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Facility needs and lessons learned from the pandemic were two of the issues discussed by candidates running for the St. Charles District 303 School Board during an endorsement meeting Feb. 15 conducted via Zoom.
A representative from the Daily Herald editorial board and a Kane County Chronicle reporter asked questions of the candidates during the Daily Herald endorsement meeting. Three four-year terms are open, along with an unexpired two-year term.
Incumbents Becky McCabe, Joseph Lackner and Matthew Kuschert, along with Dolores Van Hiel, Lauren Duddles, Elias Palacios and Barbara Diepenbrock are running for the four-year terms. Alexandra Teipel recently announced she was dropping out of the race. She could not be reached for comment.
Kuschert could not be part of the meeting because of board obligations. Lackner had planned to attend but was not able to because of a family situation that came up at the last minute.
Thomas Lentz, Mike Backer and Richard Rivard are running for the two-year term.
Regarding facility needs, Diepenbrock said the district needs to look at both short-term and long-term solutions.
“We need some really quick, short-term solutions to make things comfortable and then I do think that we need some more long-term solutions that are going to be difficult to decide,” she said. “Do we go to the community and ask for a bond referendum to build on to a facility or to build another facility? I know that’s probably not a popular thing.”
Van Hiel said finding a solution is a balancing act.
“It may take some creativity in terms of space,” she said. “We have the stakeholders to answer to. It is their town and these are their schools. And it is up to us on the board to have a clear and concise plan in place. It will take true collaboration and creative ideas as to how we can make sure that space becomes available.”
McCabe, who is running for a second term, said accessibility is another issue that needs to be looked at.
“We have buildings that are not accessible to all people,” she said. “And how can we be an equitable organization if someone has a physical disability and can’t get to the gym or the library? To toot our horn a little bit, we lowered class sizes, the board did, and that has helped in terms of giving some relief on the instructional side. At the same time, we’ve got teachers who are on carts.”
As Duddles noted, overcrowding is about more than just having large class sizes.
“It impacts so many different things,” she said. “It’s something I learned at a Listen Learn Return meeting. Teachers were talking about that in some schools, they have an art room, and in other schools, they’re on a cart. So that affects the equity of what the art students are able to do from one school to another. Another teacher brought up about how she had an IEP meeting and had to run around to try to find an empty room that she could have that meeting in.”
In talking about classroom sizes, Rivard said the fundamental touchpoint “is the teacher to student ratio.”
“Ideally, you shouldn’t have more than like 25 students to one teacher,” he said. “But really, it’s asking the teachers about what they’re most comfortable with in regards to doing that.”
Lentz said the district shouldn’t be “swapping out the curriculum every two to three years on these teachers.”
“Even if the class sizes are smaller, it’s much more difficult to teach our children when the teachers themselves are learning a new curriculum every two to three years,” he said. “It’s a little harder to teach when you’re learning something.”
In addressing the overcrowding issue, Backer said several factors need to be addressed, including the district’s policies. He is a former principal with the district.
“We need to take a close look at our policies, in terms of transferring, the voluntary and the cap and send program, to see if we can even up, in a more equitable way, our numbers within the classroom,” he said.
The district’s policy, known as administrative placement or cap and send, occurs when the number of new enrollments in a specific grade level at an area school exceeds the class size guidelines for that given grade level. The newly enrolled students are sent to a partner school within the district, with D-303 transportation bearing the responsibility for transporting the students to and from school.
Regarding what lessons were learned from the pandemic, Palacios said the pandemic helped reinforce the importance of listening to the experts and that people need to err on the side of safety.
“Life is very precious,” he said. “Education is very important for everybody and the information has to be disseminated as it comes. We know a lot now.”
In answering a similar question on a Daily Herald questionnaire, Kuschert said much was learned about the need for students to be physically present in school as the virtual learning experience was not ideal “based on the educational, emotional and social outcomes that are still ongoing today.”
“I wish I could say that I am an expert and have all of the answers, but I am confident that as a collective body we can thoughtfully navigate similar challenges far better in the future,” he said.
Also answering the question on a Daily Herald questionnaire, Lackner said society is continuing to see how damaging the prolonged absence from the classroom has been on students’ social, mental and academic health.
“We may continue to see a lingering impact on students’ success and happiness for years to come,” he said. “In this light, the board must serve as a sober deliberative body that holds students’ best interests as its guide even as ‘the best interest’ is heatedly debated. The board must work within legal and regulatory constraints, while communicating in an open transparent way about our shared goal of a positive education for students and a safe working environment for teachers and staff.”