Berk, Oliphant, Chavez, Petrey, Ryan: Summit Hill 161 School Board Candidates

The Summit Hill 161 School District, serving parts of Mokena, Frankfort, and Tinley Park, has been in the spotlight due to school closings, transportation challenges, and other key issues. With 10 candidates running for the school board, transparency is more important than ever.

Five candidates—Amy Berk, Patrick Oliphant, Adrian Chavez, Ronnie Petrey, and Melissa Ryan—reached out after seeing our candidate interviews to request to share about their campaign. To ensure fairness, I’m extending the same opportunity to all candidates. If you’re running for the Summit Hill 161 School Board and want to be heard, you can email me at mokenasfrontporch@gmail.com to set up a conversation.

Your vote matters—let’s make sure it’s an informed one.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Meeting Overview
• 5:00 Importance of School Board Elections
• 10:30 Introductions of the Candidates
• 20:15 Community Engagement and Board Meetings
• 30:00 Issues of School Closures and Transparency
• 45:00 Candidates Discuss Educational Growth Strategies
• 55:00 The Future of Student Services and Transportation
• 1:05:00 Concluding Remarks from the Candidates
• 1:15:00 Call to Vote and Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

All right, thank you all for meeting with me today. This is by far the biggest group that I've had to talk to. So after we rearrange the house here, I'm happy to sit down with all of you. And just for a little background, patrick reached out to me after seeing some of the other candidate interviews and I had not done really reached out or done much with the 161, because it's not as big of a part of Mokena but we're a section of that and our attention has been more on the 159 as well as the Village Mokena races and that.

Speaker 1: 0:50

But this is an extremely important race and, as anybody that's been paying attention knows that, there's been a lot going on in the 161 school district over the last year or so, and so I really appreciate the opportunity, you guys reaching out to us, to me, and wanting to come down. I you know I love seeing candidates that are wanting to talk. Transparency is extremely important, especially in these school board races where huge chunks of our tax dollars are going and you know, more importantly than that, you know it's our, our children and our youth. Don't mind my cat. Importantly than that, you know it's our children and our youth, Don't mind my cat. So, as we get started, why don't we just we want to go down, and we'll start with Amy here and just introduce?

Speaker 2: 1:33

yourself. Tell us who you are, and a little bit. I'm Amy Burke. Thank you again so much for giving us this opportunity to talk out. This is my first term on the board. I'm running for reelection, so I've been on the board for four years. I'm a 16-year Frankford resident, 16 years married to my husband. I have one beautiful daughter named Lyra, who's in eighth grade and decided that it was an opportunity to show her to step up when I first ran and want to continue my work.

Speaker 3: 2:02

All right, my name is Patrick Oliphant. This is my first time ever running for public office. I live in the Arbury Hills neighborhood right off of basically 193rd in LaGrange. My entire community is surrounded by Mokena, so my driver's license actually says Mokena. We have lived in the area for 10 years. My wife is from the New Lenox Manhattan area.

Speaker 3: 2:22

I grew up in Elstub, so this was a nice meet in the middle. We're both about 20 minutes away from our parents' house. It worked out very well that way. I have a 10-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son. Both attend Summit Hill Schools, and I became involved in this. Never really wanted to run for public office. I actually got involved during the school closing process.

Speaker 3: 2:42

One of the top two reasons that they gave for closing the schools was facilities operations and maintenance costs.

Speaker 3: 2:47

I am a local 399 stationary engineer and proud, proud union member and also now for the last three years, an engineering manager for ABM.

Speaker 3: 2:57

I work with many different departments throughout the Chicagoland area and we specialize in facilities operations and maintenance, right Long-term cost projections, short-term repairs and everything and anything in between.

Speaker 3: 3:11

When that was stated that that was a major cause, I said I can actually do something here, Like I can really help and I convinced my company to offer free services, free evaluation audits, to give long-term solutions and cost benefits that are much more accurate than the tools that I know they were using, because I've worked with that in the past and when I presented my services for free, just as a citizen, it was sat on for about a month and a half and then, less than five days before they voted to close the schools, they had a board member tell me thanks but no thanks, claim there was a conflict of interest, which there was absolutely none, and that really was upsetting to me because the math didn't add up right, Like why don't good leadership uses the resources that are available to them? And they were clearly not even entertaining this. And then they kind of railroaded it through and the more questions I asked after that, the more digging, the more the math didn't add up. So that's really what brought me into the limelight here.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Yeah, I'm sure that was a issue A lot of people got were passionate about. I know your board meetings were extremely contentious at the time, so we'll definitely spend some time hearing more about that. So, melissa, how about you?

Speaker 4: 4:26

Hi, I'm Melissa Ryan. I've been in the district here for five years now. We moved the end of January 2020. So we came to the district and my kids were in school a few weeks later. Covid happened.

Speaker 1: 4:42

Yeah, what an interesting time to move into a district it really was.

Speaker 4: 4:46

I never paid attention to local politics until that year, and that's kind of when I started going to the meetings and paying attention and have ever since. I lucked out because I actually was able to get on the Rogus SEO before I even moved here.

Speaker 1: 5:02

What's that? Can you explain what that is?

Speaker 4: 5:03

So the SEO is basically a PTO, it's a school community organization, and so we just raise funds and put on fun events and I'm probably minimizing it. It's a lot of work, but it's fun.

Speaker 4: 5:18

It's fun and, yeah, we get to give back to the school, the teachers, the students, so, um. So, yeah, I got to do that and since I was on the SEO, I was actually only allowed in the school because of that, which was you know I was grateful for, because if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have stepped foot in the school, probably until two years later. So, so, yeah, so it was a great opportunity. I've gotten to develop a lot of relationships in the school and the community and, yeah, I'm a self-employed CPA. I have three daughters One's a freshman at East, one's in fifth grade at Hill to Walker, and then I have a four-year-old who will start kindergarten fall of 2026. So I'll start all over again. So I'm very invested. So, which is, you know, another reason to get involved and step up and do this.

Speaker 1: 6:10

So, um it's great yeah.

Speaker 5: 6:15

All right, ronnie, how about you? I'm Ron Petrie. Um, I've been in a community for about 17 years now. Um, back in uh, 2020 with the COVID thing is when I kind of got involved in the community and in the district and started going to board meetings, started asking questions, started standing up. I actually worked with Amy back at Eisenhower when we first started teaching together. So I reached out to her and started having conversations with her when I saw that she was on the board and then just kind of started that she was on the board and then, um, just kind of started getting involved. Uh, two years ago I ran for um to get on the board, um, because of all the stuff that I've seen was happening, um, and so, um, just missed it by 200 votes to be on the board. So I decided to continue to try to do it again, um, because, uh, the things that have been happening need to stop.

Speaker 5: 7:05

And so a little history about my kids. Is I, my first son, who is now a sophomore in college? He was in first grade at Mary Drew when they closed Mary Drew down and then we had obviously only going north. That closed down not too far after that, and so you know, after north kind of shut down is when I kind of started like stuff, what is going on in our community when we have a, you know, after North kind of shut down is when I kind of started like stuff, what is going on in our community when we have a community high school that goes down? We have a school that you know houses first and fourth graders close down in the community, and then you know COVID hit, and then you know, got all these masks and you know you have to wear a mask on a bus, and then you know we're going to continue to do our masking. Oh no, you have to wear a mask on a bus. And then you know we're going to continue to do our masking. Oh no, you're going to stay at home for a little bit. Where 157C, everybody's at school, you know, and so it's like what's going on? And that's kind of where I kind of jumped in, you know.

Speaker 5: 8:05

So then my daughter graduated from Summit Hill during COVID and then now my son is going to be graduating this year as an eighth grader as well, and so I started paying attention, started asking questions, and what I've kind of realized is parents' voice don't matter. So that's kind of thrown out. They'll have a hot topic. You'll come up, you'll talk about the hot topic, you'll talk to parents on the side and then immediately at the end of the board meeting they'll pass through. So it doesn't even matter. They don't even take the time to think about parents' voice. They don't allow the parents to even talk in the community about it. It's already done deal before it's even up there, it's signed on over with and it's happened multiple times and maybe we can get more into that as we go along.

Speaker 5: 8:37

So I live by Indian Trail, by Hickory Creek, I also lived over by Sycamore, which was over by Mary Drew, and so I've done in two different houses in the community. And you know the community was built on the reason I moved here. The community was built on being able to walk your kids to school. You know it's called community school district because the community felt like they can bring their kids to school back and forth, they don't have to ride a bus, felt like they can bring their kids to school back and forth, they don't have to ride a bus. Now we shut off our busing transportation costs because now we're busing kids all over the place.

Speaker 6: 9:13

I'm Adrian, or Adrian Chavez, and I feel like the dinosaur of the group because my family, we've all been in this community for over 35 years. I actually walked to Indian Trail and I went to Indian Trail. I actually went to Arbury Hills in kindergarten and that was back then, and then I went throughout. I went to Mary Drew when it was both Hill to Walker and Summit Hill within the Mary Drew building, and I went to Linkaway East and then Central and back then it was two years at one and two years at the other, and my brother and my sister were both at Linkaway East for their four years and, you know, grew up in the area, loved the area, my family being immigrants. They came from Mexico and Cuba. They understood that this was a really nice community to bring up their family, and so it was. It was an outstanding experience and so I was. When I started having kids of my own, there was no better place and I wanted to come back to.

Speaker 6: 10:10

And my background is very different as far as from other candidates and from the existing board. I do not have an academic background. I'm not an academia at all. I wasn't even really a great student. However, I did find a really great path as a food service professional. So I worked with larger brands such as like PepsiCo, simplot, which is a manufacturer for French fries for McDonald's, and I was an account executive where I would be working with every state except for Illinois in training and working with franchise owners and working with frontline teams at McDonald's and training them and teaching them. And now I'm a regional account manager for a company and major manufacturer of major ingredients for, like sauces and dressings and things like that.

Speaker 6: 11:00

But throughout my whole career you know my, my emphasis has always been bringing different people with different backgrounds and different points of views together to a table to try to find, you know, mutually beneficial, mutually beneficial, um, uh, paths forward, um, where we could create a win, win, win situation. And, um, I think you know I started to try and get involved when I started going to these meetings and I understood that there was such a disconnect between the board and the community and the parents that needed repairing and, I think, needs a reset, and I was just hoping that I could be a voice for that and I could be a conduit to bring people who have these contentious views, bring them to the table and understand we're all neighbors, we're all wanting the same success for our community, and for me it's. You know, yes, I have a lot of vested interests. I have five children. My daughter isn't in the district but I have my son, who was at Frankfurt when they closed Frankfurt Frankfurt Square School. So now he's at Indian Trail, which is cool for me because that was my alma mater. But I've also got three other kids in the chamber that are now going to be starting kindergarten, also at Rogas.

Speaker 6: 12:10

But for me, the way that I look at it is, it's not only for my kids that I'm involved. For me what's really important is the children that are around them as well, the community that is around them that we build around them. So that's really my focus and I just hope to bring kind of a voice of, you know, unity and bringing the community together and finding common ground and understanding that how important community is not only to the children, the students, the teachers, but also the businesses that are involved, the administrators as well, how they're looped in and how they're utilized, the administrators as well, how they're looped in and how they're utilized. So I'm hoping to kind of bring some efficiency, bring better communication, kind of almost like a rebranding of Frankfurt back to what it was, and it was a very welcoming community.

Speaker 1: 12:57

But that's me in a nutshell. I guess I want to come back to you, amy, as a current board member. Talk a little bit about what you're seeing from the inside. What's the attitudes like, what is the atmosphere of the board and are you able to get things done, or what's going on yeah spill the beans Let it all.

Speaker 2: 13:16

Tell the team no, no and all sincereness. So it's funny how we all said you know, people don't really. If everything's going good for their kid, they don't really pay attention. My issue was COVID. When I started, you know, I never thought I'd be in a public position and it was COVID that got me started in the meeting.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Maybe explain what. What part of COVID was it that got you involved?

Speaker 2: 13:37

So it was how it was impacting and affecting our students and similar to what was possessed here, what was expressed here. People's voices weren't being heard, whether they were in the 80% majority or 20% you know minority of what they thought should be happening. Their voices weren't be heard. So I started a community group online and I was getting input. I was attending meetings also at the time. So not speaking of current board or anything but at the time before I was elected, there was a lot of contention, even between board members, the meetings I mean there was public fighting in the meetings. So I'm watching this and going. You know what? I'm a pretty professional person. I believe in being able to have different values, such as we all do you know, and be able to come together and have those difficult conversations and do that. So that was also part of the reason that I ran Up into the school closing. I think I made progress on that. My motto was growth with respect.

Speaker 2: 14:37

I believe that we were able to talk through things when it came time to the school closing. I asked for different options. I asked what are our options? You know, can we look at? We had Mary Drew that is sitting with 18 or so administrators there and the other half was being rented by the park district. How can we utilize this? I want to be approachable. I want to listen to the community. I do feel you know when you can see the contention and how the voting played out. You know it was five. You know a lot of times it's five to school closings, five to or four or three.

Speaker 2: 15:37

So you voted against closing I voted against closing the schools and, obviously, fiscal responsibility I'm responsible to the taxpayers and community, absolutely 100%.

Speaker 1: 15:49

And there was another vote as well that was against it.

Speaker 2: 15:53

So there was a first vote. First vote was 4-3. And that was December of the previous year, not 2024, 2023. And then another vote. We tried to bring it up on the agenda again after parents were still asking you know this process, we're seeing it happen too fast, and so we absolutely tried to put it on the agenda again. The board members had agreed to put it on the agenda again because the process a lot of people don't know is you have the board president and the superintendent who create the agenda based on the input from the other board members. So we got it in there, but that was voted down at a time we had lost one board member who had moved.

Speaker 5: 16:39

Even John and Amy asked the board. Are we voting to close schools before December? And was stated in the meeting. No, we're not going to close the schools before December. Yeah, but they did it five days before Christmas. They did it five days before Christmas.

Speaker 2: 16:58

The problem. The issue I had as a sitting member was that when you're asked that in public and you say no, that's not guaranteed, no, that's not what it's going to be, we're going to go through and I was on the buildings and ground commission too. So they went through the steps of we went through the steps of having the buildings and ground commission and the data being presented. People were questioning a lot of the data in general. Myself, I talked to an accountant, I looked through the numbers, I toured the buildings. We had myself and a few others tour the buildings.

Speaker 1: 17:34

What did you question? What did you think didn't look right?

Speaker 2: 17:37

I questioned why the need to go through the process so quickly. That was my main question. I think the community, I think myself. Had it been the right decision for the board, for the community, for the students, for our fiscal health, I would have had no problem voting in favor of doing that, had the process been more understood.

Speaker 6: 18:08

And I think that's a crux of a lot of the contention that is happening with the community is they're not understanding that process that's taking place and because of that, credibility goes out the window and you start just creating that space for division, right?

Speaker 1: 18:22

Do you think that if the school board had been more open about it, there would have been less contention and maybe, you know, we would have been a better place?

Speaker 3: 18:32

Yes, can I take this one? Yeah, so I would agree with that wholeheartedly. Right, like there was less than 60 days from the time that it was presented. And it was presented on Halloween night of 2023 in a patch article when everybody was out and it was snowing that day. For those that remember, yes, it was, but a lot of people don't notice that right.

Speaker 3: 18:49

And what was first presented to the public officially on Halloween night was then voted on December 20th and there were building and grounds committee meetings, there were a lot of studies that were promised but weren't followed up on, and then, in the time between the two votes that Amy very graciously just explained, from the closings in December to the second vote in February, a group of concerned citizens led by Lisa Brace I helped as best as I possibly could and a lot of people I mean it was a real homegrown community movement.

Speaker 3: 19:21

Mind you, in the middle of a polar vortex and then with very heavy snow conditions, we went around collectively and got over a thousand signatures of concerned citizens requesting a delay and an explanation of exactly what's happening. Right, and in that February meeting, you know, the superintendent spoke for about 30 to 40 minutes on many things and publicly discredited the effort, saying that he questioned the validity of those signatures. He accused us of all just forfeiting and counterfeiting. And you don't build trust that way. When you're in a public meeting with public officials and taxpayers who are wanting to be heard in a very legitimate manner, they just said well, we think that you're all lying and that this doesn't matter. And in that meeting even they blocked people from talking right, which is also not wonderful. But I think it's very important to emphasize at this juncture that while we were going door to door and this was very personal for me is that I would go door to door, explain what we were doing and people time and again.

Speaker 2: 20:29

Now, mind you, we are in the district of Lincoln Way North, where all of our kids would have gone to that school. That's the thing too. You have to have a sense of empathy for what this community has been through. Thank you this community absolutely went through the closing of North If you're looking at our own district of 161,. That same community went through the closing of Mary Jew in 2012.

Speaker 3: 20:44

Yeah, and you're teeing this up perfectly, because I would talk to people at their door and they would tell me we love what you're doing. This is incredible, but I'm going to tell you none of it's ever going to matter. None of it's ever going to matter. They're never going to listen to you and they're just going to do what they want anyways, and that this is all a complete waste of time, because people have already had a complete disconnect with local government and what they were afraid of came into fruition in February. But I rejected that. I rejected that as being true. It was very upsetting to me and I kind of it burned a fire in me to help change that narrative and restore a voice to people and restore accountability in the relationship of the taxpayer and the community in general with local government.

Speaker 5: 21:26

To help out with Patrick on that. I mean multiple times parents ask can we get current studies? Can we get you know current studies on the enrollment? Because one of the things they talked about is enrollment was going down, going down, going down, going down, going down.

Speaker 2: 21:40

The main reasons Right.

Speaker 5: 21:41

And in February, obviously 8th, during the last meeting in february, eighth for curriculum meeting, we had obviously our enrollment all went up. So I mean we're asking we have, we have building, we have structures going on, enrollment's gonna go up? And then dismiss that, saying that only old people move into our community and they don't have kids and we're like no new families will be coming in you know it was told that 75 percent of our tax, of our tax base, do not have students in the district.

Speaker 5: 22:07

We asked for how much money does our district have in reserves?

Speaker 1: 22:12

Is that realistic? 75%, I mean? That seems we don't know.

Speaker 2: 22:17

It's high.

Speaker 6: 22:17

Yeah, I feel like that census is dated. It's a high percentage either way.

Speaker 2: 22:22

It's still a high percentage either way. But the thing with that, even in addition to what they're all saying, you look at the numbers. We had been prior again prior to this current board and superintendent. We had not been in great shape financially, but we were prior to the school closing we had done an excellent job in seeking out grants. We had done an excellent job in being responsible and heading towards the right direction.

Speaker 2: 22:51

So there was no need to consolidate the schools in order to continue down that route or in order to pay down bonds.

Speaker 3: 23:03

When you looked at the numbers, which the major bond that we're talking about was a result tied into what Ronnie was bringing up. Yeah, there was a major investment put into the Mary Drew School shortly before they voted to close it. Yeah, and then we as a taxpayer community were just left with the bill still to this day with the bill, and we can cover more about that later, but that is the bond that she's talking about was a school that remained closed for over a decade and then was voted to be reopened without any any public conversation whatsoever. It was never an agenda item, never even discussed, and then, right when they voted to close the schools, they just threw on the agenda to reopen the Mary Drew School.

Speaker 2: 23:43

It was. The next agenda item was to reopen the Mary Drew School and I tried to table it so we had more data and information, because we had faculty from the two consolidated schools saying if you're going to do this to us, could Mary Drew be a possibility where we start our new school together? And that was not considered in hard data or open discussion.

Speaker 5: 24:07

I mean some of the things that we didn't even understand as a public. As a community member being there for so many years, I didn't even really understand that we were still paying operation costs to keep Mary Drew open. So a school was closed, but we were spending $600,000 a year keeping the operation costs going, when we thought, as a community, that the Frankfort Park District was paying the operation costs on the side that they were actually using.

Speaker 2: 24:31

They have an agreement for the half, and then the other half of the building is for admin, so we're spending all this money on a building that our kids don't even use.

Speaker 5: 24:37

And so when we were talking about closing schools, we're asking the question why can't you just close down, mary Drew, then Just completely shut it and sell it then, and then that will give us enough money to cover these extraordinary costs that they came up with of our school. Buildings are falling apart and it's going to cost this much million dollars to build a roof, and this and that you know, and some of the questions we even had was like Indian Trail's roof was leaking for years, for years, like five, six years, they're telling us, and it's all falling apart. Well, what have you been doing for five, six years? Why haven't you been taking care of that? You know, like, so, like we pay.

Speaker 5: 25:14

We pay a lot of money in our community for our school district of 161. We believe in our school district of 161. We believe in our kids, and so people in our community have no issues paying those tax money, but they do have an issues when you're, when we don't know what's going on and it feels like there's a lies coming to us, and then when you go ahead and you close down these schools and then then then you sell the school and then on return, the prayer center tells us that the school is in the greatest shape it can ever be. All we have to do is slap up some paint on it to make it look where we want it paint wise. That, just that's another shot in our face when we're sitting there, say these schools are in great condition. And so there's another lie that came. That came out of it because the property was sold in july yeah, is yeah, so talk about that.

Speaker 1: 26:07

Was everybody for that? What was the board sentiment like at that time?

Speaker 2: 26:13

I mean, I think after the school closings nobody wants buildings to sit there. No community member wants them to sit there. So it was discussing the future. That went fairly quickly as well.

Speaker 5: 26:26

Yes, it did, it was an open bid process.

Speaker 2: 26:28

Sealed open bid process. The Chicago Autism was the other bidder on that property. I think what constituents questioned was the amount that it was sold for.

Speaker 5: 26:47

Was it 1.75 million, something like that. That 1.9, 1.9, to be exact.

Speaker 1: 26:49

Yeah and you. You feel it should have been more. I think that's what the constituents okay felt as well.

Speaker 2: 26:56

you know, as a board member, we get um. You know we go through the proper procedure and go out to get okay, how? How does this is assessed? How is this? You know, legally, what are we doing that? Then we get the information and then I did not vote to sell it Um what was the vote there?

Speaker 1: 27:15

Do you remember?

Speaker 2: 27:16

The vote was five to five.

Speaker 1: 27:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:20

The vote was five to five.

Speaker 6: 27:22

I think the ongoing trend was that everything's been done super fast, yeah, right, and so one thing that I wanted to point out was part of the reason why it's been moving so fast is we've kind of had a current board that's kind of all running on the same kind of thought path, and I don't know if that's from top down or how that is happening Amy would know more but what we as a team have kind of been looking at, we're looking at each other and we're going. Okay, we see things very differently. We're coming at these things from very different angles.

Speaker 6: 27:51

What a board really should have is time to vet problems and try to check each other's blind spots look at these issues from different angles, and another big part of the issue was we keep on pointing out the community not trusting the board, but there's this sentiment that the board doesn't trust the community either, because they're not providing the information to the community to actually reflect on these decisions and take a look at. Ok, what's the future going to look like with this? You know nobody. There's so many people that didn't know that their school was actually going to be closed, that their school was actually going to be closed and if, in my opinion and maybe it's a novice way, but if we're going to close a school in the center of a community, I would put a big banner on that school and say, hey, make sure you understand.

Speaker 1: 28:30

I'm sorry. What was the communication when? When it was announced?

Speaker 2: 28:34

So there, were public ads and public meetings in the buildings and grounds and whatever legally minimally was required, such as ads in newspapers, the buildings and grounds. Those were the only things. And this goes back to and this stems from the issue with the full-day kindergarten the issue with communication. I think there's ways to be more proactive as far as changing things in the future, ways to be super, super proactive in how we're communicating that to everyone. So, yes, there was notification, absolutely yeah, it was legal.

Speaker 5: 29:11

They did it legally there's bare minimum and then there's like making sure you have apathy for your community but I'd like to add a bare minimum by the law, taken care of, I think, as a board member.

Speaker 2: 29:24

It's difficult because we do have close sessions. You know there's discussions that happen Obviously. Main stuff needs to absolutely happen in open discussion and forum. I know when there was an issue with the equity audit, I advocated for a town hall and I know it's been mentioned in the community outreach meeting that town halls, things like that.

Speaker 2: 29:48

It was mentioned by community members during the process as well yes that's one way, one thing they could have had felt that their voice was heard too so this is, you know, a huge topic and I so very important.

Speaker 1: 30:04

I don't want to, you know, move past.

Speaker 2: 30:06

But I want to say now, like obviously you, guys have all been very passionate about it.

Speaker 1: 30:10

The community has been very passionate. What's the next step? So you guys get in. How do you one keep this from happening? You know where are the schools at now. Is there a chance that somebody changes there? But what do you tell voters? What's the solution?

Speaker 2: 30:26

Amy, do you tell voters what's the solution? Amy, do you?

Speaker 3: 30:27

want to start. I can jump in. You can jump in first, sure? So I think, uh, one thing that we're all very passionate about is we got to fix, fix the basics here, right like we all have the exact same goals of putting being fiscally accountable, transparency, doing everything to put the children first, which is all of our top goals, but I think, I want to point out, it's putting the children first, which is all of our top goals.

Speaker 6: 30:45

But I think I want to point out, putting the children first is also about putting the values and the morals and the community feel around those kids. So these kids become neighbors, these kids become the kids who are helping the elderly or getting involved in the elderly.

Speaker 3: 31:01

They become the DNA of our community, so that's one way that I would look at it, but we need to fix the most basic things, which is open communication. We have a text message system that we send to all the parents when a school bus is going to be late, why not remind them of a school board meeting? Maybe some major topics? These are just some ideas that we're going to kick around, but there are many avenues of communication that are just not being exercised. Another thing that we're going to do is, anytime a community member comes to a school board meeting and has something to say, you listen to them with respect, you do not interrupt them, you do not laugh at them, you do not ridicule them while they're speaking.

Speaker 3: 31:37

All of these things happen at the very last meeting and happen repeatedly. Or close your eyes and fall asleep while and has something to say is not alone, and this you know. Educators say the same thing. If somebody has the courage to ask a question, 10 other people are thinking it. They're just the one with the courage. So whoever speaks at a meeting is representing a part of the community and should be taken seriously and with respect. I mean, that's just ground level.

Speaker 1: 32:07

It's never getting easy getting up in front of a group. No, it's ground level stuff.

Speaker 2: 32:11

And you're never going to please 100% of your population, but you want to be able to make them to respect and understand the decisions that are being made.

Speaker 4: 32:23

No, that's what I was going to say. Um, you know, not to get no, please back to the school closings. But you know, when I first heard that they were going to close the schools, my first thought process especially, you know, doing what I do is if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. So I went to the meeting where they presented the financial audit report and it was clear that it wasn't a financial issue.

Speaker 4: 32:44

I requested the last five-year audits to be emailed to me. They were there was no financial issue. And then, as you listen to the meetings, you found I mean the board members themselves were indicating there was no financial issue. You know, we weren't saving money, we were going to be pouring money into Mary Drew, we weren't cutting the biggest expense, which was, you know, employees as teachers, which not that we wanted anybody to lose their job, but again it was. All of these things were conflicting with, you know. Oh, it's a financial issue.

Speaker 2: 33:13

All staff was saved unless they were choosing to retire or do that, and they made that point and that is very true, that all staff was saved. However, if you go to recently, when you look at the numbers when the small group gets to Hilda Walker, there's going to be a need for changes.

Speaker 1: 33:36

For fewer teachers, or yeah?

Speaker 4: 33:39

So I guess my point was that, you know, then the question was okay, well then, why are we really doing this? And there was never really an answer. You know, and anybody who questioned it you know we were just the community was just annoying them Like they had their, they had what they were going to do and that was it. So it was a done deal, as you know. It's already been said that. You know, I feel like and I'm not an expert, but I feel like, you know, issues should be brought to the table, discussed in front of the community, and we should see the process, and we've pretty much figured out by now that once something's talked about at the board meeting, it's a done deal and it's happening, it's already set up.

Speaker 3: 34:19

Do you want to answer the question of what your things that you're going to implement? It's something important for the viewers to notice is the reason why there's five of us is that four of us are running for full four-year terms. Amy myself, ronnie and Adrian are running for four-year terms. Melissa's running for a two-year term that was vacated by one of the members who moved out of district and she's running directly against an incumbent, but it's only those two. So it's important for everybody at home watching this to realize that the rest of us have a 12.5% chance. Statistically right, just by the numbers, melissa has a 50% chance. So what type of things would you bring?

Speaker 2: 34:51

It is so important that you vote. And we're is so important that you vote. It is just so important that you vote and I consider Melissa our consigliere, no doubt.

Speaker 3: 34:59

No doubt, but you have such good experience and knowledge.

Speaker 2: 35:03

No no, no Fiscal accountability and all that.

Speaker 3: 35:06

What kind of changes?

Speaker 1: 35:07

would you want to?

Speaker 4: 35:08

implicate. My biggest thing is just the transparency and communication. Same thing, like I understand. I sat on an HOA board before. It's a completely different level. I get it, but the point is is you can't please everyone. You're always going to have somebody who's unhappy with your decision. But I at least want people, even if they're unhappy with my decision, to know why I voted the way I voted and to see the whole process play out and that's not happening. And just for the community members to know that we value their decision and that you know they, god willing, were there, you know, sitting behind that table in a few months, that we understand they put us there and that we do owe them answers and information.

Speaker 4: 35:53

I mean they are the taxpayers, it's their money. I just want to be there for the community, a voice for the parents, students and teachers. You know, another kind of benefit I have with being on the SEO is that I'm in the school more than some parents. You know, I get to see some stuff that some parents don't see and where maybe things are lacking, where we could use more resources. And you know, sometimes I feel maybe staff doesn't want to speak out, they don't feel comfortable, they don't want, you know they're afraid of repercussions or whatever, and I don't know how, but I'd like to see that change.

Speaker 4: 36:28

I'd like them to feel like their voice matters.

Speaker 5: 36:32

Good point, good point.

Speaker 2: 36:33

If I can add to that, when obviously I think we would all say we want to do what's best for our kids, such as we implemented full day kindergarten. I was not voting for that. I voted present. But there was a reason why, and again it was because of the process with the staff. The staff was not notified Even teachers that they were hiring, like new teachers. That they were hiring was not like, hey, this might be happening. This is a head up. You know we're going to go to full time. So it was not at all that I was against the idea of full day. It was again the process and communications. Parents had concerns about busing Staff, didn't know clearly what it was going to look like or aware of you know what everything might entail. So add.

Speaker 5: 37:19

To add on to amy I spoke up at the board meeting for that. When full day kindergarten came out, it was nobody knew it was happening. So then they sent out the agenda two days I think it's two days before the actual board meeting happened. So that monday the agenda comes on, it says full, says full-day kindergarten. And so the social media just blew up. And what is that going to look like? What is this? What is that? And so I stood up at the board meeting not saying I didn't, I'm all cool with full-day kindergarten, but what is the plan? How are we going to bus the kids? Because right now, currently in the old day, the kindergarteners got picked up early and they got dropped off early and it was just kindergarten buses that went around our community and I'm like how's this going to work out? And so their solution was well, oh, they could just ride the bus with the first and fourth graders, which brought a huge bunch of fears.

Speaker 2: 38:05

Parents were scared.

Speaker 5: 38:07

It's brand new, big change and it's like can you just get a plan? What is it going to look like in the school? Can you just get a plan? What is it going to look like in the school? How are you guys going to do PE? How are you guys going to do this? How are you going to do that?

Speaker 5: 38:18

And that was the questions I had is can we just table it for right now or just push it down a couple more months, give time?

Speaker 5: 38:33

And that is one thing that I felt like we as a group, how we all came together, was because we want parents to have a voice, and that voice means, if parents are standing up and they're asking for time, that we give that time for them.

Speaker 5: 38:39

Now, it might not be the next board meeting, we might vote on it, but at least we get to talk about it in public, we get to hear their voice, and then we get to talk to each other, to the public, what we're feeling, and then we wait and we give it a month before we vote on it again. Yep, that is called time and that gives people voice, even if we disagree with it, at least we're all hearing it, we're hearing each other and we move forward. You know, and it's interesting is that all of us we're at board meetings and we are all talking to each other and we. That's how we met with each other. You know, when you get a slate, people sometimes like, oh, you're all on. Well, it's because we're all diverse and we all have different backgrounds and we all bring something.

Speaker 2: 39:18

I like calling us a team or a coalition. It is more of a coalition.

Speaker 5: 39:22

But we're like a team now, because we all kind of talk to each other like, yeah, this is the reason why I want to run for it, this is the reason we want to run for it. And when you come to an election after November, it's very hard to get people to come out and vote again, right, and so it's better when you could take five people and try to run the campaign trail instead of trying to do it by yourself.

Speaker 5: 39:43

And that's where I think we all came together and like, yes, we want to do together as a slate, but we also are individuals that we all bring to something different to the table.

Speaker 3: 39:52

Yeah, and this emphasizes our greatest strength, right, because we're up here talking about the importance of communication, taking people's different point of views into mind and listening to them and internalizing them and acting on them. Well, you know, I think it's safe to say that majority of the viewers understand that talk is cheap and that, especially when it comes to candidates for political office, they'll say a lot of things and they won't actually follow up with it or put it into action. It's important to note we are a truly independent team, and by independent team I mean bipartisan team. I am a registered Democrat working with a running, with a team of Republicans, and I could not be prouder to do it.

Speaker 2: 40:24

No, it's important to know the reason why it's there.

Speaker 3: 40:27

It's important to know because we walk the walk, like we are not focusing on, and we all in our hearts believe that we have way more in common and way more beneficial to all of us and to the community, and that our different viewpoints, our different personal and professional experiences and our ability to listen to each other respect each other, respect the public. We're already doing those things. It's not something that we're just saying once we get elected we're going to do it. No, we're doing it now, and the public has shown us that they accept and are really thirsty for that. They're very hungry for it Because even with something as simple as our community science, we're on back order. People want them in their yards For a school board. We can't keep up with the demand and that is, I think, the first real sign the canary in the coal mine, that change out of dignity and respect is on hand and that we are walking the walk to bring that into the real world.

Speaker 6: 41:25

Yeah, and it's so like, like you had asked about what's. What's the change that's going to need to happen? Right, and I think we're all in agreement that the major change is that our community needs to feel empowered, and empowered, and on so many different levels that they can feel that they can be involved, they know that they will be listening yes they know that even and I know with this group, even my bad ideas are going to be listened to and at least either you know I told yeah, all righty.

Speaker 6: 41:51

You know, adrian, let's calm down with your ideas, or let's have something develop out of that. We need that exchange and we need the community to feel that they can be part of that exchange and be part of the solutions and understand the problems and therefore they're going to just have that much more of a vested interest, whether they have children in the district or not talk about how you guys or how this, how the district can increase communication to the community um, I think number one we do.

Speaker 2: 42:23

I just want to piggyback on one thing we do have an idea of common sense and service leadership in common we're going to serve the people.

Speaker 4: 42:31

I've said that since day one.

Speaker 2: 42:32

That's what I've signed up for. It's being available through emails. It's being available if somebody stops you in Target or wherever and you're willing to talk and respond to that. I know we've talked about taking time on decisions or if something does need to be made in a time frame, we're just saying this needs to be made in this time frame. So if you have any input, please get it out. Um I am part of the community outreach committee. I serve, along with another board member on that um and it's a great first step and I think people, there's a lot of miscommunication of you know what is it?

Speaker 2: 43:10

uh, who's on it? Um, how did the selection process go? What is it supposed to do is an extension of the word, and we had a really good meeting in terms of getting taxpayer involved, whether it be town halls, whether it be paper surveys at the district office that you sign out with an ID QR codes for different things in our flyer, for different things in our flyer. Looking at what goes into our flyer, the parents do get a 161 newsletter, which I think is a great thing if it's utilized for decision-making correctly.

Speaker 1: 43:45

I'm sorry, and are the board meetings online?

Speaker 2: 43:48

Yeah, they're on video. So if you go to the website, I feel like they're a little bit harder to find than before. But if you go to the website, uh, they're. I feel like they're a little bit harder to find them before. But if you go to the um website, you go to agendas and you go to the past meetings, it'll give you the video more and more school districts are going the direction of.

Speaker 2: 44:06

You know it's posting on youtube and because, again, I mean, I find that you know with ours, even our village in mokina, you have to kind of go here to here and here instead of having a place that's a little more um yeah, because we have a board there, right so?

Speaker 4: 44:20

that's kind of upstream yeah we are lucky though, because Amy, being a current board member, she does. You're good about. You know the agendas and the reminders for the meeting and then we have a couple other groups um where they will post like the links for the meetings, because they, you know, you can't, not every parent can make correct. You know seven o'clock at night you got kids sports and everything. So it is nice they're online, but try to find them on the on the district website.

Speaker 4: 44:41

It's a little, it could be very difficult, so you know we, we are fortunate that we have, you know, not only amy but a couple other um people who have, like the group facebook pages, have stepped up and share that information to help make it easier.

Speaker 3: 44:53

Yeah, I think another thing that we can do is just be accessible, right, like that's really, really important. Everybody kind of watching here and knows that we have baseball and softball opening day parades coming up. We have students in those parades. Why don't we take part in them? Why don't we just go meet with them? Things like Frankfurt Fest, you know things, organizations and events going on in the summertime here in Mokino why don't we just get a booth and just be accessible so people come up and ask us questions.

Speaker 3: 45:16

It should be obligatory for a board. You would think it's common sense, right? But those are different things that we can do, not to kind of take away from it. But one thing that I plan on doing is, every summer, go walking door to door just to say hello and see if people have questions, right, no-transcript, but they can all go back to your interview with Joe Kral to find out that the levy rate does affect taxpayers and homeowners, not just commercial businesses. But going door to door was a resumption of that January story that I told and people were really able to convey their concerns. I was able to alleviate concerns, answer some questions and just something as simple as taking a month to go door-to-door and you're not going to cover the whole district, but you know, every year you can hit a different area Be accessible. That is just so critical to public service.

Speaker 5: 46:15

Well, the other thing I think us being being really want the community to be back is us being at these events that these schools host. Like you know, just because you know one of our kids go to the Indian Trail doesn't mean we can't, as a board member, go to Rogas or go to Summit Hill and be in an event over there. You know, a board member being at these different events and and doing out throughout a year, you know is is a good thing to show that also the community that hey, we're around, we're listening to you, we're, we're here, we're involved and we're celebrating the success that we have not just showing up at election time.

Speaker 5: 46:51

And you know, oh yes, you know, my life, life is so difficult. All our lives are difficult, we all have kids, but if we make time out of the time to do that, it's a great thing. You know. And the reason? I know that? Because one of the things the Frankfurt mayor, mr O'Keefe, has always done. I've seen him all the time I go walking down Frankfurt and I see him all the time, and that is just a cool thing.

Speaker 3: 47:17

You see the mayor there and it's like it just makes it all right cool the mayor and I talked to him for two minutes and that's it, and to be just so sorry.

Speaker 2: 47:21

Yeah, okay, my good, my bad. Along those lines it's been. There's been a suggestion made and I haven't even mentioned this yet of like once, um, the board members rotating what even school events they go to, and Like having a calendar of events that rotate, and so you're seeing some representation in that manner.

Speaker 6: 47:39

I think my idea is a little more off the wall, but I think even now, with technology speeding forward, we can even look into even having, like a community app that everybody can kind of have and be able to be informed of what's going on.

Speaker 2: 47:51

There was an existing app that's not utilized. There we go.

Speaker 6: 47:55

Something that I'm throwing at the wall and I haven't even vetted it with them but even having office hours of the board Because some people may feel intimidated going to these board meetings and then speaking in front of everybody but if they can have a known time where they can go and be heard as well and voice their opinion or their ideas, I think that's a great step. And then another, another thing we've talked a lot about also school events and us being present at that and the board being present at those. But we also have some really great businesses inside of our community as well. That if we had like, like, like, how 157 has like restaurant week.

Speaker 6: 48:31

Right, if we had that we have some really great businesses as well that our community can feel like they're participating in and being able to be involved and have their kids attend those, and they might not even have students in the schools, but now we're developing a community environment that is welcoming, that is thinking not solely in one direction of only students and only administrative ideas, but we're bringing in our but we're bringing in our businesses and we're bringing in our seniors. You know that's incredibly important to me. My grandmother still lives in this area and she lives in one of the senior livings, and for me there's nothing better than touching base with our older community as well and having our kids realize that these are just untapped. You know resources as well, and I think that those are the kinds of ideas that we want to be kind of stirring up.

Speaker 1: 49:19

I want to hear a little bit about the relationship between the administration and the board.

Speaker 2: 49:25

Is that a?

Speaker 1: 49:25

good relationship. I love this one. Yeah, this is a good one, amy.

Speaker 2: 49:31

I am going to start by widening the definition of admin meaning. Like our administration building Y is all of our administrators. We have some excellent, excellent administrative staff. I mean we have our principals going out in the lot during, you know, pickup and drop off. They care about their kids. We truly, truly, truly see that and we truly value that. As far as I know, one hot button topic I don't know if you guys want to go for it, roll it. Has been recently the approval of the extension of the superintendent's contract.

Speaker 1: 50:11

Okay.

Speaker 2: 50:13

Maybe a little bit on that it's up for renewal.

Speaker 1: 50:16

It was up to 2027.

Speaker 2: 50:20

It was renewed to 2028.

Speaker 5: 50:21

Two years left to go With a brand new board coming in With a retirement in mind.

Speaker 2: 50:27

Yeah, so that was renewed and residents were not happy with the monetary component of it.

Speaker 5: 50:35

Well, I think one of the biggest things they're upset about is that the superintendent has only been here for how many years? Four years, four years. And he's getting paid more than a superintendent that is at District 210, lincoln Way School, district 210, who's been there his whole career.

Speaker 3: 50:54

That becomes hard In the timing, keep in mind context matters here the public that already fills a disconnect with local government, that already went through the Lincoln Way North debacle and then had a school closed vote five days before Christmas, just over two months after it was first brought out there, a couple of months before the talk of a school resource, student resource officer, a safety resource officer, sro, was brought to the table and the board president very specifically said.

Speaker 3: 51:21

Something as serious and important as an SRO officer is too important for this board to decide on. We're going to table it for the next board Makes perfect sense, right? Yes, but then the extension of a superintendent's contract that has two years left to go, which throws a Cadillac of benefits on for an additional year. I mean it's just. That's the general, the public, it's been released to the public. The public sentiment is it's a Cadillac extension.

Speaker 3: 51:46

Right, that was not too important for a new board. That had to happen and one of the most common reasons given by three of the board members that voted to close the schools was it was he met his goals but then he did such an exemplary job with the school closing process by designing, implementing it right and taking lead complete direction from the board. You know they, they shielded them, but his service to the community during that process was, poignantly, a reason why he got that extension with two years already left and people that have a mistrust for local government, that have a mistrust on why their community center was closed without real justification. You know, I live in Arbery. That affected me directly. I met so many community members just walking my kids to and from school directly. I met so many community members just walking my kids to and from school and that was taken away in ways that were never really justified and are kind of proven by actions not to be as legit as they were presented. That's why people are very upset about the contract extension.

Speaker 6: 52:46

I don't want it to be lost From my point of view. In my opinion, he does a fantastic job, for what he's being asked to do. And I think that that's something that I don't want anybody to get lost in the mix. I think he's a sharp guy, I think he tries very hard, I think he's very involved. But back to your question. Any of the direction that has been given is from the board. It's not the superintendent making decisions for our community. It's the existing board that is driving any decisions to be made.

Speaker 2: 53:17

The superintendent has seven bosses. Right, I mean technically, the superintendent has seven. That's not easy. I've had a great working relationship. My number one changed with the process of how the full-day kindergarten went on and I've said that to admin. So admin and the board have a good working relationship, absolutely. But I said the number one change was when the process of how the full day kindergarten was implemented after the first contract extension Just to throw something else in there.

Speaker 6: 53:48

Thank you for that, and something that I've been kind of beating my drum about is the board right now also has people with administrative backgrounds on it, right, and you also got candidates that are running that only have administrative backgrounds on it. So when you get a board that's full of people with that kind of mindset, those decisions are going to be made faster because they're all thinking on the same kind of wavelength. I'm not saying that they all have the same exact thought patterns or values or anything like that, but there is a different set of approaches to any issues, right, and so that's what I'm hoping. What we could bring to the board is that we're going to have different points of views covered. It's not going to be administrative people, it's not going to be teachers. It's people who also have business backgrounds, who have know maybe they weren't always, uh, uh, you know fantastic students or anything like that, but hey, most of our population isn't only on a roll it isn't only those well this is conducted school audits like that's something that none of us can bring to the table you know, yeah, yeah, and I've been

Speaker 2: 54:47

told since the first time I ran um because the prior board had an accountant on it. Like we need another accountant on it. We need another accountant on it. We need another accountant on it. Not to say that that board had an accountant on it. Like we need another accountant on it. We need another accountant on it. We need another accountant on it. Not to say that that board had an excellent financial record at the time. But I've gotten that input, which is why I'm so proud of this, and not only that. If I can just point out, we represent every different area of the district, yep.

Speaker 2: 55:08

Right now there's a current, a lot of Indian Trail representation, but right now we represent every area of the district between all of us, which I think is crucial.

Speaker 5: 55:17

Yeah. So like going back to the superintendent contract extension. I stood up, asked for time. I said let the next board deal with the contract extensions because he's got two years on it already. It has nothing to do with what he's done. What he's done, this, this, it's just give it time for the community. And and then again, just like I anticipated that the vote was going to be done because they put it on the ballot, they put it on the agenda and I knew as soon as they put it on the agenda it was already passed and that that back door stuff that keeps happening needs to stop. Like, so the public needs to know what is going on and then give the public get, allow the public to have time before a vote is done. Yeah, like that has to happen. The backdoor stuff I'm done with.

Speaker 1: 56:01

I can't do this anymore. So one of the other big issues that I saw was important in the district was the change in transportation 43% Switched over from 210 providing bus service to now you have your own or a? Contracted bus service right so um, but not how is. Has that been a good decision? Uh, how?

Speaker 2: 56:23

do you? How did that happen?

Speaker 1: 56:24

and what's the story there? I?

Speaker 2: 56:25

can explain how we got to that decision, and then they can go on if that's, if that's okay yeah, please um no, so 210, obviously I mean they're on double schedule buses to begin with, like A&B routes for East.

Speaker 2: 56:40

We were in communication with them all the time. They said, hey, we're not going to be able to handle your load or the price. If we can't handle your load, the price is going to increase. So we went out to bid properly. The price is going to increase. So we went out to bid properly. When we had the current company come and speak to us. They had a very experienced manager, very, very seasoned, 20, 30 plus person running this. And then there was some issues. The first year Okay, Second year comes in, there's all things kind of happened within their company. That person was no longer there. So the person who came in that we thought we were getting was no longer there. That's issue number one.

Speaker 6: 57:25

We call that the closer.

Speaker 2: 57:29

Then there was a question about the additional routes after the consolidation as well. If that played a role, I think their management was a bigger role in it, um, so we tried to communicate with them on our end. I asked because we also had issues with changed bus stops, so that was another separate issue that I felt the district could deal with more um.

Speaker 2: 57:55

So the reason we got to the vote was it was saving us money and it sounded. I voted for that company because it sounded as though in the details they gave us sounded great. And for the first year, a couple of hiccups. Second year, complete mess.

Speaker 1: 58:10

What kind of hiccups were you seeing?

Speaker 2: 58:11

Well, in the first year the normal lags, but this year I mean we're having bus stops missed, bus stops late, problems with lack of drivers. So they can go on more, but I wanted to explain how we got to that the status currently is. First of all, we held money payment from them and we got some of that money back, so that's a good thing, since the service was nowhere near a hundred percent um the first, the first part of this year, through November, um, and then we are currently going out for bid.

Speaker 1: 58:49

Is that a three year contract? Is that right?

Speaker 2: 58:52

Oh, you know, I don't remember I'd have to look, I'd have to look at it, but you're now looking at potential. Is there any?

Speaker 1: 58:58

thought of going back to 210 service. I don't know if it's even a possibility at this point. Any other comments? Anybody else?

Speaker 3: 59:08

want to talk about this. Yeah, I mean, we don't want to talk all day about this right, but let's play the hits and issues here.

Speaker 5: 59:11

He has a good personal story that really upsets you, and it was after a couple months too. On top of that, sure was To lay the groundwork.

Speaker 3: 59:22

you know, in the November 2023 Building Grounds meeting, it was mentioned that there would be a study done on what this would look like, and the board president legitimately said well, we already bussed this many kids. We can bus more Like it's not a problem, right? Remember that. So then we get into the brand-new format here. Bus stops are being missed. There was a bus of kindergartners for hours left on the bus, unaccounted for Shortages of bus drivers.

Speaker 3: 59:47

That could have been very foreseen, right, Asking the right questions to see what the status is. But when you had to jam everything through in such a short time, these are things that get missed. The first week of school bus driver comes by, asks where my son is. He's like oh, he's on the wrong bus, he must not be on this bus because he's not here. I'm like what do you mean? He's not here. Thankfully, he got off with a fourth grader and was probably about released four blocks away and then, after a little bit of time, comes walking up a hill. And they were fine, right, right, but that's a little bit of terror, right?

Speaker 6: 1:00:20

uh, it's a lot of real it sure is.

Speaker 5: 1:00:23

It's even five minutes. Don't be nice. Don't be nice, it's. That's problem.

Speaker 3: 1:00:26

That's the nice one the not so nice one there go my daughter fifth grade.

Speaker 3: 1:00:32

Her entire bus was taken to mantino. Mantino. They got on i80. They went way past where we lived, across the district, get on the expressway. The bus driver's like, yeah, we're almost there. The kids are like we aren't home, we don't live here. Thankfully, some kids had phones. My daughter had a gizmo. We were able to kind of track where they were. The district was playing full reaction.

Speaker 3: 1:00:58

It was a nightmare. What was the explanation there? New bus driver, substitute bus driver and in the end took them back to Lincoln Way North, which at least was something. But we're talking hours of not knowing where your children are in a day and age where accountability and danger is around every corner. And it was horrifying and it was a lot of parents that dealt with this. And I want to take the moment to give so much praise to the administrators in the school. The principal, ms Carol Hilda Walker, did such an amazing job, taking bullets eight ways from Tuesday, not literally, figuratively, but trying to answer these phone calls, keep parents calm, tell them that they're doing everything that they can and wearing the stress of it right During this entire process. Good to plug here that the administration, like the administrators of each school, have done such a good job Like they got to have backaches from carrying the weight at night.

Speaker 3: 1:01:57

They did such an incredible job. But what a terrifying situation. Right to not have any communication and contact. My daughter's gizmo was dead, so thankfully the neighbor's kid you know. We were able to find out through tracking their phone. That's how we knew they were in Manteno right Craziness. And all of this was seemingly avoidable. Was seemingly avoidable.

Speaker 1: 1:02:16

Are there any other big issues that you all maybe, as candidates, see as important coming up in the school district?

Speaker 2: 1:02:25

Student growth.

Speaker 5: 1:02:27

Yes, Student growth that's a big hot topic.

Speaker 2: 1:02:29

Student growth, academics excellence, Getting our I know at one point- Talk about student growth.

Speaker 1: 1:02:35

What do you mean by that?

Speaker 2: 1:02:36

Yeah, student growth Okay. So we know our staff are fabulous. My daughter has personally had nothing but excellent experiences within this district. We know, we recognize standardized tests are just a snapshot. However, it's what you're judged on. It's what you're judged on. It's what you're judged on.

Speaker 4: 1:02:59

It's what you're evaluated on.

Speaker 2: 1:03:01

It's what our non-student holding taxpayers look at. We want to be competitive, we want people to move here for that and we saw test scores obviously dip post-COVID, but prior historically we had been leading neighboring districts in test scores. Now we are in, you know, 40th ish percentile and stuff, 30 um. You can look at the numbers as well, um, but that is something that we need to help all work together and figure out how to improve those growth on those standardized test scores which our students are judged on.

Speaker 3: 1:03:42

Yeah, and to do so, let's utilize the best resources we have, our educators right. Perform some field level studies. Let's see what's working, what's not working in the classrooms, instead of getting directives from three levels up right. I can tell you from personal experience, the educators that have worked with my children have done such an amazing job. I have seen so much growth, especially in areas where they had challenges. Right. The teachers go out of their way. They're empathetic, they're very professional. They work with them, not around them. It's very important, but let's get their opinions more. If we don't trust them to make good policy decisions or recommendations good policy recommendations because we don't trust them to make good policy decisions or recommendations. Good policy recommendations because we don't think that they're qualified to do that then why are they qualified to teach our children? It's just this is common sense, resource use that you know we can emphasize to grow even better than where we are today.

Speaker 5: 1:04:31

So I mean one of the things that just for the previous years, you know, I want to put it out there that we've developed new curriculums and we have a tracking system of how we and then, after the curriculum gets so old, we get a new curriculum to come in but what we're still seeing is we're still seeing test scores not being high enough. So are the curriculum that we have currently, is it doing enough? You know? So, putting together teams to figure out ways we can resource that additional to the curriculum that we have to help test scores get even higher? Are we tracking our kids correctly? Are we giving our kids the opportunity to get an accelerated more or to be able to move up into that summit program? What can we do with that?

Speaker 5: 1:05:13

So you know, to growth needs to move currently and we need to kind of look at that so we can be more competitive with the surrounding school districts, and we all know this. I mean you probably have talked to the Mokena School District and what is the nearest school that we always look at is 157C. Their test scores seem to be always higher than all the other ones in this area come in. So what are they doing? That is so much more, which is better, or what are they doing to get their test scores so much higher, and what can we do to implement in the current curriculum we have right now? You know? So those are. We need to move that bar, we need to keep moving that needle.

Speaker 2: 1:05:52

Just for reference. So our students take the Illinois assessment readiness that's the statewide test and then they also take map tests for our individual information. So there's two scores that they're evaluated or assessed on, and it's been suggested that we possibly look at a task force when they were in schools to address that, to look at our curriculum and say what are we?

Speaker 2: 1:06:19

how much exposure, like? I know, for example, the students that jump I speak from personal experience with my own child student that jumps accelerated. Her growth was simply just from being exposed to the material at the accelerated level her growth was from, was from that so looking at, are we teaching?

Speaker 4: 1:06:37

is something on the test that we're?

Speaker 2: 1:06:38

not teaching till later in the curriculum or after Not teaching to the test by any mean. But just looking at, is there those little tweaks that we can adjust?

Speaker 6: 1:06:48

And I'm coming from a completely left wing kind of approach to it as well, like I, and kind of like, because I entrust you guys and I entrust our teachers to look at the scores and for me the biggest things are, like our values that we're putting forth for our children, because not every child is going to be on a roll in advanced programs.

Speaker 6: 1:07:08

So we need to also encourage entrepreneurship and free thought. And I'm in the camp of where you know I grew up, where ADD wasn't even really recognized, so it was, you know, kind of brushed away and not really understood, or encouraged those things.

Speaker 6: 1:07:22

Um one entrusting our community to be committed to be participating in it, um being feeling that there can be comfortable enough to bring forward their children and and and also empowering these kids to also be able to uh, not that they don't now can speak directly to their teachers, but Not that they don't now can speak directly to their teachers. But I think we need more input from areas like I've mentioned outside of academia, outside of the administrative side. Most of our kids are not going to be in schools forever. They're going to go out into the wild and either start their own businesses or jump into different industries, and they need to know that that's also available to them. They can take those paths.

Speaker 1: 1:08:08

Yeah, it's interesting you say that because I feel like you know my son's in sixth grade and you have less and less of that kind of the community coming in or people coming in and talking to them and yeah, and that idea of you know we live in extremely blue collar area. Yeah, and you know, promote entrepreneurship or ideas like that.

Speaker 6: 1:08:37

I think kids need to have those ideas, Like we need to, kind of, if we can empower the community, we can, I think, then ask of the community to participate more and so people who may not have kids in the district we can have kind of a career day and these kids can also see that there are paths forward, no matter what your interests are. Yeah, that's a great idea and you can, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 1:08:55

I think at the junior high especially, they need to get. They do career day at Walker and they do career day at the junior high and we need to get. But, like you said, it's so crucial that we can get those real life examples in there and get those parents to volunteer and do that. Like with my own job, we have specific our kids sign up for the plumbing, electrician, pipe fitters all those come to our school and talk to them.

Speaker 3: 1:09:20

I love that stuff, I love the trade, so that makes me happy.

Speaker 2: 1:09:22

It's an excellent, excellent opportunity.

Speaker 5: 1:09:25

Well, keep building on our STEM program too, as well.

Speaker 5: 1:09:28

You know one of the things that was started already in the district which I think every one of us kind of liked, that some of the direction went was the STEM program and now they have labs. Some of the direction went was the STEM program and now they have labs. They're developing labs in Hill to Walker as well as Summit Hill and you know, continue to build on that as well will help. You know, the goal is for kids to graduate and be like Adrian and come back to our community and start a family.

Speaker 5: 1:09:53

You know that is the goal, Better than Adrian.

Speaker 3: 1:09:58

But there was a program that Adrian brought up when we were talking that it actually is employed in the school that she teaches at professionally my nephew was in it in that district but like a dual language program where they start in kindergarten, there's a group of students that sign up and they're eligible for it and everything is taught in Spanish and English, even if they don't understand Spanish.

Speaker 3: 1:10:19

And the growth rate and the reason why I even know this is because I'm involved with my family right, the growth rate is a little. It dips below the median in the first year or two, around year three it levels out and then, from year four on, it explodes in terms of success, academic success for the students who are in that program. Right, and that's something Adrian brought up and I was a little upset that I had not thought of it because I had family experience with it.

Speaker 1: 1:10:44

No 159 actually had a dual language that my son was part of and they discontinued. I think it was his fourth grade year, ironically enough, you say that, but it was very upsetting for a lot of the parents that were in it. Very upsetting for a lot of parents that were in it. And yeah, the idea of having these extras or these additional items that you know we're introducing in schools that just enrich them a little more in these enrichment programs, so bringing back.

Speaker 5: 1:11:10

Some of the things we've talked about was you know what would be a better outlook of it? Well, it's taking the money that our taxpayer is giving and then strategically having common sense and putting it back to the kids and put it back into our schools that are good things, you know. Like we don't need a solar farm put in on the ground. What we need to do is take the money that we have and invest it into programs that our kids can grow in.

Speaker 2: 1:11:36

Or clubs that our teachers can use, or resources that our kids can grow in you know, and that is that's correct, or resources that are teachers that need. You know that the teachers can sponsor, and yeah and to encapsulate this, this concept, right?

Speaker 3: 1:11:47

this is something that I bring to the table with my professional experiences I'm a united states green building council lead, green associate right and the bottom, the. The core concept of that and it's a professional thing in my industry, but it applies everywhere is that there's a triple bottom line. You have what's good for financially, what's good for the community within that building and then what's good for the neighborhood, right, like in terms of health, economic growth, all overall betterment, all overall betterment. And this process has survived multiple different types of governmental entities and it continues to be successful because the core value is in making the entire community better while being financially and fiscally responsible. So it's in everybody's interest to pursue this, and that's something that we can bring on day one which encapsulates all of these different ideas that we brought up. All of them Well, I want to yeah, go ahead, ronnie.

Speaker 1: 1:12:38

I had to. Well, I want to. Yeah, go ahead, ronnie.

Speaker 3: 1:12:39

I have to yeah, I'm actually going to wrap it.

Speaker 1: 1:12:41

So what I want to do is we'll give you guys each an opportunity to just quickly say why you're the best candidate, why people should vote for you, and Ronnie, we can start with you.

Speaker 5: 1:12:55

We'll start with Adrian and work our way back down I don't know if I'm the best candidate.

Speaker 6: 1:13:00

I couldn't say that. I think, you are Thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:13:03

I kind of like you still.

Speaker 6: 1:13:04

I just think that we need a diverse group that could cover more bases and also be welcoming to the voices that do kind of fall in between the cracks. That do kind of fall in between the cracks. I think that I'm a good candidate because I feel that I would be the most welcoming and I feel like I have a calming kind of approach to problems. I like to be inclusive of people and making sure that everybody's heard. Like Amy said, you can't make everybody happy, but at the very least we can help people understand that they are part of the process, something we touched on. This election is extremely important. Yeah, everybody voted in November, but this is your local government. Your voice is even louder. You're a smaller pool, so I think engagement is huge.

Speaker 6: 1:13:53

I think I just offer a different perspective. I think I offer a challenging perspective. Just offer a different perspective. I think I offer a challenging perspective, somebody who's going to be a voice for the harebrained ideas. And also I'm very much community-driven. Being that I've grown up here and also that I'm planning on raising my children here, I understand the value of community and encouraging great character, and I think we could all use a little bit of that. And I also, I consider, because I'm outside of the bubble of academia, I also take a look at technology and how fast we're moving and how we're communicating. Now you know, we talked about messaging via Facebook and things like that, but we're developing way past that and I think that we just need people from outside of the bubble to offer that kind of perspective but also be respectful with other people who have different views and different approaches to problems.

Speaker 5: 1:14:46

That's what I feel that I would bring to the table. I think I'm a good candidate because I've been in the community for about 17 years. I've stood up and listened to community members in board meetings. I stood up and asked for more time. So one of the biggest things that I'm about is community. I have a three-pillar system based on what I've run and that's who I am Community is number one, academics is number two and excellence is number three. And the reason I put excellence down is to hold everybody accountable. We have to start becoming a board that holds our administration accountable as well as holding our students accountable as well, holding our community members accountable. And as we hold each other accountable even each other on the board, holding each other accountable, we grow as a community. You know, our community is is phenomenal. This is the reason why I've been here.

Speaker 5: 1:15:33

I mean moved to two different houses. I didn't want to leave the community because I love the community. I coach in the community. I've coached in this community for over 22 years in all different sports. You know, I believe in giving back. You know, and I think that's how you grow. You grow because our, our, our community is about the schools. We grow it there.

Speaker 5: 1:15:51

You know this is our town hall, is a, is a, is a board, you know, and so therefore, you have to listen to community, and if the community's crying, then we need to listen to that and we need to bridge a gap and we can build it together, you know, and we want our kids to be. Everybody in the community wants their kids to be more successful, and that's it. I know we all want that here too. You know everybody in the community wants us to be able to spend the money wisely, and I know everybody on this board wants that as well. You know, and so is for me as a candidate. I will be there. I am here to listen. I'm here to do exactly what I tend to do is is who I am. I am person, you know. If anybody talks to me, they know is who I am is right on my sleeve, so, and that's exactly what I'm going to be for for our community um, I just, I really just love our community.

Speaker 4: 1:16:41

I love our schools. We have great staff, great teachers I mean teachers, front office, the whole staff. I mean I have nothing but great things to say and I want our board to match that and I would like all those members to feel about their school board the way I feel about all of them. Yes, I would hope that my background in finance can bring something to the table and just my involvement in the community yeah, I think I've got an established track record of fighting for the community.

Speaker 3: 1:17:16

I haven't been volunteering in the community as long as Melissa has, but over the last year I have been trying to be a voice for the people, a voice of reason. We talked about the petition drive in January and then we touched on the advisory referendum. But you know, it's important to notice that we can say definitively now that just under 87% of the public disagreed with the school closing process. Yes, Because of the work that we put in going door to door in the summer, getting the advisory referendum, which is still legal, you know, opinion poll on the November ballot, so that we can get a real temperature of what the community feels, and we fought for that. We have shown that we can represent the voice of the people. But this isn't just a burn it down. You know this is a rebuild, Right, and I don't mean that we're burning anything down, but it's important because there's a perception of that that we're just.

Speaker 3: 1:18:01

You know, angry, angry, pitchforks, but in my line of business I oversee 150 union members, team members. I very much so bring an air of accountability while also being very positive, right, Like I it's what I do professionally is I create an atmosphere of upward mobility. Uh, support, you must challenge, but support right Like we can incorporate these things. I've created multimillion dollar operational and capital budgets. I have brought sustainability to buildings. I understand the mechanical and financial aspects of success and it's just one avenue that I can help contribute to make my community even better, which is so critical, because I do absolutely love this community. I have no plans of leaving and it's been so good to me that I think especially people, not whatever, but our age. We have been the beneficiaries our whole lives of people in local institutions holding it up and giving us the opportunities that we have to grow and to develop, and now it's our turn to give back and I really believe and I'm passionate about that.

Speaker 2: 1:19:07

I think a strength of our community is the fierceness with which we fight for our kids and for each other. We are absolutely there for each other and our kids and I want to continue to fight for that and represent that with respect and professionalism. Yep, I have a proven record of listening to the people, fiscal responsibility and working relationships with people that don't always see eye to eye. I would love to continue that work and help our students grow.

Speaker 1: 1:19:43

This is awesome. Thank you very much for taking time, you guys have the best shirts I've seen this election so far and I wanted to say it. I told Patrick when we talked. I want to extend the same opportunity for any of the other candidates for 161. As I said, I didn't seek you guys out. Thank you very much for seeking me out and this opportunity out, so I want to make sure I offered for any other candidates.

Speaker 3: 1:20:07

We have Mokina residents in our district, tara Hills man. They're great. One of my community members, his daughter, came up from this area and now she's got a full scholarship to play softball at Loyola.

Speaker 1: 1:20:25

That is this area. And now she's got a full scholarship to play softball at loyola. So that is the hickory family. We'll show the map so everybody knows, understands where the district is, because it it zigzags in a little bit into moquina here. But uh, again, thank you very much for taking time to talk to me. There's 10 total candidates running for this race. Uh, two for the two year and eight for the four year. So make sure you pay attention, listen. I really again appreciate getting their message out, having an opportunity for you all to meet them and be sure to vote. Early voting starts March 17th and Election Day is April 1st. Thank you.