Author: Robert I. Soare
Paul Snowden Russell
Distinguished Service Professor
The University of Chicago
EMAIL: soare at uchicago.edu

Saving the New Trier West High School Campus:
Changing the Way We Think

Building the New Trier East Campus in Winnetka

The New Trier East Campus in Winnetka had been built in 1901 and for over a half century was the single campus of New Trier High School. By the 1960's the enrollment in New Trier District 203 had risen to over five thousand students.

Building the New Trier West Campus in Northfield

A second campus, the New Trier West campus, was opened in 1965, first as a campus for freshmen and sophomores and then in 1967 as a separate four year high school. The combined enrollment at both campuses rose to over 6,554 in 1972-1973. The New Trier West campus functioned very well as a four year high school for fifteen years from 1965 to 1980. It offered excellent educational, athletic, and extracurricular activities. The students graduating from West were accepted to just as good colleges as those from East. By 1979-1980 the enrollment had declined to 5,264.

Closing the New Trier West Campus

In 1980 the New Trier School Board closed the West Campus as an independent four year high school and converted the West Campus into a freshman only campus with all students later attending the East Campus for their final three years. Finally, by 1985-1986 the enrollment had declined to 3,858 and in 1985 the School Board closed the West Campus altogether. All the students attended the East Campus for all four years as they had in 1960.

The Need for Money

By 1986-1987 the aging New Trier East Campus need about $11 million in renovation and repair. The School Board could raise this money by selling an asset (such as the then vacant New Trier West Campus) or by goint to the voters with a referendum to increase taxes, which they were very reluctant to do. By the fall of 1987 and winter of 1988 1987-1988 the New Trier School Board had decided to sell the New Trier West Campus in Northfield to the National College of Education (NCE) in Evanston for an estimated twenty-two million dollars. Half of the proceeds would be used to renovate the East Campus, and half would be put into savings. The only obstacle was a collection of Northfield zoning ordinances.

The Long-Term Demographic Projections

The demographer and the School Board claimed it was very unlikely the enrollment in all of New Trier District would rise above 3,300 to 3,800, the maximum capacity of the New Trier East Campus, even though the enrollment had exceeded 6,550 in 1972 and even though the demographer has warned that long term predictions were "fraught with risk." The number of houses which in the 1960's and 1970's had produced 6,550 students had not decresed in number, and had increased slightly. Everything depended on the accuracy of the prediction about how many of these houses would produce a high school age student at a given time.

The Coalition for New Trier

A citizens group, Coalition for the Future of New Trier High School , opposed the sale, put the question as a referendum on the ballot in March, 1988.

Should the New Trier West High School Campus be Sold?

The Coalition and won by a large margin. The campus was never sold and today it houses all the freshman in the district. The enrollment since 1988 has risen as high at 4,500 and today is around 4,100-4,200, considerably beyond the capacity of the New Trier East Campus. That campus had at one time held as many as 3,800 students but subsequent technological development, computer labs, health-safety issues, and other items has substantially decreased the capacity of the East Campus. In 2009 it holds slightly over 3,000 students from the final three high school grades while the West Campus holds about 1,000 freshmen.

Changing the Way We Think

This paper, The New Trier Conflict and Resolution 1987-1988: Changing the Way We Think now being written, describes the events from January, 1987 when the School Board discussed the sale, to March, 1988, when the Referendum was held, and their significance. The paper also explores the fundamental ways in which our thinking has changed since the 1988 Referendum, thinking about our schools, about the East-West conflict, about the possibility of selling a campus to raise cash for immediate needs, about how we examine a demographer's report about long term enrollment predictions.

Author: Robert I. Soare Paul Snowden Russell Distinguished Service Professor The University of Chicago EMAIL: soare at uchicago.edu

Saving the New Trier West High School Campus: Changing the Way We Think