Over the past decade, as its enrollment declined district-wide, Forest Park’s District 91 public schools took advantage of a healthy revenue flow and chose to underwrite a range of school fees for all of its students.
This was an acknowledgement that a good portion of local students need financial support for supplies, meals and school events like field trips. It has also been a worthy marketing tool, as the district has promoted the absence of pricey fees and charges as an added incentive to sign on at the local elementary schools.
All those efforts may be paying off as enrollment has begun to stabilize and even rise a bit.
Now, though, we are hearing an early heads up from Robert Hubbird, interim superintendent, that the district may need to begin rethinking at least its single largest field trip. That’s the annual eighth-grade trip to Washington D.C. which Hubbird says continues to grow in popularity with families.
The school board decided at a recent meeting to cap the district’s cost for this great adventure at $90,000. And he said the district should begin looking at other fundraising opportunities to offset some of the trip’s costs.
This all seems wise and necessary. D91 has many virtues. Taking on cost burdens from local families is just one of them. And it needs to be balanced against other ongoing educational investments.
Parkway goes to pot
Parkway Dispensary, Forest Park’s first cannabis outlet, shut its doors late in 2025. There has been no explanation outside a vague hand-written sign on the front door attributing the closure to “technical difficulties.”
The Review has not been able to make contact with the owners. Neither has village government. Meanwhile, two other cannabis shops in Illinois owned by Parkway appear to remain open.
We don’t know what happened. But it does raise questions about the expected golden goose of local tax dollars that legal pot was supposed to ensure. Forest Park currently has two other cannabis licenses in place: Bloc Dispensary at Harlem and Circle is open for business. And Mint at Harlem and Roosevelt has been OK’d to open by village officials.
Worth keeping an eye on.
