St. Charles School Board President reacts to comments that School Board members are facing harassment

Following comments from St. Charles District 303 School Board Vice-President Carolyn Waibel about the harassment that school board members are facing these days, School Board President Nick Manheim is defending her right to make such comments.

At the same time, Manheim said Waibel’s comments were hers alone and did not represent the board as a whole.

“While each board member has the right to express his or her thoughts, opinions, and experiences, as Ms. Waibel did that evening, comments on behalf of the school board only come from the board president,” Manheim said in a statement released Tuesday.

After Manheim announced at the Jan. 11 School Board meeting that board member Michael Bryant had submitted his letter of resignation, Waibel talked about board members facing harassment and that she feared the School Board would see more board members stepping down in the future.

“We took an oath to respect taxpayer interests and respect the free expression of opinion of board members,” Waibel had said. “We didn’t take an oath to be harassed in our homes, to be emailed 12 times in two hours, to be called names and hung up on. That’s not what this job is about. We’re here to help.”

Bryant’s resignation letter stated he was resigning for personal reasons. He did not want to comment further.

Bryant was elected to the board in 2019 and his term ends in 2023.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Bryant for his service to the school board and the district over the last two years and ask the community to respect his privacy around his decision,” Manheim said in his statement.

Manheim noted the many challenges the district has faced because of the pandemic.

“As President of the District 303 School Board, I am proud of the accomplishments of our board and school district in support of educating the students in District 303 since the beginning of the school year,” Manheim said. “I do want to acknowledge that, even when we have been challenged by the circumstances of the pandemic, we have provided continuous instruction in modalities that meet the needs of families.”

Manheim knows the frustrations the pandemic has caused as well and asked for the community to “come together to understand and respect each other.”

“It is also understandable that emotions are running high and people are frustrated by the limitations under which we have to operate,” he said. “However, we must continue to abide by the guidelines put in place by the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Kane County Health Department. During this time of uncertainty, we ask members of the community to come together to understand and respect each other as we work to restore in-person instruction as we are able. In the coming months, the District 303 School Board is committed to working hard to do the best that we can for the students, staff members, and families of our community.”

In talking about the issue on Monday, board member Jillian Barker made similar comments.

“I do want the community to know that we want to hear from them,” Barker said. “Most of the messages have been delivered with tact and diplomacy in the last few months in regards to the reopening or keeping schools open.”

But that has not been the case all the time.

“I expect a level of passion in statements that are coming in from parents, but there has been some commentary that hasn’t necessarily been productive,” she said. “We had both a written message and a verbal message calling the board terrorists. That is not going to be helpful. That doesn’t tell me what’s going on.”

She also was taken aback when some people who had been participating in a rally to reopen the high schools started banging on the windows at Thompson Middle School prior to a board meeting on Sept. 14.

“I think that was just over the line probably,” Barker said. “I know there were good people out there who were trying to get their message out.”