The High School District 86 school board voted at a meeting on December 17 to eliminate several extracurricular programs at Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central high schools, including football and other sports, marching band and other arts programs, and several clubs, The Doings reports.
(school website)In all, the program cuts will save the district slightly less than $400,000 per year, and those savings will be part of a $42-million facility improvement plan over the next six years.
The decision could be reversed and the programs reinstated if voters pass a ballot referendum slated for the primary election on April 2. The cuts were approved for the 2019-20 school year and followed voters’ rejection of a $166-million referendum on the November ballot. The April referendum will ask voters to approve $130 million in tax increases.
“I didn’t even think it was possible,” the paper quoted one football student-athlete as saying about the decision. “I was at work when the news popped up on my phone that there’s a possibility we won’t have the sport that we all love one day. Hearing about that was really tough. But I feel, at the end of the day, we will still have football and get together again as a team.”
Hinsdale Central High School is located in Hinsdale, Illinois, and serves about 2,800 students; Hinsdale South High School is located in Darien and serves about 1,500 students.
