Residents, educators and pediatrician urge board to back revamped early‑childhood IGA

Public comment at the June 23 committee meeting focused heavily on continued funding for the Collaboration for Early Childhood, with parents, teachers and health professionals urging the Oak Park‑River Forest Board to sustain the program’s work and support a proposed revision to its intergovernmental agreement.

"The collaboration is an invaluable resource that has made a big difference not just for my family but for countless others," said Whitney Brooks, a collaboration staff member and preschool teacher. Emily Norman, director of a neighborhood preschool, told the board the program’s free developmental screenings and symposium‑style professional development are essential supports for classroom teachers. Sam Nelson Aoy, an Oak Park pediatrician and collaboration board member, described a clinical case in which the collaboration’s outreach helped a family move from confusion to action after a developmental concern.

Mary Reynolds, executive director of the collaboration, presented the IGA refresh to the board and outlined three financial recommendations the intergovernmental working group developed: revise contribution ratios across the three parties (the working group proposes reducing D200’s share slightly from the current 34% to 32.5% while increasing District 97’s to about 42%), adopt an annual CPI‑linked adjustment with a recommended ceiling near 4% and provide a one‑time reset of the contribution base (the proposal referenced a target of roughly 2.8% of adjusted primary funds). Reynolds also said the parties recommend drawing down an existing D97‑held reserve (about $350,000) to smooth the transition so districts aren’t faced with a single sharp increase.

Board members sought clarifications about outreach to other taxing authorities, how the annual CPI review would work in practice and whether the proposed reserve drawdown would blunt the initial impact on District 200’s operating budget. Reynolds said the IGA contains language to bring on additional partners over time, that the governing board would meet annually (by March 1) to review the CPI number and set any increase that would take effect the following January, and that a phased payment schedule drawing reserves down over roughly 18 months was included in the work‑group’s modeling.

Reynolds and others also described progress toward a data‑use agreement with NORC (the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago) that would link District 200 preschool records into the existing longitudinal analysis that already includes District 97 data. Bob Spatz, a longtime community member, said the data work could enable new longitudinal research connecting early childhood experiences to high‑school outcomes.

Several trustees said they supported the collaboration’s mission but asked that a copy of the final IGA be provided to the board before any formal vote; one trustee expressed hesitation about voting without seeing the signed instrument and all financial tables. The board did not take a final funding vote that night; administrators and collaboration leaders said the revised IGA would be presented at an upcoming meeting with supporting documents for the board to review.

The board’s next steps: administration will circulate the IGA text and the work‑group’s financial schedules so trustees can consider the precise contribution figures and the proposed implementation timeline before a formal approval vote.