘less desirable’ school do not fit with our or our children’s experiences,” the statement said. “Furthermore, they are disheartening to the dedicated teachers, staff, students and families who contribute so much each day.”
Lubelfeld, responding to Soltero’s recommendations, said that Oak Terrace is “a strong school with talented staff and a welcoming community. We see any future work related to school climate and culture as building on those existing strengths.”
Damaging a community
Central to the entire issue are the Spanish-speaking families, but because of various technical and language barriers, some parents worry they’ve been left out. Barraza, who lives in a bilingual household herself, has been part of outreach efforts by the Red Oak PTO.
She said the district has come up short regarding communicating with these families. In several PTO meetings held specifically for Spanish-speaking families, Barraza described a general sense of confusion. She criticized the district for a general lack of engagement with the community, especially with Spanish-speaking families, throughout the process.
“That’s where the tension lies between the superintendent, and the school board and the parent community,” she said.
The loss of Red Oak’s dual language program will mean the end of a community built around it, Barraza warned. She said some Spanish-speaking families have shared they might not continue in the dual language program for various reasons, including some who don’t feel Oak Terrace is “equipped to handle a whole population of children at their school.”
That will be devastating for the children moving from a dual language to a monolingual setting, she said.
“Language is so connected to our culture,” Barraza said. “I think that’s going to be such a disadvantage to them, just because the culture piece is not going to be there.”
Etlinger also warned it would send a poor message about the broader community.
“It’s going to be very hard to tell English learners and members of the Hispanic community that they’re welcome in our community if they’re being segregated in one school,” Etlinger said.
‘A lot of mistrust going forward’
Parents say mistrust towards the district also stems from a $114 million referendum the district passed in 2022. Etlinger said Lubelfeld had indicated Red Oak would likely face consolidation without the money, and Red Oak families pushed for the referendum with the understanding that their school would be receiving funds for renovations.
With the referendum passed, Lubelfeld had previously said Red Oak would receive improvements using cash reserves after work on several other schools was completed.
“It’s really disheartening to go from, ‘yes, your school is going to be one of those schools that’s going to be renovated,’ to ‘your school is closing,’” Barraza said.
It was another broken promise, Etlinger argued. Despite the passed referendum and parents’ efforts to keep enrollment up at Red Oak, they are still on the “brink of closure.”
Etlinger said parents who speak out against consolidation are, “directly dismissed as not representing the community.” If consolidation moves ahead without addressing concerns over transparency, he said many parents, teachers, staff and children, “will feel that they did not have a real voice in this process.”
“There’s going to be a lot of mistrust going forward,” Etlinger said. “It’s going to be very difficult to trust future decisions made by the board and our administration.”
