DeKalb school board candidates discuss taxes, the new superintendent and diversity during forum

DeKALB – Candidates running for DeKalb District 428 school board spoke on taxes, the incoming superintendent and diversity during a virtual forum Thursday hosted by New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

The five candidates running for three four-year term seats on the board are Anthony Martin, Ariel Owens, Deyci M. Ramirez, Jose B. Jaques, and Amanda C. Harness. Board members Jeff Hallgren, Victoria Newport and Valerie Pena-Hernandez are not running for reelection.

The candidates each introduced themselves and took turns answering questions and from comments posed by community members during the Facebook Livestream. The forum was moderated by Dan Kenney, who taught in the district for 15 years.

Harness has lived in DeKalb since 1999 and has children in the school district since 2004. She is the director of sales for a scientific distribution company and has worked in corporate for 22 years holding different roles.

Jaques is a 30-year resident of DeKalb and attended Northern Illinois University. He served as an officer with the DeKalb Police Department for 22 years, as a school resource officer for the DeKalb School District for 12 years, served with the Illinois National Guard for 33 years and is a Kishwaukee Education Consortium criminal justice teacher.

Ramirez grew up on the south side of Chicago and has lived in DeKalb since 2002. She works at NIU, where she is a professor in the University Studies department and is a counselor for CHANCE, an alternative admissions program for new freshmen.

Owens is the assistant director for women and gender programs at NIU’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. She also teaches at the university.

“I’ve had really positive educational experiences, and I feel like it’s my duty to ensure that the children of D428 have those same positive experiences,” Owens said.

Martin described himself as an educator, an activist and an artist. He moved to DeKalb in 2004 to attend NIU. He teaches in Freeport in an alternative to expulsion school.

When asked what the district’s greatest strength is, Martin answered diversity of the city and student population. Owens said the community and how it cares about the children. Ramirez answered its partnership with NIU, Harness said the teachers.

Jaques said, “Its desire for greatness from the students, the staff, the teachers, the community, all of them together see the opportunities and they strive for them.”

When asked what issue they would like the opportunity to vote on if they were on the school board, the candidates each had different answers. Owens mentioned strategic planning, Martin said tax increment finance funds, Jaques said tax inflow of money, Ramirez stressed that equality is not the same as equity and Harness said that she would accept the position “with a clean slate and an open mind,” and not focus on any one topic in particular.

Some topics all the candidates agreed upon, including visiting schools periodically, understanding and investigating underlying reasons why several African American teachers recently left the district, voting yes to approve the recent staffing request worth over $960,000 for the 2021-2022 school year, and supporting and listening to incoming superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez.

The candidates also disagreed upon multiple issues.

A controversial topic was whether police and student resource officers (SROs) should be allowed in the schools. Jaques is a former SRO for the district.

“The school to prison pipeline is absolutely real, and I believe I said before that I sit here with four other people that see the importance of data in driving our decisions, which is why I believe SROs should not exist in schools,” Martin said. “I believe what it ends up doing is turning minor infractions and turning them into criminal matters.”

Ramirez said that “the majority of the students in the Black and brown communities’ … first time they have an experience with the police is in our school systems.”

“Policing our children is never OK,” she said. “And when our children who are most effected by that policing tend to be our Black and brown students, that is a problem, again, of equity.”

The candidates also discussed diversity, achievement gaps and a past legal case that was dismissed about students’ residency.

“So when we’re talking about achievement gaps, it’s going to be harder to achieve if you’re not feeling safe, supported or if you belong at your school,” Owens said.

“Yes, we do have a great district here, but there’s opportunities for growth,” Ramirez said. “How we are supporting them, how we are validating their experiences, how we are actually engaging with them in a way they feel supported and engaged in that process.”

When the candidates were asked if they would vote to raise taxes, Harness was the only candidate who said no.

“Fiscal responsibility is one of the main jobs we have as board members,” Jaques said. “And my goal is to reduce [the taxation] burden on every member of the communities that are served by this school district.”

The other candidates did directly address the topic of raising taxes.

“Can I commit to not raising taxes?” Ramirez asked. “I cannot consciously do that and sleep at night. I don’t know what that’s going to look like. If there’s anything COVID has taught us … our community needs a lot of support, our district needs a lot of support. As a homeowner and a taxpayer in the community, I understand that the burden is heavy, but I also understand that this is an opportunity for us to invest in our children.”

“The best thing that can be done is you have a board that can work together, that listens to people coming to them and being open,” Harness said. “Sometimes you have to weigh two different factors … and that’s why you have a group of individuals that can be open, receptive, listen and work together to make the best choices with the taxpayers’ money.”

To view a recording of the forum discussion, visit New Hope Missionary Baptist’s Facebook page.