Forum Follow-up: What DeKalb School District 428 school board candidates had to say

Click on the question to see each candidate's answer.

What two goals would you most want to accomplish as a DeKalb 428 school board member?

With potential cuts in federal funding, how will you prioritize spending available funds?

What steps will you take to evaluate our current capacity and to expand access to high quality early childhood education? 

What would you do if a book in a school library is challenged?

Do candidates have any final thoughts?

Note: Q&As have been edited for length and clarity.

What two goals would you most want to accomplish as a school board member?

Nicholas Atwood: We need more aids in our classrooms. We have 28 students per classroom. It's going to go down to about 26 with Mitchell [Elementary]. There are 17 aid positions open right now, and the average salary for those is about $20,000 a year. You can't live on that in this community. So, we're going to have to recruit new aids and we're going to have to pay them more money. I believe we can pay them more money if the board cooperates with other taxing bodies to allow us to grow the property tax base: residential development, additional commercial development. We need to have these extra hands so our teachers can be successful in bridging our achievement gap between our low income students and our high income students. It's going to take extra hands to give those teachers the room to help the kids with behavioral issues, to help the kids who are falling behind. We need reading specialists. We need math specialists. I want to focus them on the elementary schools first, because I believe we can get the largest return on investment there. It's going to take several years to accomplish this, but I think we can do it without coming back to the well and raising everyone's taxes.

Kristin Bailey: The top two priorities are working towards alleviating school violence and ensuring that teachers have the suitable support resources, whether that be professional development, but also technologies to enable them to manage administrative duties, so that they can focus of teaching more efficiently, so that they can focus on the classroom, and also so that they have sufficient support for student well being. In full disclosure, we have an eight year old daughter, we pay for her to go to St. Mary's School. We are not Catholic, we are not wealthy, but we do that because of the problems with violence in our local elementary school. I should say too that we moved here to DeKalb because we love DeKalb. We like the diversity. We wanted to raise our kids in a diverse area, and I believe in public schools.

Brandon Elion: Childcare is one of the largest things for me. We have so many daycares in DeKalb, in the community, but they also have waiting lists that are months long. So, one of my goals is to work towards a full day early learning development center program within the district so parents can have the opportunity to integrate their children in the system before kindergarten. My second one would be just community engagement. I feel like we need more support from the community. We need the community to come to the school board meetings, come to the community conversations, use the open forums to go ahead and let their voices be heard.

Erin Grych: I think that if we do bring back our parents into the classroom and into our child's education, some of the behavioral issues that we have in our school district will be supported. Our state is low on math and reading, but we in DeKalb are not even 20% in reading and math proficiency. If we bring our families in, if we choose curriculum that aligns with maybe what we grew up with, we can help with math at home instead of learning five different ways to do multiplication. What I saw when I volunteered in a classroom, was confusion. So children who get their math problem marked wrong, though it is correct, but they didn't do it the right way. Second, I want to stop the radical sexualization of our children by reversing the 2022 Board of Education vote on comprehensive sexual education and to have parent opt in forms.

Jose Jaques: One is fiscal responsibility and transparency. It's been my experience with the members of the board, no offense to the members now and the administration, it seems like they see an endless pot of money with the citizens of the DeKalb School District, and they spend it without necessarily letting us know what they're spending it on. A lot of things going down in closed session meetings, very small, short definitions of what they're spending the money on. So, I'd like to open that up make sure everyone knows what we're spending our money on. The other is safety and security. We can establish that by a couple of different things, one of which is smaller class sizes. I substitute teach in a district where the largest class is like 22 it's so much easier to manage than 29 to 32. Smaller class sizes will increase the safety and security of the building and a lot of the culture that comes along with it. It will not only increase their education, but their safety,because when you're not safe, when you don't feel safe, you're not learning.

Howard Solomon: The first problem that I'd like to address is student behavior issues. I also think that as you have teachers there with more experience, they're better able to handle problems. To retain teachers, we've got to do something that's different than what we've been doing. I think what we ought to do is for teachers in their first two years is double their salary increase percentage which, if you stop and think about it, is actually going to cost us less money, because they have an incentive to stick around, because their salary is now that of a third year teacher.

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With potential cuts in federal funding, how will you prioritize spending available funds?

Nicholas Atwood: The federal government may or may not be able to be relied upon for funding, and it may come on a whim. What I don't think we should allow ourselves to be held hostage from a curriculum perspective, though. I think there may be a situation where we have to be prepared to go it alone, and that's why we need to grow our own property tax base. The state has a $3 billion budget deficit this year. We may not be able to rely on them either, but it is important that we accept all of our kids for who they are, and that we give them access to an equal education that actually teaches them how to think critically and function in this world. I don't want to give our kids propaganda if it means we get federal government funding. Additionally, if we're going to have to prioritize certain things in our budget, we're going to have to prioritize our classroom spending. That's why they're there. They're there to learn. They're there to become enriched. They're to participate in our many wonderful extracurricular activities. We have great schools. We want to preserve what we have. We just have to make sure we're allocating our funding where it can do the most good.

Kristin Bailey: We have a huge budget for the school district. So, in terms of the amount of that that's federal, I think we will be just fine with what we've got. I would say is to audit the existing resources that we have and look at where we are spending various things. But I think what sets my perspective apart is that I would really look at strategically partnering with community organizations and agencies. As a teacher, I can tell you, you can give me all the money you want. I have taught in various different kinds of classrooms, and have had similar results in a well equipped tech classroom and also a classroom with a blackboard and nothing else. So, I think that when we talk about putting money into the classrooms, we need to be specific about what it is that we mean. I would consider looking at technologies and such for the teachers to allow them to be thinking more about their pedagogies and their methods for teaching. I think that that is something that could probably use a lot of support and professional development and looking at ways to crowdsource labor through community engagement.

Brandon Elion: I think we need to first look at our budget holistically and then re-assess and re-examine some of our underperforming programs, not just at the high school level, but elementary and middle school as well. I believe we probably have some duplicate programs out there, some that can be consolidated. If this budget gets cut, then, we're going to be stressed out. Let's put ourselves in a position where we can be proactive now versus reactive later.

Erin Grych: I don't know all the ins and outs of what we currently have, but I do know that we have received some major grants of five and a half million dollar grants that we received for four years in a row. We have money. As far as federal funding, if the Department of Education does shut down, they had talked about Title One funding still being there. We do rely on that. I mean, that's $18 million I believe, this year. I also know that we follow what the state mandates are. We don't remove books from our libraries, because if we do, we lose our funding. I also think we need to spend our money in the classrooms. Hiring another superintendent or sidekick superintendent is not where I would like to spend our money.

Jose Jaques: Also don't support hiring of an assistant superintendent. The primary place where money has to go is in the classrooms: the teachers, supplies, paraprofessionals. They are not paid enough. I've seen their job, I've done their job, and they are not paid enough. We need specialized teachers, but not ones they haven't explained to us why we need them, what the impact is. Yes, I would like every student to have a teacher, but I'd also like to have every student have a good education.

Howard Solomon: The funding has to go to the classrooms. So, one of the places that we should be looking is administrative costs are kind of plentiful, and we may be having to look at cuts in that area within administration, because that ain't the classroom.

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What steps will you take to evaluate our current capacity and to expand access to high quality early childhood education?

Nicholas Atwood: I'll talk to the people who are on the ground. I'll hear what their perspectives are. I'll talk to the parents. I've already been engaging them, knocking on doors and hearing different things. You've got to figure out what works and what doesn't. As far as evaluating it, we have a lot of kids who don't have access to parents to help them with this stuff at home. Their parents are working. They're sometimes working two or three jobs just to get by. We do need a safety net there and preschool is a terrific opportunity for that, and it's going to help get them ready for the rigors of kindergarten. So I definitely want to keep that as a priority. I want to make sure that we're talking to our teachers. Same thing I will do with the elementary schools. I'll visit every school in this district, if elected, talk to the teachers, the administrators, what's working for you, what's not working for you, what suggestions do you have? That's the only way we can really make informed decisions from a macro level on the school board. And so that would be my first thing. As far as the priority, I'm going to listen to their recommendations. They're the experts.

Kristin Bailey: I would begin by looking more closely at what it is that our priorities are with the early childhood education, and in terms of analyzing the programs, seeing what capacity that we've got. What is it that we are trying to do, and how are we doing that? Going out, talking to parents. What is capacity? Are we talking about how many students are served? Are we talking about how they're being served? Speaking as a parent and educator, one of the biggest functions I see of early childhood education is that it provides a safe space for kids. It provides stability, which I think so many of our children need. It's a way of essentially building a village. It's not about the education so much, I don't think. So, when I think about capacity, that's what I'm thinking about: how many kids can we provide a safe space for that provides some consistency, stability and some enrichment and encouraging and really investing in their personal development.

Brandon Elion: I think we need to first analyze the data not just about early childhood but also the kids in our district. How many of those are coming from the half days ELDC programs we have and from the other daycares? Get out and do community engagement. Talk to these parents. I personally don't feel that two and a half or three hours for a half day preschool would be enough to start the process of integrating them into our district. I grew up as a private school kid. In that private school, what I learned was routine. We get up in the mornings, we go to work, we drop our kids off at daycare or preschool. We come home after that day, and we ask our kids about their day, they tell us what they learned that day. I feel like that is what we need in this district.

Erin Grych: I am a preschool teacher. I think offering a variety of preschools, whether it is in the public school or private area, I think that's still okay. I do agree our children do need to learn some basic skills, learn how to share and make friends. I understand Brandon wants all day and that might be a consideration, but at the same time, when you do half day, you can access and serve more children. I did meet a constituent who said that they are concerned with how low staff they are with health aides in that area. I think I would want to look into that. I do believe that the middle school is feeling crunched, as well as the early childhood learning center. I would need to look at the numbers.

Jose Jaques: Early Childhood Education used to be just your neighborhood daycare. That's what I grew up on. It's now an industry in itself. It's a very important industry. It gets our children started in the right direction. We have a good program here. Could it be better? Yes, but we also have to consider that the money that we have only goes so far. Yes, the district is is pretty well off, but we can't rely on that being there all the time. Our decisions of what we're going to do with early childhood education have to be fiscally responsible and have the biggest bang for our buck. Rather than spreading it out as thin as possible to reach as many students as possible, we should work on some of our community connections to get our parents to understand how important that education is.

Howard Solomon: Frankly, I don't know much about early childhood education. I know I went through it, but for crying out loud, I'm 76 years old, and what I went through is not what people are going through now. So, I'm going to just have to defer to what I'm going to ultimately learn as a board member to about early childhood education to see what what my board decisions will be.

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What would you do if a book in a school library is challenged?

Nicholas Atwood: I'm not in favor of censorship. If there was a book that perhaps contained obscenity, we should be able to hear what parents have to say. We should have a review process. The Chicago Public Schools have a significant review for an entire due process for complaints to be filed, books to be reviewed by librarians and teachers and make determinations. But I think it's also important that, especially in the context of a library versus a required curriculum setting, if a parent has a problem with a book that's in the library, simply tell your child not to check that book out. We need to have open flow of ideas. This is a school. We have all perspectives represented in the ability for these kids to learn and explore the world around them. So, if an individual has a problem with the book, don't check out the book. If there's a question of obscenity, there are guidelines from the U.S. Supreme Court as far as making that kind of a determination. And if it is found to be obscenity, it should be removed. But that's a high standard to me.

Kristin Bailey: I would want to understand the concerns, but also the context. Whatever this offensive material is, how is it being critically engaged? Education is all about being exposed to new ideas, exposed to new ways of being, different ways of being things we don't agree with, things that bother us and make us uncomfortable. That is what education is. I don't know what the school district has in place for a process for evaluating things like that. If there is not something that has been robustly developed, I would work towards that. I would also look at how many people are being impacted by this. Me asking all of these questions would be to understand and have a way to address this issue, but I am vehemently opposed to banning books.

Brandon Elion: I don't think we should go down the route of banning books. If there's a book that is found offensive, I believe that conversation needs to be between those parents and that child. That's also where the education starts. But for us to ban a book that one person may find offensive, you may have a group of other people that don't find it offensive, but I do think we need to engage in those conversations. So I don't agree with banning books.

Erin Grych: I would like for our libraries to do their best to not have sexually explicit material, especially in our elementary classrooms or available there. They are innocent. Putting them out to display is not helpful, especially if they have beautiful color illustrations that draw them in. As far as challenging, I definitely want to hear what this community has to say, and I would like to uphold what they say and listen to their suggestions of how we handle it. I will say that one of my students picked up a book from here in this public library with a sticker on it, the sticker had another sticker on top of it. I looked at it and said, I don't know about that one. My son's like, 'it's got lots of action. It looks good, mom.' He started reading it and there was very indecent, sexual actions going on visually. I was not pleased the sticker that had been covered up was 'mature content.'

Jose Jaques: I'd listen to their challenge to see why they have the problem with the book, taking into consideration that the Secretary of State of Illinois has said that if an educational system bans books, that they could risk losing all their funding. Talk to the experts. I think more importantly than what I do is what I would do with the information I gathered from everybody else. But I think that the most crucial part about this is, I'm harping on fiscal responsibility, losing the funding for the entire district's library budget because a few parents have a problem with a book that could not necessarily be banned, but more education to the student about when they should be reading that, at what proper time, or under what circumstances might be a little more appropriate.

Howard Solomon: I oppose banning books period. I understand there may be some parents who are a little bit worried about exposing their children to certain things that the parents don't want to expose their children to, and should a parent raise a point of contention about a book, it should stay in the library but be quarantined to where the only people that are subject to the quarantine are the children of those parents who raise The concern.

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Closing thoughts from each candidate

Nicholas Atwood: We have great schools. We have great teachers. They just need a little bit of help. We need to allocate our resources in a way that will most effectively serve our students and improve our educational outcomes. I will work with whoever is on the board to achieve these goals. I think too often now, we have people on both sides of the political spectrum screaming at each other and we're all trapped in the middle and there's just nothing but dysfunction. I will work with people, but I will also listen to you. I want to hear what you have to say, because I can't make informed choices if we don't have communication. I will not stand up there or sit there during public comment and watch you all talk stone faced. I will engage you. You can ask me questions. I will give you direct answers. I will tell you exactly why I make the decisions I make, and I will be accountable for those decisions. That's how a school board must function in a local community.

Kristin Bailey: One thing we all have in common is a desire for more dialog, more communication, and wrestling with difficult questions. Should you choose to elect me for school board, my top two priorities will be as follows: to build a coalition with community organizations and agencies to address the root causes of school violence and to ensure that teachers have the support training and resources they need to manage the administrative workload of teaching and to create enriching learning environments for students. Minimizing stress in the classroom, I think is vital. Ultimately, I see the duty of the school board as serving as an advisory board for the superintendent. That is what I will bring. I ask questions in particular ways. My training has taught me that: as a parent, as a researcher, as an educator. I come at it from a lot of perspectives, and my guidance is always grounded in listening and my understanding of local versus systemic issues.

Brandon Elion: I love DeKalb. Not only do I love DeKalb, I love the community we fostered through the school district. That being said, I wanted to be at the forefront of the change. I wanted to be able to cater to the future leaders of our society and make sure that their education and what they need are put first. That, along with the fiscal responsibility, the open and honest transparency that the Board should be providing. I don't have all the answers, but I do promise to go down those rabbit holes looking for those answers. Challenge, be persistent and consistent, and that's what you will get from me if I'm elected.

Erin Grych: While part of the PTA at Jefferson Elementary School, I advocated for children and families from food to homework to curriculum and fun. A couple of things that came to fruition through this advocacy was: breakfast for everyone in their classrooms, which we all have now and curriculum specifically for dyslexia in our school district. One in five children are dyslexic, and we can really help our prisons by teaching our dyslexic children how to read, because if you can read, you can get a job. A large number of suicide notes left behind are from dyslexic people. So. supporting that within our systems is something on my heart. I would expect high standards from and for our students to support the science of reading curriculum for literacy to foster American patriotism in the schools and to bring back our focus to reading, writing, and math.

Jose Jaques: Financial responsibility and transparency, safety and security, and better student teacher ratio for smaller class sizes. Those are my big three. Why I chose those is because it all involves the culture. There's a lot of mistrust of how money is being spent by the school district. There's a lot of mistrust of the ability to keep your kids safe. I have a lot of friends that are teachers. I have family that are teachers. That the feeling that the teacher has to prove why they deserve respect is something that's odd to me. We have to create a culture to where students feel safe, the teachers feel safe, the community feels that the district is taking care of their assets, both their children and their monetary assets. That's my goal.

Howard Solomon: When I was a member of the board, our voting in front of the public was always a matter of yes, yes, yes, and there was rarely any discussion at all. I probably had the greatest number of no votes just to get discussion out into the room, because it's healthy. So, that's what you would be bringing back, that kind of rule breaking thought that says that just because it's time for a new contract, we are not at war with our teachers. That's nonsense.

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