Commentary: Aurora East Can't Close Schools Without Rebuilding Trust First

The East Aurora School District 131 board is expected to vote next month on a consolidation plan that would shutter two elementary schools on the city's near east side — Bardwell and Oak Park — and redistribute roughly 740 students across four remaining buildings by fall 2027. The district says the move will save $3.2 million annually and allow it to concentrate resources in fewer, better-equipped facilities. That math may well be sound. But the process that got us here has been anything but.

Since Superintendent Maria Delgado-Ruiz unveiled the proposal in April, the district has held exactly two public forums, both on weekday afternoons when most working parents cannot attend. Written comments submitted through the district website have received form-letter acknowledgments. A petition bearing more than 1,100 signatures asking for evening and weekend sessions was presented to the board on June 2 and met with polite thanks and no commitment. This is not how you ask a community to sacrifice neighborhood institutions.