Leadership Matters November 2013

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decision. I asked the Board to give me at least one more year to try to secure the soundproofing funds and they agreed, but they were unwilling to put off the rest of the projects any longer than that one year. The argument that the district had was that every other school in the area that Ridgewood serves had received soundproofing funds, including those even further from O’Hare’s flight paths. Eventually, through the efforts of the ONCC, representatives of the City of Chicago Department of Aviation as well as local FAA representatives agreed to visit Ridgewood. But the most important discussion we held was with staff members of U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, who agreed to try to get the congresswoman to visit Ridgewood. She did more than just visit. She met with students, attended a Government class, took a tour of the school and announced that she would support us until something was done about the situation. True to her word, she fired off letters to the FAA, the Chicago DOA, and Secretary LaHood on our behalf and continued to work with the district on an information campaign to convince the powers that be of the inequity of their decision. Eventually, through intervention of Mayor Arlene Mulder of Arlington Heights, the president of the ONCC, a resolution was passed supporting our eligibility. Because of Congresswoman Schakowsky’s intervention, we were eventually granted an audience with an FAA assistant director if we were willing to come to Washington D.C. to meet and put this whole thing to rest once and for all. Their agreement sounded like a not very veiled attempt to tell us to get off their backs, as the Chicago DOA had told us earlier. So a small delegation of representatives from the ONCC, Ridgewood, and High School District 214 flew to Washington for a meeting and what we were pretty sure was the “big brush-off.” After all the FAA was in turmoil; it had been overdue for reauthorization from Congress for several years and Congress was in the middle of one of its government shutdown pouting matches that threatened to bring everything to a halt. In this atmosphere our group met with an FAA assistant director for airports and a number of other bureaucrats who seemed not in the least interested in our plight. Clearly, someone had told them to give us a chance to say our peace and send us off with the illusion of being heard. We spoke for about 10 minutes, with maps, pictures, and all manner of data to back up our cause, but it soon became apparent that our time was just about up. The assistant director was in the process of telling us why she could not provide funds

“We spoke for about 10 minutes, with maps, pictures, and all manner of data to back up our cause, but it

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky soon became apparent that our time was just about up. The assistant director was in the process of telling us why she could not provide funds to us or the 700 other schools that required sound insulation due to lack of funding when the door to the conference room opened and Congresswoman Schakowsky walked in. Suddenly, the FAA employees in the room straightened in their chairs and turned to hear her speak.”

—Dr. Robert Lupo, Superintendent of Ridgewood Community 234

to us or the 700 other schools that required sound insulation due to lack of funding when the door to the conference room opened and Congresswoman Schakowsky walked in. Suddenly, the FAA employees in the room straightened in their chairs and turned to hear her speak. She looked at our maps, which showed dozens of schools surrounding Ridgewood that had been insulated, and announced that it was ridiculous that this one school had not been included in the program. She also proclaimed that she was not going away and asked that the FAA once again visit Ridgewood. This took place in the fall of 2009. Soon we were told that the same assistant director would, in fact, visit all three schools in the spring. This time around we took another tour of the school and, thankfully, it was a clear enough day so that flight paths over the school were not altered. At the end of the event, Congresswoman Schakowsky announced that she would “not go away” until what she considered an injustice was righted. Soon we were informed that the FAA had agreed to another test. If noise achieved the 60db level used by the ONCC to qualify schools, we would be included in the next cycle of funding. In July we were tested, met the threshold, and were qualified for

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