This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

D202 School Board Candidates Field Audience Inquiries

Five candidates debated for two-hours, seeking three open spots on the District 202 School Board.

There was no mudslinging, few fireworks and not too many disagreements at Tuesday night’s District 202 School Board Candidate Forum, held in Evanston Township High School’s Upstairs Theatre.

During the two-hour forum, hosted by the ETHS Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA), candidates were provided a two-minute window to introduce themselves and then fielded a series of 16 audience-generated questions, presented by moderator Patricia Alfredson, a former PTSA president.

Competing for the three open school board seats are incumbents Jane Colleton and Mark Metz, and newcomers Jonathan Baum, Cherie Hansen and R. Scott Rochelle.

Find out what's happening in Evanstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Some questions were softballs that had candidates readily agreeing with each other, their answers differing chiefly in semantics and eloquence.

All candidates were willing to consider implementing some form of merit pay, pending discussions with the teacher’s union. Everyone agreed that ETHS should be focused on excelling as both a college preparatory school and a “career-education” institution. No one contested that the school needed to find a way to increase the number of minority students in honors and advanced placement classes.

Find out what's happening in Evanstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As expected, the discussion veered towards the recent restructuring and de-tracking of the ETHS’s freshman humanities courses.

Rochelle, an attorney with Querrey & Harrow in Chicago, said he “agreed with the spirit” of the restructuring, and wanted to push the necessary resources behind the program to ensure its success.

“This program needs to work,” Rochelle said. “This is a groundbreaking program. If this program works, it’s going to be studied nationwide for years to come, but we have to make it work. We have to put the resources behind it. We have to put the support behind the teachers. I think the teachers are the X-factor.”

Colleton, a 20-year member of the school board, voiced her support, saying that she hoped the new system would create better integrated classrooms.

“It is a big problem to be the only [minority student in a classroom],” Colleton said. “I have talked to so many adults who have said it was almost traumatic for them to be such a minority in an honors class. Feeling as though they didn’t belong. And we have to address that seriously and upfront, because it makes a difference in how they perform.”

To the agreement of other candidates, Metz called for rigorous program evaluations.

“The thing that’s really important in this is that we evaluate the program very carefully,” Metz said. “A couple of weeks ago at a board meeting I asked for a proposal on how they’re going to monitor this and report it to us.”

Much of the dialogue also surrounded how to heal riffs in the community that were created by the divisive, restructuring-related debate.

Hansen, a stay-at-home mom and community activist, called for greater school board transparency.

“We need to give out more information to our constituents,” Hansen said, “but, open it up more to … town-hall [style] meetings, where we can sit, we can listen, we can discuss. I think that’s the thing that a lot of people felt like really didn’t happen.”

Baum said he agreed that changing the way the board communicated with the public would be beneficial.

“As a process issues, I think the board should repeal the policy it has that says that community members have to communicate with the board through the superintendent,” Baum said. “I think that would go a long way towards improving communications.”

Other questions asked candidates to define what the term “rigorous curriculum” meant to them, whether it would be wise to combine Districts 65 and 202 and to describe their thoughts on the annual extension of the superintendent’s contract.

Audience-generated questions that were not read at the forum will be posted on the online forum of the PTA Council’s website, where the candidates will have an opportunity to respond.

Below is a list of important and notable election-related dates.

  • February 24:  Magnet School District 65 School Board Candidate Forum held at Bessie Rhodes Magnet School from 7 to 8 p.m.
  • March 8: Last day to register to vote
  • March 8: District 202 School Board Candidate Forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, held at ETHS, room N112 at 7:30 p.m.
  • March 9: First day of grace period registration and voting
  • March 14: First day of early voting
  • March 19: District 202 School Board Candidate Forum, sponsored by the NAACP, held at the Evanston Civic Center at 7:30 p.m.
  • March 29: Last day of grace period registration and voting
  • March 31: Last day to request a mail-in absentee ballot, including military and overseas
  • March 31: Early voting ends at 5 p.m.
  • April 4: Last day voted mail-in absentee ballots can be postmarked for acceptance by the Clerk’s office
  • April 5: Election day
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?