New Kaneland school board president steps into familiar role amid pandemic challenges

As the Kaneland School Board welcomes three new members, longtime member Teresa Witt has transitioned into the role as president.

The presidential title isn’t foreign to Witt, who served in the same capacity years ago, but the biggest challenge is a new one: reopening schools for in-person learning during a pandemic.

“I spent like two or three years as president and then I wasn’t planning to run for reelection for 2019 so I stepped down,” she said. “And then nobody ran so I felt bad, so I signed up as a write-in and I ended up on the board again and now it just happened that I ended up president again.”

Addam Gonzalez, Bob Mankivsky and Jennifer Simmons are newly elected board members while Meg Junk, Ryan Kerry, Aaron Lawler and Witt remain.

“This time around, probably because of the uncertain times and because we were having a turnover with three new board members, it would’ve been an additional burden to have with a brand-new president,” Witt said. “So even if I’m here for a short transition until things are a little bit normal (because) at this point the administration is already working so many hours trying to just keep ahead of the state guidance and things like that.”

Witt acknowledged that Junk, Kerry or Lawler also could’ve transitioned into the president’s role, which says a lot about the unity of this group, including its former members, in working for the best interests of the community.

“It just made sense to kind of put someone in who could do it without training and had done it before,” Witt said. “It just seemed like it made more sense to do it at this time. Any of the four boards member returning to the board could’ve stepped into the president’s role.”

While trying to steer through these unprecedented times has been emotional and frustrating due to the fluidity of the pandemic, Witt praised the board’s efforts to listen and work collectively.

“Since all this started, and the previous board members were a part of this collective board, I thought we did a good job as a board working together and still doing our jobs even though there was a little bit of chaos,” Witt said. “Something that helped me is understanding that protests are the results of people not being heard. Whether it’s Black Lives Matter or LBGTQ or people wanting to open schools fully, our jobs as a board is to listen to everyone’s needs and I felt we did that and we’ll continue to do so.”

Lawler referred to board dialogues as “being successful at disagreeing respectfully.”

“We’ve also been pretty good about putting aside personal views and trying to see things in a public view,” he said. “I think we’ve done a good job of that and in coming together for what’s best for the situation for the school to get a good compromise.”

Witt has more than 10 years of experience on the board, but the task of getting kids back in classrooms is a new one.

“It’s all new and unprecedented and the plan for the board moving forward is to do our part,” she said. “We’re trying to navigate through the rest of the pandemic and get the kids fully back in school as best we can.”

Kaneland Superintendent Dr. Todd Leden acknowledged that administration will be presenting its plan for a full in-person return for all grade levels this fall to the board at its May 24 meeting.

“The full return will likely look different than this spring as the guidance from the state will likely be different,” Leden said. “We know that we need to plan for all students all day but also have contingencies built in should the district be required to pivot due to guidance or mandates.”

At this time, Leden said the plans are for the remote option will only be open to students who have a medical consideration.

“The current guidance makes note that that is what will be required for the next year,” Leden said. “The guidance states that a ‘qualifying medical condition’ will be the required allowance for consideration.”

Leden and the board are eagerly waiting for guidance on several impacting factors, including but not limited to the wearing of masks, cafeteria access for student lunches, quarantining policies for students and staff, bus riding protocols (including occupancy) and the impact of vaccinations on students over the age of 12.