Aaron Janik - Candidate for Lincolnway 210 School Board

Aaron Janik is the current President of the Lincolnway 210 School Board. He lives in Mokena with his wife Molly and their three kids. He is running unopposed this election but still sat with me to talk about the school district and himself. 
Enjoy this conversation with my friend, Aaron Janik!
Israel

This is a production of Mokena's Front Porch. More on our website at www.mokenasfrontporch.com

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Chapters

• 0:16 School Board Member Discusses Background
• 11:50 College Fair and School Board Challenges
• 18:37 Financial Responsibility and Board Communication
• 30:13 School Board Member Role and Advice
• 38:50 Campaign Slogan and Student Council Memories

Transcript

Israel: 0:16

Alright, thanks for sitting down with me and Aaron Janik, lincoln Way 210 School Board member, as well as the current president, board president Yep. So I got a couple questions from elected officials, some longtime school board members from outside Mokena. Different community members submitted questions, as well as myself. So first just tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up.

Aaron Janik: 0:41

Sure, so I actually grew up in Michigan. Little bit about yourself where you grew up. Sure, so I actually grew up in Michigan. I lived there for 15 years, been in Illinois now for 32, Mokena for 15 of those years. My wife is originally from Mokena, born and raised. She served some time in the military, but other than that she's been in Mokena for pretty much her whole life, so moved to Mokena when we got married. We have three kids one who Luke, who's in college. He went through the Lincoln Way school system, as did my wife, and then we have a 12-year-old daughter, 10-year-old son, and they're in the 159 school district and so they'll be going to Lincoln Way 210.

Israel: 1:19

How'd you end up coming to Illinois from Detroit?

Aaron Janik: 1:22

Oh, just my dad got a job transfer type of thing, so I didn't have much say in it back then.

Israel: 1:27

Same thing with us. That's how we ended up from Wisconsin.

Aaron Janik: 1:30

Right.

Israel: 1:30

Tell us a little bit about what you do for fun.

Aaron Janik: 1:33

Well, these days it's shuttling my kids around from activities and sporting events. My daughter plays basketball, my son plays football and baseball, so I help coach his baseball team. Hanging out with friends on the weekend when we have free time, just you know, most nights, probably eight o'clock, you'll find me dropping the kids off at home and then just grabbing a spot on the couch to watch a you know baseball game or a football game or something like that. Try to read when I can, but because I'm always driving around town I don't have much time to get any reading in.

Israel: 2:05

Favorite type of reading you like to do?

Aaron Janik: 2:07

I like historical books. I have a friend who's an author. He's written some Civil War-type Abraham Lincoln history books. So if I had my choice, I would read something like that.

Israel: 2:17

You're not just playing up to the history crowd here.

Aaron Janik: 2:20

I was a history no, no, actually that's a good point. I, I was a history no, no, no, actually that's a good point. I was a history major in undergrad, so my specialty or foray into history was the post-Civil War reconstruction era. So my friend, who was actually a New York Times bestselling author, has written three books on like Abraham Lincoln. He speaks all over the country on Lincoln, so always been interested in that kind of stuff. So, but no, not, not, it's a good point, not trying to get anyone's good side here, and professionally you're an attorney, so talk about that a little bit.

Aaron Janik: 2:55

So I am a licensed attorney. I don't practice per se. I am the executive director of a nonprofit organization in the construction industry. So I work with union contractors on behalf, on their behalf, representing them in negotiations with trade unions. So I've been doing that for about 10 years now. Prior to that role. Taking on that role, I worked for the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, which is the police union throughout the state. It's not Chicago, it's pretty much all the other municipalities, counties in the state of Illinois, like Frankfort, new Lenox, mokena is not part of the FOP labor council. And then I worked for a small firm when I first got out of law school that represented the Chicago Teachers Union as their main client.

Israel: 3:43

How do you think your background in law and your professional plays into what you do at the board?

Aaron Janik: 3:50

So obviously the state has laws. The Illinois School Code governs education and all the regulations that go into running a school district. Our district has an association that represents the teachers. So being in labor relations in that arena, knowing just how that whole process works, collective bargaining and any disputes arising out of a collective bargaining agreement, that's what I've done my whole career. So I think that is kind of what drew me to being on a school board. Is this? That's really what I do for a living? So it's kind of an extension of my professional career.

Israel: 4:32

Just, you know, volunteering time to the community so can you talk about maybe some of the things that you've been involved with, maybe negotiations or things within the school district that you're most proud of or been the biggest thing you've been involved?

Aaron Janik: 4:48

in Well. I've been on the bargaining team for the district, so typically when we negotiate with the association, we'll have a board member or two participate in those negotiations. I've been. I think we've had three or four negotiations with the association since I've been on the board. I've been on two of them the first one and then this most recent one.

Aaron Janik: 5:09

There was a time where I wasn't able to participate because of work obligations. I just didn't have the time to go from work negotiations into school board negotiations. But yeah, so we've done well. I've been a part of two negotiations and they've gone well. The district and the association have a great relationship. We've come to fair agreements that benefit both sides, and so that's something I'm proud of. Obviously, if you followed what's been going on at Lincoln Way for the past decade, when I first got on, we were in pretty dire financial straits. So having been involved in, you know, just getting us out of a financial hole to where we are today, that's something that I'm extremely proud of, not only myself, but the other board members, the administration, the teachers and even the community that supported us.

Israel: 6:01

So one of the questions I got was kind of about that. So one of the questions I got was kind of about that. And now that the financial ship has been righted, so to say of the Lincoln Way School District. What are the plans going forward?

Aaron Janik: 6:14

For the district itself Any particular issue.

Israel: 6:18

I'd say the district going forward and then obviously the Lincoln Way North is a big Sure.

Aaron Janik: 6:23

So I mean, obviously we have a budget each year. We have to prepare a budget that we have our finance director, dr Dubek. He's actually the chief school business official, the CSBO. He puts that together in consultation with his team, dr Tingley, our superintendent in the board. So we put that together every year, just keeping us on that path, that straight, narrow path, if you will. There's always work to be done in terms of facilities. It's not very fun to talk about, but parking lots, roofs, things of that nature. I mean people think, oh, you're on the school board, you, you know education, which we do, but a lot of times we're talking about you know, hey, how much is a control panel for an HVAC unit? You know stuff. You're like, geez, this is kind of mundane but it's very important because when you have multiple buildings of varying ages, there's always work to be done. So, keeping us on this good fiscal financial path, you know we're going to do school work, renovations and upgrades, just keeping it, you know, facilities in good working condition. So that's a big thing that we're going to do. You know we're not looking to change too much at Lincoln Way at this point.

Aaron Janik: 7:46

The three schools are three of the top performing schools in Will County, typically one, two and three, generally for all the high schools in Will County. You know, maybe there's a year it's one, two and four. What's the rating? Well, like when you look at in terms of graduations rate and test scores and things of that nature, lincoln Way East, lincoln Way Central, lincoln Way West all come in top three. Sometimes they may be, like I said, one, two and four. So there's always competition among the three schools and who's got the better test scores and frankly they're all right there. Who's got the better test scores and frankly they're all you know, right there. You know some years it's, you know, a difference of a point or two in terms of, like those you know, sats that the kids take and things like that, providing access to all our students for careers outside of high school.

Aaron Janik: 8:38

We have about 6,800 students. Not all of them are going to go to college. We know that we have about 6,800 students. Not all of them are going to go to college. We know that we want to make sure that we're going to provide opportunities for those students outside of two or four-year universities. So this week actually on's out there. Besides, you know college, so it could be anything from the carpenters union, electricians union, the operating engineers union, to cosmetology school, to EMT school, to, I think Amazon will be there. People think, well, amazon. Well, sometimes you start off just picking packages and you work your way up to director of marketing, you don't know. So it's giving those students that are in our schools the opportunity to see what is out there after they graduate.

Israel: 9:42

Are those actual recruiting opportunities for those?

Aaron Janik: 9:45

Yeah, there will be businesses in town, manufacturers that come. Hey, we don't require a college degree. If you're not looking to go to college after Lincoln, if you're after you graduate Lincoln Way, you can come work for us. So there will be students going through the fair on Wednesday and they'll have an opportunity to be like you know what, I'm really interested in that and so they'll have, you know, their teachers there with them, kind of making sure they're not just you know, milling about but actually going through and seeing the different booths. There's, like I said, emt, there's police, there's fire, there's local businesses, trade unions, cosmetology school.

Israel: 10:32

So talk a little bit more about that, and I know you've talked before about increasing that and the trades and the trades are huge in our area as well as the balance of you know, preparing for college, Sure sure, so the Lincoln Way community is a very blue collar community.

Aaron Janik: 10:47

Sure, so the Lincoln Way community is a very blue collar community. If you look at a lot of the trade unions in the area, a lot of their members live in Will County, not necessarily maybe the Lincoln Way, but the Will County area. So my connection to the construction industry is I have relationships being in labor with several different trade unions. So I've contacted many of them and said, hey, lincoln Way's putting this on, I'd love for you guys to be there. And they're sending. I think there's at least nine trade unions that I'm aware of that are sending some of their apprenticeship fund training staff to the fair on Wednesday just to give the students that go through it. I think there's gonna be six to seven hundred students going through an opportunity to see, like, not only the trades, but you know the other types of organizations I mentioned. You know my background being in the trades. That's kind of what I'm proud of Giving them the ability to look and say, hey, you know, maybe I will apply to become a carpenter apprentice or, you know, a operating engineer or labor, whatever it may be.

Aaron Janik: 11:50

There are several college fairs that the district will host throughout the year where you'll have 40 to 50, 60 colleges come in and I don't know if you remember back when we were in high school. You walk around the table and you kind of pick up their pamphlets and where do you want to go? And they tell you, well, why don't you come to our school? And that's where you start to look at those flyers. We still have those opportunities for students that want to do that. It's, you know, a lot different than from when, I think, we were in high school, where everyone was kind of pushed in a sense to go to college. We were in high school where everyone was kind of pushed in a sense to go to college. But I mean there will be a good portion of our students at Lincoln Way that go to a two or four-year university, so we have those opportunities throughout the course of the year for them as well.

Israel: 12:35

Do you know about what the percentage of it is.

Aaron Janik: 12:38

You know, don't quote me 100% on it, but I think that's about 15% of the students don't go to two or four year university. Now does that mean they're not, they're going to do something after? Maybe they take a year off, right? So you kind of lose those statistics after a few years. Obviously Someone might go to college for two years and decide you know what, I'm not going to go back and I'm going to go into the apprenticeship, right? So you kind of have to take those numbers necessarily with a little bit of a caveat to them.

Israel: 13:18

And then maybe talk a little bit about Lincoln Way North Any plans that we know there At the moment.

Aaron Janik: 13:23

No, you know, we did get it up and running last year when Lockport had the situation where they had their ceiling collapse at their freshman building and they bused their freshman over.

Aaron Janik: 13:35

They reached out to us when that occurred and said, hey, we need to find a facility that can hold about a thousand people. And said, hey, we need to find a facility that can hold about 1,000 people. We said, well, we have the building available and we got it up and running in about two and a half weeks. So you know, it's not just turning the light switch on, it was making sure all the you know everything worked. So I mean, obviously we still are paying for the upkeep of it, but there's a big difference between upkeeping it and putting 1,000 people in it. So that got up and running in about two weeks. Lockport paid for the cleaning and everything like that. There was really no cost to anybody at Lincoln Way for that. It was a true rental-type opportunity community. But other than that, at this point you know the school is not going to be open for a Lincoln Way school, probably again, you know we need a certain number of students in the district to operate that and we just don't have that at this point.

Israel: 14:36

And there was talk at the time about the state police purchasing it right.

Aaron Janik: 14:39

Yeah. So they had walked through, they had toured it, multiple state agencies. The Illinois Department of Public Health was looking to maybe consolidate some facilities they had and use a portion of it and it's not FEMA, but the Illinois Emergency Management Agency was similar to FEMA. They were talking about taking some space too, but for whatever reason, I think that kind of happened all around the time that the pandemic started and priorities shifted and things happened and now it's four years later and building's still available.

Aaron Janik: 15:16

So the bonds on it will be paid off again. I want to say 2032. So at that point it would be paid off and we'll have a little bit less restriction on what can be done with it Right now. If you were to try to use it, it's the bonds. The way the bonds are structured, it's limited in what we can do with it. So right now the Frankfort Square Park District uses North for the field house and some of the fields, the gym and the weight room. So for 210 residents, frankfort Square residents can go there and play basketball and walk the track. So that's an intergovernmental agreement. I mean, it's not what it was intended for, but it's still being used somewhat.

Aaron Janik: 16:09

What do you think are some of the biggest challenges?

Israel: 16:12

that the district faces right now.

Aaron Janik: 16:16

You know the Mack on Wood. We're in a pretty good spot right now. I don't think we have a lot of challenges where, if you went back 10 years, you know you looked at borrowing money to make payroll right. We're nowhere near that situation Now. You're always going to have a challenge. An entity as big as Lincoln Way is, you know there's hundreds of employees, there's multiple buildings, but I don't think you have the challenges that we had a decade ago. You know changing education tools and ways that we educate. You know advent of AI I'm sure you know you've talked about it and using. You know using your technology. Here we have to get students ready for the future and how that's going to look. So maybe some technology-based type of issues, but we have a good staff at Lincoln Way, good administration, and so they're going to work together to face those challenges and get the students ready to face them as well.

Israel: 17:23

You were prior to the 210, you were on the 159 school board, Yep. So you know, going back then and then, as you ran for 210, what made you want to run for school board?

Aaron Janik: 17:36

So the first time I was on the 159 board, a spot opened up. Actually, someone had resigned and I don't remember who it was, but they were taking applications for to fill that seat. So I put in for it and the board, the board members the six of them at the time selected me to fill that spot and at the time we had our youngest in that school district. So I filled out the remaining two years of that term and then I ran again for a four-year term. Halfway through that's when things at Lincoln Way kind of started coming to light. My wife, when I was getting ready to run for 210, she was why are you gonna run for 210? We didn't have any students in the district. I go well, I think I can make a difference, that guy can help. And so I ran.

Aaron Janik: 18:28

I was one of 13 candidates running for five seats and was, you know, lucky enough and to to win and get on. And my first meeting was of taking a vote to borrow money from one of the south suburban villages to loan us some money to make payroll the next day, because if we didn't borrow the money people wouldn't have gotten a paycheck. So um, now welcome to the big time I guess they say, uh, so, yeah, so we. So we made that decision to borrow that money. The interest rate wasn't the best, but we really didn't have a choice. And then we slowly but surely started stacking some wins. I'll call them and you did that and we got into a good spot, where we are today.

Israel: 19:18

And how long do you think it took to right the ship, so to say?

Aaron Janik: 19:23

I would say it took probably a good six years. Yeah, six and a half. You know we've been in a good spot. We just refinanced some of the debt. We had the interest rate. I want to say it's at 1.76%. Wow, we lucked out, because about two months later is when interest rates really spiked. That was kind of just fortuitous timing. That wasn't necessarily a crystal ball, but we had done everything to get us into a position to be able to refinance debt and not have to incur huge fees. And it was millions of dollars. So refinancing millions of dollars at 1.76% is a lot better than refinancing millions of dollars at 6%. So wound up saving quite a bit of money. And we were actually we're able to abate some money back to residents. You know it wasn't a ton, but there's not a lot of you know public bodies out there saying, hey, we're able to, you know, abate some money, Sure.

Israel: 20:28

So you know, lincoln Way for me accounts for 21, 27% of my property tax bill. So how can we, how can you reassure Lincoln Way taxpayers? You know to be sure that the school district is spending their tax dollars in the most efficient way possible.

Aaron Janik: 20:45

Yeah, well, I mean, that's the big question we always get asked. If you look at what we've done over the past almost eight years not since I've been on the board we have spent the money wisely. We've done surgical type um looks at building maintenance. You know, like hey, could we do this, this and this? Well, sure, if we want to spend a bunch of money, but no, it's times not right. We need to do just this thing this year. You know what, whether it's a roof or an air conditioning unit or a parking lot.

Aaron Janik: 21:20

And then let's plan for two or three years down the road to do the other two or three things that we were looking at. And now we've gotten to a point where we have enough money saved up, put aside and we have a good plan in place to do the things we need to do, but also still providing top-notch education to the students that come through Lincoln Way. I mean, lincoln Way is known for not only its academics but its extracurriculars, its sports teams, its marching band, its drama program, its welding program. So we're still able to provide all those services while not seeing huge increases. Had we just said, oh yeah, we'll just go ahead and do whatever we want. No, I'm a taxpayer too. I want to be mindful of the fact that we're being entrusted with taxpayer money by still providing good services and making sure the facilities are in good shape. It's a fine line. You have to walk Sure.

Israel: 22:17

What do you think is the best way to address differences of opinion with other board members, as well as the?

Aaron Janik: 22:24

administration. Well, you know, we're all individuals. We always have differences of opinion. You know, if you watch a board meeting, we're always having questions of the administration, dialogue back and forth. They're pretty congenial board meetings, but we always don't agree on things that we're talking about.

Aaron Janik: 22:52

So I mean there are things where you pick up a phone call or pick up a phone, make a phone call hey, you know, why did you take that vote? Or why are you? What are you thinking about this issue? You know, luckily, knock on wood, we've been pretty, you know, steady over the past couple of years. But there was times when I first got on the board we were having three hour meetings. We don't walk into a meeting and have a three hour meeting without having probably about nine hours of phone calls and emails and prep work and discussions with other board members before you get there. You know what I mean and just looking through all the information, so you know we're in a good spot now as a board we don't have a lot of disagreements, but if we do, it's just the simplest picking up a phone, talking to somebody talk about the time requirement a little bit of being a board member.

Israel: 23:35

How much? How much of your regular week does it take? How much of your regular week does it take?

Aaron Janik: 23:39

Well, in my current role I'm the president, so I do a lot of the. You know any board member can talk to you know the superintendent, the administration, a lot of times. I guess you'd say I'm the forward-facing board member as the president, so I'll get phone calls. You know, often, hey, just give you a heads up, having a meeting with this entity or that entity or this issue popped up, and so it's hard to quantify it because it happens so often.

Israel: 24:12

It kind of becomes part of daily life, yeah.

Aaron Janik: 24:15

You know I'm driving in the car. I got some windshield time because I'm going from one meeting to the next for work. Pick up a phone and you know, now I'm already from point A to point B and it's been 45 minutes, you know, and it's like okay, well, we'll wrap this up tomorrow. After you have your meeting, you call me, let me know how it goes. So it does kind of become normal. You fit it in when you can. You know I do have a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 type of job, so sometimes it'll be late at night where I'm shooting an email off or reading an email. So you just fit it in when you have the ability to.

Aaron Janik: 24:55

The school board meetings themselves are the third Thursday of every month. Lately they've been relatively brief meetings because we've gotten to a good spot. So things are kind of settled. You know, hour, hour and a half. When I first got on the board they were three hour meetings. I want to say we were meeting twice a month just because we needed to make some decisions every couple of weeks, like hey, we need to borrow some money to pay some bills. So it's gotten a little bit less time consuming. But you know, you sign up for a job and you do it, however long it takes yeah, how can the Board of Education best communicate with its constituent groups?

Aaron Janik: 25:40

well, I mean, we have email, we have phone. I mean my phone number and email address are public information. When you sign up to run for the school board, you list where you live and all that information. I have my Lincoln Way shirt on today. I wear this out in the public a lot. Just because I'm either going to an event or coming from one, I'll stop at the grocery store or whatnot, grab something to eat, and so I see people out and about town and, um, you know, if someone has an issue, we get emails all the time, we get phone calls all the time. I disagree with people in the public. You know, sometimes people just want to be heard, right, um? Sometimes they they want an answer. Sometimes my job is to give them an answer that they may not like to hear, um, but you know, you know. However, anyone wants to get a hold of me, I'm available.

Israel: 26:35

You know, as we sit today, there's three people that are up for election this term. Right, and so you really don't have a challenger. But what made you still want to sit down and talk with me tonight?

Aaron Janik: 26:49

Well, I always like to engage the public. This is an easy way to do it, so your podcast will be broadcast out. I'll be able to share it across my social media pages. People can get to know me. Hello, you know, it's just. I think it's part of elected officials' duty is to be, you know, available and make themselves known. I don't think it's right for someone to get into a position and not respond or not. You know, make it known who they are. You know who they are. So at this point, you know, as we sit here today doing this interview, there are just the three incumbents that have pulled petitions. There's still time. I'm not sure when this will be broadcast, but maybe there would be a fourth or fifth person running for election, and that's okay. I'm doing this again. This would be my third time.

Aaron Janik: 27:45

I do have two younger children getting ready to go through the Lincoln Way school system and the biggest thing that a board member does is the hiring and firing of a superintendent. We're not firing our superintendent now and we're not hiring one, but our current superintendent will be probably retiring within the next four years or so. Maybe I think it's four years, from May of 2025. So if you look at that, you know you're kind of getting into that position where you're going to hire a new superintendent. Well, being on the board for eight years, going from where we were to where we are, I'd like to be part of the process of you know, hey, here's somebody that we're going to hire. Let's make sure we have some institutional knowledge of where we were eight years ago or 10 years ago, wherever it's going to be, to get that next person in to lead the district.

Israel: 28:45

So slightly off topic, but 159 is going through a superintendent search right now, making a very public search, looking for input from the community. Talk a little bit about what goes on with that process and what's involved.

Aaron Janik: 29:03

Yeah, so typically for a superintendent search a board will hire a consulting firm. Board members are volunteers so they're doing their day-to-day job. Superintendent search a board will hire a consulting firm. You know board members are volunteers so you know they're doing their day-to-day job. The consulting firm you know this is what they do. They go out and and gather candidates for school boards to vet. I know 159 in the past has always involved community members, different constituent groups. I was involved earlier this year in just providing some feedback of what we'd be looking for at a first superintendent at the 159 district. So in that group were members of the village fire department, retired individuals, still taxpayers in the district, maybe no kids. So you're going to get a wide cross-section of input from the various constituent groups. The board obviously makes the ultimate decision, but going through a process where you get community input is important. I'm assuming when the time comes at Lincoln Way we'll do the same thing.

Israel: 30:10

I'm assuming when the time comes, at Lincoln Way, we'll do the same thing. And what kind of things are is the board looking for in a candidate?

Aaron Janik: 30:17

Well, I mean you need someone that's going to be a leader, right? I mean, the superintendent is the probably the person that is the most forward facing of a district. They're the one where all the communication is coming from, especially on big issues. Right, you might hear from your child's principal on some. You know events coming up and day-to-day type things, but when it comes to the big issues you know budgets and you know other things of that nature it's going to be the superintendent. So you want someone that's going to one be able to lead the organization but also have people to follow their lead put together a good team. Administration is not made up of just superintendents the finance office, curriculum department, so a lot goes into running an organization as big as Lincoln Way, but also 159. So we'll need to find someone at Lincoln Way in a few years of who's going to be a good leader, good communicator.

Israel: 31:16

And say, in that process going forward, this superintendent Tingley would be retiring at that point. Yeah, and would he have an input typically as well, or not?

Aaron Janik: 31:27

You know, I don't know if superintendents that are leaving have input. I think we'd probably want some input from him. You know, having been in the role, you know what's required. I think it would be good. The decision's ultimately the board's, though, so you know you can get all the input in the world, but that decision is going to come down to, you know, the seven board members in the world, but that decision is going to come down to the seven board members.

Israel: 31:56

Talk a little bit about how you see the role of a school board member.

Aaron Janik: 31:59

Well, again, it goes back to the hiring and the firing of the superintendent. The superintendent is tasked with implementing the policies that the Board of Education puts in place. You know, obviously the board approves the budget. That's a very large budget. For Lincoln Way we're over about $120 million. So you know, we have several individuals on the board that will you know, have a specific area of I want to expertise, but we have several educators on the board. I'm an attorney, there's two other attorneys on the board, we have a trades person. So we all provide our input individually and then collectively, we'll we'll go ahead and make decisions that impact people.

Israel: 32:55

How about getting? How much should a board member be getting involved with, say, day-to-day or with the superintendent's operations, things like that?

Aaron Janik: 33:04

Yeah, no, I mean that's, people aren't electing me to get down into the nitty-gritty of math. You know, in the nitty gritty of you know math. You know what I mean. Like you want me as far away from a math book as possible. No, I'm kidding.

Israel: 33:18

But no, I mean, where does the line drawn list say things like curriculum? Sure, how much involvement would the board have with that, compared to the administration?

Aaron Janik: 33:27

Yeah, the administration is going to research the various I don't want to say textbooks, but we're going to, and I'm not an educator so I'm not going to make up a name but they're going to look at. Okay, the math curriculum has trended towards this type of curriculum. History has trended toward this type. English has trended toward this type. English has trended toward this type. They're going to put the curriculum together and they'll update us on what are we doing in terms of classes, you know, to support the students to get ready to take the SAT, which is how the districts are judged in terms of, you know, test scores and things of that nature, to get our rankings up. You know, like I said, we're one, two, three, so we do a great job getting students ready to take those standardized tests. Again, standardized tests aren't the end all be all, but the district administration will be the one that's putting the curriculum together. Now, if there's issues with it, it's what the department heads are there for, right, the department chairs for English, math and social science and foreign languages. They're looking at it on the day-to-day level, like what's working, you know, what's not let's? You know, we had this in our curriculum and we didn't seem to do well on this kind of portion of the SAT. Well, let's maybe pivot and try this model for getting students ready.

Aaron Janik: 34:58

A lot of times you'll have differentiated instruction in the classroom. So it's not just you know. Here's the curriculum. Everyone go do it. There's a lot of moving parts to it and the board member doesn't necessarily get involved in that. Now maybe an educator, you know, like I said, we have a few educators on the board. They might take a deeper look into it because they're doing that in their day-to-day job. You know, I'm working the construction industry. I'm not sure you know, looking at the math curriculum at a macro level. I'm looking at more macro level.

Israel: 35:34

One of the things you know as a parent. We're all concerned about sending our kids to school and you think about safety. So how can parents be sure that their kids are safe going on Lincoln Way schools?

Aaron Janik: 35:45

Yeah. So I'm sure you recall, earlier this year there was a lot of social media stuff out there about school shootings. It was out in Joliet, I believe, is where it initiated, started at. It got picked up Various other school districts, kids sharing it and whatnot. I was getting a lot of phone calls on that. My first thing was well, I'm picking up the phone and I'm calling the superintendent and he goes yep, we already know about it, we're already on it.

Aaron Janik: 36:19

You know can't really get into specifics on what our security and safety plans are, but they're good. You know, obviously they're always being looked at and refined with our partners in law enforcement. There was just another recent one that happened at Providence where the New Lenox police had the subject in custody before an alert could even really be out. I mean, that's how quick things moved. You know we do have school resource officers at each school Will County Sheriff, you know, deputy.

Aaron Janik: 36:58

So you know there's always things going on to keep our kids safe. The biggest one is the parents and the community members and other students. You know, if there's something going on, you know I don't want to sound cliche, but you see something, you say something right, and we tell my kids, that my younger ones. Hey, if there's something going on, you know, and someone's saying something I'm going to hurt myself or I'm going to you know there's going to be a school shooting, you don't even worry about getting in trouble. You come to us and we're going to, you know. Take care of it right away. So I mean, we try to let parents know that they're our front line as well. But there are things in the background that we can do and we are doing to make sure they're as safe as they can be.

Aaron Janik: 37:46

Yeah that's a good point.

Israel: 37:47

I mean parents being the front line. I mean really, yeah, that goes a long way. So what advice would you give to anybody that was considering running for office?

Aaron Janik: 37:59

uh, be yourself. I mean that's. I'm kind of a outgoing person, you know. So I, I will talk to anybody and everyone. I'll tell them the honest truth. Again, I've said before, sometimes when I tell people an answer, they don't like it. But you just got to be honest with people. I mean, your word is your bond. If you shift your answers or shift your, I don't want to say your morals, but if you just give someone what they want, then you know you're not really doing a good job. So, be yourself, be available.

Israel: 38:39

Is there anything else you'd like to say or share?

Aaron Janik: 38:43

No, I mean I think if you know this is going to be posted prior to the election, I would say don't panic, vote for Janik. It's been a campaign slogan of mine since 8th grade. It seemed to work well for me 8th grade.

Israel: 38:55

What were you running for in 8th grade?

Aaron Janik: 38:56

Student council. I did not win that year, but it's worked out okay for me. You kept the logo still. Yeah, my kids have used it a couple times here and there. They were successful in student council. My daughter lost a couple years ago in a very hotly contested election.

Israel: 39:12

I remember that one. Yes, known each other a lot. Our kids have been in school together since kindergarten. Yeah, yeah, known each other well over the years. Yes, yes, appreciate you sitting down with me, aaron. Not only the first one to interview with me, but the first one to respond and offer to sit down.

Aaron Janik: 39:34

So I appreciate your enthusiasm and your service to our community. Alright well, thank you for having us.