CATCH UP WITH THE BUSHES IN LEADERS, LEGENDS, AND LANDMARKS INSERT
August 2017 I Vol. 37, No. 8 I parkcitiespeople.com I @pcpeople I 214-739-2244
Hyer Parents Fight for J.O.Y. CAMPAIGN MESSAGE: DISPLACE STUDENTS ‘JUST ONE YEAR’
COMMUNITY
By Annie Wiles
The Bombs return with jazzy punk 12
Special Contributor Hyer Elementary parents are asking the Highland Park school board to answer for the decision to displace Hyer students for two years beginning in 2018. Parents equipped with sloganed T-shirts (“Just One Year!”) and foam boards bearing Google maps screenshots of commute times between the district schools have descended upon the past few school board meetings to voice their concerns and to demand an explanation for the decision announced in May 2016. John Tatum, who raised concerns last November at a Hyer parents’ fundraiser at the Bomb Factory (“Solid Gold Hyer — Go for the Gold!”) after being approached by other concerned parents, said in an interview that the two-year displacement is “a completely illogical, mathematically
C H R I S M C G AT H E Y
Hyer students enjoy the Fall Carnival. Parents don’t want them displaced longer than those from other district schools.
unsound decision.” The parents have commissioned a traffic study from engineering firm Kimley-Horn. “We have traffic studies and facts to back up our position, but the school board hasn’t presented anything,” Tatum said. “[The study shows] all of the problems logistically with doubling up the traffic on our already-crowded
roads.” Three of the four elementary schools in the district will be rebuilt in the coming years under provisions of the bond package passed in 2015, and their students will be temporarily relocated during construction, most to the fifth elementary school, which is set to open in the new school year. “Everybody agreed to go to the
new school,” Tatum said. “By trying to accommodate for a couple of Bradfield parents and the principal (the board) tried to find a solution to a problem that didn’t exist, and now they’ve created multiple problems that never should have existed.” University Park, Bradfield, and
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CONTINUED ON 19
CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE
R E A L E STAT E UP Elementary: Students relocated to new campus 2017-18 school year.
Bradfield: Students relocated to Hyer 2018-19 school year.
Hyer: Students relocated to new campus 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years.
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