I want to hear what you think about WA129! See a summary of all survey responses on the home page.
For the 2024 school year, SD129 will spend less than $80,000 on food service. Greater than 90% of
the
actual costs of providing food service are covered by the federal National School Lunch
and
School Breakfast programs. To put it into perspective, the district spent about that much at
Home
Depot last year.
Such heavy reliance on federal funding to feed our students is a problem by itself, but even
worse,
the district does little more than meet the minimum nutritional requirements of those national
programs.
The USDA's 2024 National School Lunch Program report
states that over 70% of
school-aged
children exceed the recommended sugar intake, and that 69% of school lunches, as well as 92% of
school breakfasts, contribute directly to that issue. West Aurora SD129 still serves food items
specifically called out as contributing to that issue.
The truth is, the district should do more to feed its students more nutritional breakfasts and
lunches.
In 2024, the district signed a new food service contract. While selecting the contract winner,
the
school board's evaluation criteria considered the "health and well-being of students" as only
10% of
their criterion weight; cost was considered to be 3.5x more important.
I'm all for fiscal responsibility, but if you elect me, then I'll fight for ways to spend
where it matters most, like on nutrition. In a community where food insecurity and childhood
obesity
are real challenges for many families, ensuring every child has access to proper nutrition is
essential for building a
foundation for healthier, more successful futures.
Many of the schools in our district are surrounded by neighborhoods with low walkability.
Low walkability means that it's less possible and less safe for students to walk to school,
especially in the winter. Our communities deserve sidewalks and safe road intersections.
While the school district continuously improves its own infrastructure and employs crossing
guards at many schools, many of the infrastructural problems
lie in the hands of city, township, and county governments.
If I am elected, I will work to understand the concerns that community members have with the
infrastructure surrounding schools in their area.
I will connect those community members with the responsible local government officials, and work
with those officials myself, to ensure that our students
can reach school safely every day of the year.
I deeply value the work and dedication of the AEA-W educators' union, the Custodial and
Maintenance Staff union, the Aurora Transportation union, the Office Professionals union, and
the Paraprofessionals union. These groups play an essential role in making our schools a safe
and effective environment for learning and growth.
If elected, I will strongly advocate for maintaining productive and ongoing relationships with
these unions. I will work to ensure that the district represents the community's needs during
contract negotiations while fostering mutual trust and respect.
I believe the district must hire administrators, faculty, and staff who continue to prioritize professional
development opportunities and place trust in the hands of our teachers. Our educators are
professionals, and they deserve to feel supported and empowered to do their jobs effectively. The board does
a good job at this today and I hope to continue that trend.
I am not in favor of overreaching actions such as introducing cameras into classrooms or
implementing restrictive curriculum policies. Instead, I believe in building a collaborative
environment where educators feel trusted and valued, enabling them to focus on what matters
most: providing our students with a high-quality education. However, there are reasonable limits to
the content that should be introduced to our students of varying ages and I feel strongly that the community's wishes
must be represented when considering those limits.
I also believe in supporting our staff by targeting student behavior. For example, the district has recently considered
but delayed implementing a district-wide phone policy while undergoing important studies and policy assessments. I am absolutely in favor of
district-wide policy that bars students from using cellphones in school at all but very specific times.
Social media is doing far more harm than good for our students of all grade levels.
A 1909 postcard depicting West Aurora High School stated that "the high character of the public schools of Aurora, and the degree of perfection to which the
high school courses have been brought, have given the city a state reputation in educational circles." We still have the opportunity to achieve that
same level of excellence today, 116 years later.
We must set our students up for success by improving academic proficiency at the elementary grade levels. Our K-5 grade levels are still struggling to
meet reading and math proficiency measures that best prepare them for middle and high school, as well as life
after high school. In those areas, our district's elementary schools lag behind the state average according to the Illinois State Board of Education's
Illinois Report Card, and the state average lags behind the national average according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress's Nation's Report
Card. I believe that the district needs to continue to employ skilled teachers and skilled curriculum coordinators in order to fill those proficiency gaps.
We must continue to invest in career and college readiness programs that extend beyond the classroom and drive our students towards success in the workforce or continued
education directly after graduation. Too many of our students take remedial classes at community colleges after graduation, which places an unreasonable burden on taxpayers and
limits the potential success of those students. Too many of our students leave the Aurora-area after graduation, which will slowly kill our local economy if unmitigated.
Just as we all do at home, the district must find ways to budget effectively.
I support initiatives to reduce the district's reliance on federal funding and to purchase goods and services
from local businesses. The school board has little influence over federal taxes and funding,
but it would be a guiding principle of mine if I am elected.
The district must avoid passing budgets that require massive tax levies. Of the 38 Unit school districts (elementary through high school)
in the six-county area, West Aurora SD129 has a total tax rate just below the average. I'd like to keep it that way.
When I speak to respected elders in the community, I hear the same thing a lot: "we need more young people to get involved".
I have much more to learn, but I look forward to using my voice to influence the district in the
right direction.
The average age of a WA SD129 parent is well below the average age of the current West Aurora School Board and the other Candidates
in this race (50 and 45 years respectively).
With age comes experience, there's no doubt in that, but we also need elected officials that can easily relate to the lives of
the average parent and recent graduates.
I have found that I love life the most when I'm involved in the Aurora-area community learning
from and helping people of many ages and many backgrounds.
I know that many young people in the area feel the same way, so I hope that I can inspire and
work with them to stand up and run for something too.
If I am elected, I will work with the board and the district to find cost-effective means to
make board happenings more
available to the public.
The board and district do a good job today at publishing regular meeting agendas online, making
regular meetings available
virtually, publishing regular meeting recordings and minutes online, and creating short recap
videos of regular meetings. I think that
the board and district can do even better.
The public deserves to have better means of holding elected board members accountable. The board
should publish an up-to-date summary of
board member attendance and a summary of votes. Today, a member of the public would need to
browse each and every
meeting minutes document and tabulate the results themselves. If that data was available today,
it would highlight some issues with the attendance rate of
certain board members and would highlight the voting complacency over recent years.
Furthermore, the public deserves to be able to make use of emerging technologies to help them
stay informed on district matters.
The board and the district should implement a solution that improves the user-experience of
board meeting recordings such that specific topics of
the meetings are segmented and browseable, much like that technology on the popular YouTube
video sharing platform. The
board and the district should also implement a solution that uses generative AI to create
searchable and summarizable transcripts of board meetings so that
members of the public can more easily catch-up on board meetings.
West Aurora School District 129 is home to students who speak more than 40 different languages
and come from a wide array of cultural backgrounds. This diversity is a tremendous strength for
our community and our schools. Aurora, Batavia, North Aurora, Montgomery, and Sugar Grove each have a long history
built by hard working people from diverse backgrounds. We are one of the most diverse school districts in the quad-county area: we have a
notably high rate of academic and gifted students, a diversity of economic backgrounds, and a diversity of career/college outcomes.
I strongly support the district's Multilingual Learner (ML) programs, which provide
critical resources to help students succeed academically and socially. Additionally, I believe
the district should continue supporting opportunities for the reasonable inclusion of cultural
learning in the classroom and in afterschool activities. Programs and events that celebrate
cultural diversity help foster understanding, inclusion, and respect among students, staff, and
families. The district must continue to advance its multilingual learner programs. The district has struggled to implement
an ML program that keeps up with the quality of other academic programs, but the district is making progress.
I believe that the district must continue to invest in its ML programs and set high goals for the coming years.
Every family, regardless of their background, deserves to know that their culture is understood
and valued in our schools. If I am elected, I will advocate for initiatives that ensure all
students and families are included and supported regardless of their background, recognizing the contributions they
bring to our community. Nobody's background is above any other's.