DISTRICT 65 BARGAINING UNITS SCHOOL BOARD FORUM

What is your plan to address budget shortfalls while minimizing the impact on students, staff and the community?

Budget cuts and expenditures will be approached through an equity lens with a focus on minimizing the impact on classroom instruction. I will ask important questions when making decisions regarding resources: who benefits from this decision/who does not, who gets to answer those questions (teachers and the impacted communities) and how do these concerns intersect? I will prioritize what happens in the classroom while considering those factors. I commit to keeping the community involved in the ongoing decisions regarding D65 resources, including the buildings, administrators, teachers, and staff. This means being honest about the decisions that have to be made, getting feedback from impacted communities, and following up on the decisions to ensure the intended impact.

What strategies would you suggest to fellow board members to engage families, educators, and students in shaping curricular decisions?

This can be attained by elevating the board members’ focus on the execution and evaluation of the D65 Strategic Plan, Strategic Goal 3. It states: Curriculum Access to high-quality and culturally relevant curriculum materials that is/are challenging, relevant and academically rigorous to support student success. This can be implemented by making sure there is educator, parent, and student, when applicable, involvement in the discussions regarding the D65 curriculum. When curriculum purchases/changes are being considered, teachers and parents need a voice at the table to talk about the relevance of the content, their concerns with implementing the change, and how the change will be evaluated. Students complete a major part of their learning at home and parents can provide important feedback regarding home-based curricular activities. D65 board members are assigned to be liaisons to specific schools and should faithfully perform this duty. This is another channel for soliciting feedback regarding the curriculum.

What matrix would you suggest to fellow members to determine the impact of initiatives to address the academic achievement gap within the district?

The gap in educational opportunities results in some students having an experience in D65 that differs from their counterparts. This results in different outcomes. I advocate for a recentering of listening and implementing the feedback of teachers and parents, especially regarding classroom strategies. I recommend an inventory and audit of the interventions currently being provided to promote students’ success, to ensure they are going to the students they are intended for, and being carried out with fidelity.

How do you view the importance of before and after school childcare programs, and what steps would you take to ensure their accessibility and quality for families in the district?

Before and after school childcare programs are a principal component of D65 public education. School child care is an integral part of creating a safe school environment and is a critical avenue for school/home communication. It contributes to a student’s preparation before the school day and supports continued learning through homework assistance when the school day has ended. School childcare also promotes the development of a student’s social-emotional learning through a variety of engaging group activities completed with a range of peers. As a D65 employee, I utilized and depended on school child care for both of my children. I felt the child care staff was always there for my kids and were a part of their educational success. Knowing that my kids were being well cared for before and after school allowed me to give my best effort as a D65 service provider. Ensuring continued quality can be achieved by allowing the program to function with school-based control and active support of the staff. Accessibility may be improved by evaluating the fee schedule for adjustment.

What framework would you recommend for the board to assess the district's accountability for student behavior while promoting a supportive rather than punitive approach?

I recommend an increased focus on the use of the restorative justice framework. While I was a D65 employee I completed private training in this area and participated in many staff and student restorative justice actvities, in several of the 18 schools I serviced. I also recommend using the school improvement half-day for students, especially middle-school, as an opportunity to provide instruction on the approach and its application. As a SEED facilitator for D65 (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), I helped design and present half-day workshops to the middle-school students at King Arts on Equity and Diversity. The activities included many components on community building which relate to restorative justice. It was a challenging learning experience for the students but the feedback was positive. Another outcome of student training is the ability to increase peer participation in the process.

How would you ensure that the district’s mission and vision remain aligned with the needs of students, staff, and the broader community?

All board members should be reminded that they take an oath: “I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Evanston Skokie School D65. The district’s mission and vision statements should be reviewed on a biennial basis, with input from the community, students and staff. The process would start with as assessment of the district’s fidelity to the mission and vision to determine the validity of its implementation, to identify areas of strengths/weaknesses and appropriate action steps.

What are the key values that should guide district decision-making?

The values I think are key, based on the current environment in D65, are: fiscal accountability, administrative accountability, transparency, and collaboration. As a board member fiscal accountability means making responsible decisions based on a thorough knowledge of the D65 financial duties and reports. This includes knowing when the component reports are scheduled/due and requesting them in a timely manner for full review. Board members and the Superintendent must communicate and enforce compliance with budget guidelines. Establishing and assessing job performance is the main tool of administrative accountability. This means having specific, measurable, performance goals for the Superintendent, Board and Administrators. The D65 administrators should be held to accountability, in the same manner as educators, using a research-based evaluation tool. Transparency means communicating truthfully with the D65 communities without fear of being open to public scrutiny. This means communicating, through multiple modes, with parents, educators and staff on a regularly established basis about the issues affecting the outcomes of the D65 vision and goals. Collaboration means eliminating the barriers that result in the various silos of operation within the D65 and between D65 and the community. The budget crisis and national politics will necessitate securing more partners and resources to provide a quality education for our students.

What strategies would you bring to the board to ensure educators and staff voices are heard?

A strategy that is currently in place should be executed with commitment by all board members. According to the D65 website information, “School board members are encouraged to become familiar with the entire District 65 school community”. The word encouraged should be edited to required. “Additionally, in order to establish and maintain connections and communication links with parents, individual school board members are assigned certain schools where they can serve as a liaison”. The words can serve should be edited to will serve. Board members could also meet with the D65 bargaining units for regular updates regarding the school climate.

What strategies would you bring to fellow board members to ensure concerns are addressed between the board, administrators, and the community?

The 4 board members elected on April 1, 2025 will have experienced a rigorous election process that the 3 current members may have not. This current election cycle has been marked by heightened community participation, a demand for board member knowledge regarding D65 issues and a need for accountability. To build community and change the dysfunction of current operations, within the new board, directed training will be required. There is an on-boarding process for new members but this can be supplemented by additional training. The Illinois Association of School Boards has several resources I think will be valuable in building the new board including: a Board Evaluation Instrument, a Board Governance Review and Myers-Briggs ® Team Workshop. These trainings can guide assessment of current functioning and identify steps for improvement.

What measures would you take to improve transparency in board decisions and district operations?

I would continue to strengthen the process that was started with phase one of the Debt Reduction Plan. Be truthful when notifying the community of an issue and the decisions that have to be made. Engage the community through multiple modes of communication with a focus on in-person community-based opportunities weeks before the final decision is made. Check-in with the community after the decision is made at regularly scheduled intervals to assess the impact of the decision. Identify if the intended outcomes reached, what unanticipated outcomes occurred, were parts of the community disproportionately affected and decide the next steps together. Bulletin of the summary of the most recent Board meeting regarding updates on achievements and challenges.