February 11, 2025 • 39 mins
Aaron Janik is the current President of the Lincolnway 210 School Board. He lives in Mokena with his wife Molly and their three kids. He is running unopposed this election but still sat with me to talk about the school district and himself.
Enjoy this conversation with my friend, Aaron Janik!
Israel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Israel (00:16):
Alright, thanks for sitting down with me and Aaron
Janik, lincoln Way 210 SchoolBoard member, as well as the
current president, boardpresident Yep.
So I got a couple questionsfrom elected officials, some
longtime school board membersfrom outside Mokena.
Different community memberssubmitted questions, as well as
(00:37):
myself.
So first just tell us a littlebit about yourself, where you
grew up.
Aaron Janik (00:41):
Sure, so I actually grew up in Michigan.
Little bit about yourself whereyou grew up.
Sure, so I actually grew up inMichigan.
I lived there for 15 years,been in Illinois now for 32,
Mokena for 15 of those years.
My wife is originally fromMokena, born and raised.
She served some time in themilitary, but other than that
she's been in Mokena for prettymuch her whole life, so moved to
(01:02):
Mokena when we got married.
We have three kids one who Luke, who's in college.
He went through the Lincoln Wayschool system, as did my wife,
and then we have a 12-year-olddaughter, 10-year-old son, and
they're in the 159 schooldistrict and so they'll be going
to Lincoln Way 210.
Israel (01:19):
How'd you end up coming to Illinois from Detroit?
Aaron Janik (01:22):
Oh, just my dad got a job transfer type of thing,
so I didn't have much say in itback then.
Israel (01:27):
Same thing with us.
That's how we ended up fromWisconsin.
Aaron Janik (01:30):
Right.
Israel (01:30):
Tell us a little bit about what you do for fun.
Aaron Janik (01:33):
Well, these days it's shuttling my kids around
from activities and sportingevents.
My daughter plays basketball,my son plays football and
baseball, so I help coach hisbaseball team.
Hanging out with friends on theweekend when we have free time,
just you know, most nights,probably eight o'clock, you'll
find me dropping the kids off athome and then just grabbing a
(01:54):
spot on the couch to watch a youknow baseball game or a
football game or something likethat.
Try to read when I can, butbecause I'm always driving
around town I don't have muchtime to get any reading in.
Israel (02:05):
Favorite type of reading you like to do?
Aaron Janik (02:07):
I like historical books.
I have a friend who's an author.
He's written some CivilWar-type Abraham Lincoln history
books.
So if I had my choice, I wouldread something like that.
Israel (02:17):
You're not just playing up to the history crowd here.
Aaron Janik (02:20):
I was a history no, no, actually that's a good
point.
I, I was a history no, no, no,actually that's a good point.
I was a history major inundergrad, so my specialty or
foray into history was thepost-Civil War reconstruction
era.
So my friend, who was actuallya New York Times bestselling
author, has written three bookson like Abraham Lincoln.
(02:40):
He speaks all over the countryon Lincoln, so always been
interested in that kind of stuff.
So, but no, not, not, it's agood point, not trying to get
anyone's good side here, andprofessionally you're an
attorney, so talk about that alittle bit.
So I am a licensed attorney.
I don't practice per se.
I am the executive director ofa nonprofit organization in the
(03:03):
construction industry.
So I work with unioncontractors on behalf, on their
behalf, representing them innegotiations with trade unions.
So I've been doing that forabout 10 years now.
Prior to that role.
Taking on that role, I workedfor the Illinois Fraternal Order
of Police Labor Council, whichis the police union throughout
(03:24):
the state.
It's not Chicago, it's prettymuch all the other
municipalities, counties in thestate of Illinois, like
Frankfort, new Lenox, mokena isnot part of the FOP labor
council.
And then I worked for a smallfirm when I first got out of law
school that represented theChicago Teachers Union as their
main client.
Israel (03:43):
How do you think your background in law and your
professional plays into what youdo at the board?
Aaron Janik (03:50):
So obviously the state has laws.
The Illinois School Codegoverns education and all the
regulations that go into runninga school district.
Our district has an associationthat represents the teachers.
So being in labor relations inthat arena, knowing just how
(04:14):
that whole process works,collective bargaining and any
disputes arising out of acollective bargaining agreement,
that's what I've done my wholecareer.
So I think that is kind of whatdrew me to being on a school
board.
Is this?
That's really what I do for aliving?
So it's kind of an extension ofmy professional career.
Israel (04:32):
Just, you know, volunteering time to the
community so can you talk aboutmaybe some of the things that
you've been involved with, maybenegotiations or things within
the school district that you'remost proud of or been the
biggest thing you've beeninvolved?
Aaron Janik (04:48):
in Well.
I've been on the bargainingteam for the district, so
typically when we negotiate withthe association, we'll have a
board member or two participatein those negotiations.
I've been.
I think we've had three or fournegotiations with the
association since I've been onthe board.
I've been on two of them thefirst one and then this most
recent one.
(05:09):
There was a time where I wasn'table to participate because of
work obligations.
I just didn't have the time togo from work negotiations into
school board negotiations.
But yeah, so we've done well.
I've been a part of twonegotiations and they've gone
well.
The district and theassociation have a great
relationship.
We've come to fair agreementsthat benefit both sides, and so
(05:34):
that's something I'm proud of.
Obviously, if you followedwhat's been going on at Lincoln
Way for the past decade, when Ifirst got on, we were in pretty
dire financial straits.
So having been involved in, youknow, just getting us out of a
financial hole to where we aretoday, that's something that I'm
extremely proud of, not onlymyself, but the other board
(05:55):
members, the administration, theteachers and even the community
that supported us.
Israel (06:01):
So one of the questions I got was kind of about that.
So one of the questions I gotwas kind of about that.
And now that the financial shiphas been righted, so to say of
the Lincoln Way School District.
What are the plans goingforward?
Aaron Janik (06:14):
For the district itself Any particular issue.
Israel (06:18):
I'd say the district going forward and then obviously
the Lincoln Way North is a bigSure.
Aaron Janik (06:23):
So I mean, obviously we have a budget each
year.
We have to prepare a budgetthat we have our finance
director, dr Dubek.
He's actually the chief schoolbusiness official, the CSBO.
He puts that together inconsultation with his team, dr
Tingley, our superintendent inthe board.
So we put that together everyyear, just keeping us on that
(06:51):
path, that straight, narrow path, if you will.
There's always work to be donein terms of facilities.
It's not very fun to talk about, but parking lots, roofs,
things of that nature.
I mean people think, oh, you'reon the school board, you, you
know education, which we do, buta lot of times we're talking
about you know, hey, how much isa control panel for an HVAC
unit?
You know stuff.
You're like, geez, this is kindof mundane but it's very
(07:13):
important because when you havemultiple buildings of varying
ages, there's always work to bedone.
So, keeping us on this goodfiscal financial path, you know
we're going to do school work,renovations and upgrades, just
(07:35):
keeping it, you know, facilitiesin good working condition.
So that's a big thing thatwe're going to do.
You know we're not looking tochange too much at Lincoln Way
at this point.
The three schools are three ofthe top performing schools in
Will County, typically one, twoand three, generally for all the
(07:55):
high schools in Will County.
You know, maybe there's a yearit's one, two and four.
What's the rating?
Well, like when you look at interms of graduations rate and
test scores and things of thatnature, lincoln Way East,
lincoln Way Central, lincoln WayWest all come in top three.
Sometimes they may be, like Isaid, one, two and four.
(08:16):
So there's always competitionamong the three schools and
who's got the better test scoresand frankly they're all right
there.
Who's got the better testscores and frankly they're all
you know, right there.
You know some years it's, youknow, a difference of a point or
two in terms of, like those youknow, sats that the kids take
and things like that, providingaccess to all our students for
(08:36):
careers outside of high school.
We have about 6,800 students.
Not all of them are going to goto college.
We know that we have about6,800 students.
Not all of them are going to goto college.
We know that we want to makesure that we're going to provide
opportunities for thosestudents outside of two or
four-year universities.
So this week actually on's outthere.
(09:13):
Besides, you know college, soit could be anything from the
carpenters union, electriciansunion, the operating engineers
union, to cosmetology school, toEMT school, to, I think Amazon
will be there.
People think, well, amazon.
Well, sometimes you start offjust picking packages and you
work your way up to director ofmarketing, you don't know.
(09:34):
So it's giving those studentsthat are in our schools the
opportunity to see what is outthere after they graduate.
Israel (09:42):
Are those actual recruiting opportunities for
those?
Aaron Janik (09:45):
Yeah, there will be businesses in town,
manufacturers that come.
Hey, we don't require a collegedegree.
If you're not looking to go tocollege after Lincoln, if you're
after you graduate Lincoln Way,you can come work for us.
So there will be students goingthrough the fair on Wednesday
(10:06):
and they'll have an opportunityto be like you know what, I'm
really interested in that and sothey'll have, you know, their
teachers there with them, kindof making sure they're not just
you know, milling about butactually going through and
seeing the different booths.
There's, like I said, emt,there's police, there's fire,
there's local businesses, tradeunions, cosmetology school.
Israel (10:32):
So talk a little bit more about that, and I know
you've talked before aboutincreasing that and the trades
and the trades are huge in ourarea as well as the balance of
you know, preparing for college,Sure sure, so the Lincoln Way
community is a very blue collarcommunity.
Aaron Janik (10:47):
Sure, so the Lincoln Way community is a very
blue collar community.
If you look at a lot of thetrade unions in the area, a lot
of their members live in WillCounty, not necessarily maybe
the Lincoln Way, but the WillCounty area.
So my connection to theconstruction industry is I have
relationships being in laborwith several different trade
unions.
So I've contacted many of themand said, hey, lincoln Way's
(11:08):
putting this on, I'd love foryou guys to be there.
And they're sending.
I think there's at least ninetrade unions that I'm aware of
that are sending some of theirapprenticeship fund training
staff to the fair on Wednesdayjust to give the students that
go through it.
I think there's gonna be six toseven hundred students going
through an opportunity to see,like, not only the trades, but
(11:32):
you know the other types oforganizations I mentioned.
You know my background being inthe trades.
That's kind of what I'm proudof Giving them the ability to
look and say, hey, you know,maybe I will apply to become a
carpenter apprentice or, youknow, a operating engineer or
labor, whatever it may be.
There are several college fairsthat the district will host
(11:55):
throughout the year where you'llhave 40 to 50, 60 colleges come
in and I don't know if youremember back when we were in
high school.
You walk around the table andyou kind of pick up their
pamphlets and where do you wantto go?
And they tell you, well, whydon't you come to our school?
And that's where you start tolook at those flyers.
We still have thoseopportunities for students that
want to do that.
It's, you know, a lot differentthan from when, I think, we
(12:20):
were in high school, whereeveryone was kind of pushed in a
sense to go to college.
We were in high school whereeveryone was kind of pushed in a
sense to go to college.
But I mean there will be a goodportion of our students at
Lincoln Way that go to a two orfour-year university, so we have
those opportunities throughoutthe course of the year for them
as well.
Israel (12:35):
Do you know about what the percentage of it is.
Aaron Janik (12:38):
You know, don't quote me 100% on it, but I think
that's about 15% of thestudents don't go to two or four
year university.
Now does that mean they're not,they're going to do something
after?
Maybe they take a year off,right?
(12:59):
So you kind of lose thosestatistics after a few years.
Obviously Someone might go tocollege for two years and decide
you know what, I'm not going togo back and I'm going to go
into the apprenticeship, right?
So you kind of have to takethose numbers necessarily with a
little bit of a caveat to them.
Israel (13:18):
And then maybe talk a little bit about Lincoln Way
North Any plans that we knowthere At the moment.
Aaron Janik (13:23):
No, you know, we did get it up and running last
year when Lockport had thesituation where they had their
ceiling collapse at theirfreshman building and they bused
their freshman over.
They reached out to us when thatoccurred and said, hey, we need
to find a facility that canhold about a thousand people.
And said, hey, we need to finda facility that can hold about
1,000 people.
We said, well, we have thebuilding available and we got it
(13:44):
up and running in about two anda half weeks.
So you know, it's not justturning the light switch on, it
was making sure all the you knoweverything worked.
So I mean, obviously we stillare paying for the upkeep of it,
but there's a big differencebetween upkeeping it and putting
1,000 people in it.
So that got up and running inabout two weeks.
(14:06):
Lockport paid for the cleaningand everything like that.
There was really no cost toanybody at Lincoln Way for that.
It was a true rental-typeopportunity community.
But other than that, at thispoint you know the school is not
going to be open for a LincolnWay school, probably again, you
(14:28):
know we need a certain number ofstudents in the district to
operate that and we just don'thave that at this point.
Israel (14:36):
And there was talk at the time about the state police
purchasing it right.
Aaron Janik (14:39):
Yeah.
So they had walked through,they had toured it, multiple
state agencies.
The Illinois Department ofPublic Health was looking to
maybe consolidate somefacilities they had and use a
portion of it and it's not FEMA,but the Illinois Emergency
Management Agency was similar toFEMA.
They were talking about takingsome space too, but for whatever
(15:03):
reason, I think that kind ofhappened all around the time
that the pandemic started andpriorities shifted and things
happened and now it's four yearslater and building's still
available.
So the bonds on it will be paidoff again.
I want to say 2032.
So at that point it would bepaid off and we'll have a little
(15:28):
bit less restriction on whatcan be done with it Right now.
If you were to try to use it,it's the bonds.
The way the bonds arestructured, it's limited in what
we can do with it.
So right now the FrankfortSquare Park District uses North
for the field house and some ofthe fields, the gym and the
(15:52):
weight room.
So for 210 residents, frankfortSquare residents can go there
and play basketball and walk thetrack.
So that's an intergovernmentalagreement.
I mean, it's not what it wasintended for, but it's still
being used somewhat.
What do you think are some ofthe biggest challenges?
Israel (16:12):
that the district faces right now.
Aaron Janik (16:16):
You know the Mack on Wood.
We're in a pretty good spotright now.
I don't think we have a lot ofchallenges where, if you went
back 10 years, you know youlooked at borrowing money to
make payroll right.
We're nowhere near thatsituation Now.
You're always going to have achallenge.
An entity as big as Lincoln Wayis, you know there's hundreds
(16:38):
of employees, there's multiplebuildings, but I don't think you
have the challenges that we hada decade ago.
You know changing educationtools and ways that we educate.
You know advent of AI I'm sureyou know you've talked about it
(16:59):
and using.
You know using your technology.
Here we have to get studentsready for the future and how
that's going to look.
So maybe some technology-basedtype of issues, but we have a
good staff at Lincoln Way, goodadministration, and so they're
going to work together to facethose challenges and get the
(17:20):
students ready to face them aswell.
Israel (17:23):
You were prior to the 210, you were on the 159 school
board, Yep.
So you know, going back thenand then, as you ran for 210,
what made you want to run forschool board?
Aaron Janik (17:36):
So the first time I was on the 159 board, a spot
opened up.
Actually, someone had resignedand I don't remember who it was,
but they were takingapplications for to fill that
seat.
So I put in for it and theboard, the board members the six
of them at the time selected meto fill that spot and at the
(17:59):
time we had our youngest in thatschool district.
So I filled out the remainingtwo years of that term and then
I ran again for a four-year term.
Halfway through that's whenthings at Lincoln Way kind of
started coming to light.
My wife, when I was gettingready to run for 210, she was
why are you gonna run for 210?
(18:21):
We didn't have any students inthe district.
I go well, I think I can make adifference, that guy can help.
And so I ran.
I was one of 13 candidatesrunning for five seats and was,
you know, lucky enough and to towin and get on.
And my first meeting was oftaking a vote to borrow money
(18:41):
from one of the south suburbanvillages to loan us some money
to make payroll the next day,because if we didn't borrow the
money people wouldn't havegotten a paycheck.
So um, now welcome to the bigtime I guess they say, uh, so,
yeah, so we.
So we made that decision toborrow that money.
(19:03):
The interest rate wasn't thebest, but we really didn't have
a choice.
And then we slowly but surelystarted stacking some wins.
I'll call them and you did thatand we got into a good spot,
where we are today.
Israel (19:18):
And how long do you think it took to right the ship,
so to say?
Aaron Janik (19:23):
I would say it took probably a good six years.
Yeah, six and a half.
You know we've been in a goodspot.
We just refinanced some of thedebt.
We had the interest rate.
I want to say it's at 1.76%.
Wow, we lucked out, becauseabout two months later is when
interest rates really spiked.
(19:43):
That was kind of justfortuitous timing.
That wasn't necessarily acrystal ball, but we had done
everything to get us into aposition to be able to refinance
debt and not have to incur hugefees.
And it was millions of dollars.
So refinancing millions ofdollars at 1.76% is a lot better
(20:07):
than refinancing millions ofdollars at 6%.
So wound up saving quite a bitof money.
And we were actually we're ableto abate some money back to
residents.
You know it wasn't a ton, butthere's not a lot of you know
public bodies out there saying,hey, we're able to, you know,
abate some money, Sure.
Israel (20:28):
So you know, lincoln Way for me accounts for 21, 27% of
my property tax bill.
So how can we, how can youreassure Lincoln Way taxpayers?
You know to be sure that theschool district is spending
their tax dollars in the mostefficient way possible.
Aaron Janik (20:45):
Yeah, well, I mean, that's the big question we
always get asked.
If you look at what we've doneover the past almost eight years
not since I've been on theboard we have spent the money
wisely.
We've done surgical type umlooks at building maintenance.
You know, like hey, could we dothis, this and this?
(21:07):
Well, sure, if we want to spenda bunch of money, but no, it's
times not right.
We need to do just this thingthis year.
You know what, whether it's aroof or an air conditioning unit
or a parking lot.
And then let's plan for two orthree years down the road to do
the other two or three thingsthat we were looking at.
And now we've gotten to a pointwhere we have enough money
(21:31):
saved up, put aside and we havea good plan in place to do the
things we need to do, but alsostill providing top-notch
education to the students thatcome through Lincoln Way.
I mean, lincoln Way is knownfor not only its academics but
its extracurriculars, its sportsteams, its marching band, its
drama program, its weldingprogram.
(21:52):
So we're still able to provideall those services while not
seeing huge increases.
Had we just said, oh yeah,we'll just go ahead and do
whatever we want.
No, I'm a taxpayer too.
I want to be mindful of thefact that we're being entrusted
with taxpayer money by stillproviding good services and
making sure the facilities arein good shape.
(22:13):
It's a fine line.
You have to walk Sure.
Israel (22:17):
What do you think is the best way to address differences
of opinion with other boardmembers, as well as the?
Aaron Janik (22:24):
administration.
Well, you know, we're allindividuals.
We always have differences ofopinion.
You know, if you watch a boardmeeting, we're always having
questions of the administration,dialogue back and forth.
They're pretty congenial boardmeetings, but we always don't
(22:51):
agree on things that we'retalking about.
So I mean there are things whereyou pick up a phone call or
pick up a phone, make a phonecall hey, you know, why did you
take that vote?
Or why are you?
What are you thinking aboutthis issue?
You know, luckily, knock onwood, we've been pretty, you
know, steady over the pastcouple of years.
But there was times when Ifirst got on the board we were
having three hour meetings.
We don't walk into a meetingand have a three hour meeting
(23:13):
without having probably aboutnine hours of phone calls and
emails and prep work anddiscussions with other board
members before you get there.
You know what I mean and justlooking through all the
information, so you know we'rein a good spot now as a board we
don't have a lot ofdisagreements, but if we do,
it's just the simplest pickingup a phone, talking to somebody
talk about the time requirementa little bit of being a board
(23:35):
member.
Israel (23:35):
How much?
How much of your regular weekdoes it take?
How much of your regular weekdoes it take?
Aaron Janik (23:39):
Well, in my current role I'm the president, so I do
a lot of the.
You know any board member cantalk to you know the
superintendent, theadministration, a lot of times.
I guess you'd say I'm theforward-facing board member as
the president, so I'll get phonecalls.
You know, often, hey, just giveyou a heads up, having a
(24:00):
meeting with this entity or thatentity or this issue popped up,
and so it's hard to quantify itbecause it happens so often.
Israel (24:12):
It kind of becomes part of daily life, yeah.
Aaron Janik (24:15):
You know I'm driving in the car.
I got some windshield timebecause I'm going from one
meeting to the next for work.
Pick up a phone and you know,now I'm already from point A to
point B and it's been 45 minutes, you know, and it's like okay,
well, we'll wrap this uptomorrow.
After you have your meeting,you call me, let me know how it
goes.
So it does kind of becomenormal.
You fit it in when you can.
(24:38):
You know I do have a Mondaythrough Friday 9 to 5 type of
job, so sometimes it'll be lateat night where I'm shooting an
email off or reading an email.
So you just fit it in when youhave the ability to.
The school board meetingsthemselves are the third
Thursday of every month.
Lately they've been relativelybrief meetings because we've
(25:03):
gotten to a good spot.
So things are kind of settled.
You know, hour, hour and a half.
When I first got on the boardthey were three hour meetings.
I want to say we were meetingtwice a month just because we
needed to make some decisionsevery couple of weeks, like hey,
we need to borrow some money topay some bills.
So it's gotten a little bitless time consuming.
(25:26):
But you know, you sign up for ajob and you do it, however long
it takes yeah, how can theBoard of Education best
communicate with its constituentgroups?
well, I mean, we have email, wehave phone.
I mean my phone number andemail address are public
(25:47):
information.
When you sign up to run for theschool board, you list where
you live and all thatinformation.
I have my Lincoln Way shirt ontoday.
I wear this out in the public alot.
Just because I'm either goingto an event or coming from one,
I'll stop at the grocery storeor whatnot, grab something to
(26:08):
eat, and so I see people out andabout town and, um, you know,
if someone has an issue, we getemails all the time, we get
phone calls all the time.
I disagree with people in thepublic.
You know, sometimes people justwant to be heard, right, um?
Sometimes they they want ananswer.
Sometimes my job is to givethem an answer that they may not
like to hear, um, but you know,you know.
(26:31):
However, anyone wants to get ahold of me, I'm available.
Israel (26:35):
You know, as we sit today, there's three people that
are up for election this term.
Right, and so you really don'thave a challenger.
But what made you still want tosit down and talk with me
tonight?
Aaron Janik (26:49):
Well, I always like to engage the public.
This is an easy way to do it,so your podcast will be
broadcast out.
I'll be able to share it acrossmy social media pages.
People can get to know me.
Hello, you know, it's just.
I think it's part of electedofficials' duty is to be, you
(27:10):
know, available and makethemselves known.
I don't think it's right forsomeone to get into a position
and not respond or not.
You know, make it known whothey are.
You know who they are.
So at this point, you know, aswe sit here today doing this
interview, there are just thethree incumbents that have
pulled petitions.
(27:31):
There's still time.
I'm not sure when this will bebroadcast, but maybe there would
be a fourth or fifth personrunning for election, and that's
okay.
I'm doing this again.
This would be my third time.
I do have two younger childrengetting ready to go through the
Lincoln Way school system andthe biggest thing that a board
(27:51):
member does is the hiring andfiring of a superintendent.
We're not firing oursuperintendent now and we're not
hiring one, but our currentsuperintendent will be probably
retiring within the next fouryears or so.
Maybe I think it's four years,from May of 2025.
(28:15):
So if you look at that, youknow you're kind of getting into
that position where you'regoing to hire a new
superintendent.
Well, being on the board foreight years, going from where we
were to where we are, I'd liketo be part of the process of you
know, hey, here's somebody thatwe're going to hire.
Let's make sure we have someinstitutional knowledge of where
(28:38):
we were eight years ago or 10years ago, wherever it's going
to be, to get that next personin to lead the district.
Israel (28:45):
So slightly off topic, but 159 is going through a
superintendent search right now,making a very public search,
looking for input from thecommunity.
Talk a little bit about whatgoes on with that process and
what's involved.
Aaron Janik (29:03):
Yeah, so typically for a superintendent search a
board will hire a consultingfirm.
Board members are volunteers sothey're doing their day-to-day
job.
Superintendent search a boardwill hire a consulting firm.
You know board members arevolunteers so you know they're
doing their day-to-day job.
The consulting firm you knowthis is what they do.
They go out and and gathercandidates for school boards to
vet.
I know 159 in the past hasalways involved community
(29:27):
members, different constituentgroups.
I was involved earlier thisyear in just providing some
feedback of what we'd be lookingfor at a first superintendent
at the 159 district.
So in that group were membersof the village fire department,
retired individuals, stilltaxpayers in the district, maybe
(29:50):
no kids.
So you're going to get a widecross-section of input from the
various constituent groups.
The board obviously makes theultimate decision, but going
through a process where you getcommunity input is important.
I'm assuming when the timecomes at Lincoln Way we'll do
the same thing.
Israel (30:10):
I'm assuming when the time comes, at Lincoln Way,
we'll do the same thing.
And what kind of things are isthe board looking for in a
candidate?
Aaron Janik (30:17):
Well, I mean you need someone that's going to be
a leader, right?
I mean, the superintendent isthe probably the person that is
the most forward facing of adistrict.
They're the one where all thecommunication is coming from,
especially on big issues.
Right, you might hear from yourchild's principal on some.
You know events coming up andday-to-day type things, but when
(30:38):
it comes to the big issues youknow budgets and you know other
things of that nature it's goingto be the superintendent.
So you want someone that'sgoing to one be able to lead the
organization but also havepeople to follow their lead put
together a good team.
Administration is not made upof just superintendents the
finance office, curriculumdepartment, so a lot goes into
(31:02):
running an organization as bigas Lincoln Way, but also 159.
So we'll need to find someoneat Lincoln Way in a few years of
who's going to be a good leader, good communicator.
Israel (31:16):
And say, in that process going forward, this
superintendent Tingley would beretiring at that point.
Yeah, and would he have aninput typically as well, or not?
Aaron Janik (31:27):
You know, I don't know if superintendents that are
leaving have input.
I think we'd probably want someinput from him.
You know, having been in therole, you know what's required.
I think it would be good.
The decision's ultimately theboard's, though, so you know you
can get all the input in theworld, but that decision is
(31:47):
going to come down to, you know,the seven board members in the
world, but that decision isgoing to come down to the seven
board members.
Israel (31:56):
Talk a little bit about how you see the role of a school
board member.
Aaron Janik (31:59):
Well, again, it goes back to the hiring and the
firing of the superintendent.
The superintendent is taskedwith implementing the policies
that the Board of Education putsin place.
You know, obviously the boardapproves the budget.
That's a very large budget.
For Lincoln Way we're overabout $120 million.
(32:20):
So you know, we have severalindividuals on the board that
will you know, have a specificarea of I want to expertise, but
we have several educators onthe board.
I'm an attorney, there's twoother attorneys on the board, we
(32:40):
have a trades person.
So we all provide our inputindividually and then
collectively, we'll we'll goahead and make decisions that
impact people.
Israel (32:55):
How about getting?
How much should a board memberbe getting involved with, say,
day-to-day or with thesuperintendent's operations,
things like that?
Aaron Janik (33:04):
Yeah, no, I mean that's, people aren't electing
me to get down into thenitty-gritty of math.
You know, in the nitty grittyof you know math.
You know what I mean.
Like you want me as far awayfrom a math book as possible.
No, I'm kidding.
Israel (33:18):
But no, I mean, where does the line drawn list say
things like curriculum?
Sure, how much involvementwould the board have with that,
compared to the administration?
Aaron Janik (33:27):
Yeah, the administration is going to
research the various I don'twant to say textbooks, but we're
going to, and I'm not aneducator so I'm not going to
make up a name but they're goingto look at.
Okay, the math curriculum hastrended towards this type of
curriculum.
History has trended toward thistype.
(33:49):
English has trended toward thistype.
English has trended toward thistype.
They're going to put thecurriculum together and they'll
update us on what are we doingin terms of classes, you know,
to support the students to getready to take the SAT, which is
how the districts are judged interms of, you know, test scores
and things of that nature, toget our rankings up.
(34:11):
You know, like I said, we'reone, two, three, so we do a
great job getting students readyto take those standardized
tests.
Again, standardized testsaren't the end all be all, but
the district administration willbe the one that's putting the
curriculum together.
Now, if there's issues with it,it's what the department heads
are there for, right, thedepartment chairs for English,
(34:34):
math and social science andforeign languages.
They're looking at it on theday-to-day level, like what's
working, you know, what's notlet's?
You know, we had this in ourcurriculum and we didn't seem to
do well on this kind of portionof the SAT.
Well, let's maybe pivot and trythis model for getting students
(34:55):
ready.
A lot of times you'll havedifferentiated instruction in
the classroom.
So it's not just you know.
Here's the curriculum.
Everyone go do it.
There's a lot of moving partsto it and the board member
doesn't necessarily get involvedin that.
Now maybe an educator, you know, like I said, we have a few
(35:18):
educators on the board.
They might take a deeper lookinto it because they're doing
that in their day-to-day job.
You know, I'm working theconstruction industry.
I'm not sure you know, lookingat the math curriculum at a
macro level.
I'm looking at more macro level.
Israel (35:34):
One of the things you know as a parent.
We're all concerned aboutsending our kids to school and
you think about safety.
So how can parents be sure thattheir kids are safe going on
Lincoln Way schools?
Aaron Janik (35:45):
Yeah.
So I'm sure you recall, earlierthis year there was a lot of
social media stuff out thereabout school shootings.
It was out in Joliet, I believe, is where it initiated, started
at.
It got picked up Various otherschool districts, kids sharing
it and whatnot.
I was getting a lot of phonecalls on that.
(36:07):
My first thing was well, I'mpicking up the phone and I'm
calling the superintendent andhe goes yep, we already know
about it, we're already on it.
You know can't really get intospecifics on what our security
and safety plans are, butthey're good.
(36:27):
You know, obviously they'realways being looked at and
refined with our partners in lawenforcement.
There was just another recentone that happened at Providence
where the New Lenox police hadthe subject in custody before an
alert could even really be out.
(36:49):
I mean, that's how quick thingsmoved.
You know we do have schoolresource officers at each school
Will County Sheriff, you know,deputy.
So you know there's alwaysthings going on to keep our kids
safe.
The biggest one is the parentsand the community members and
other students.
(37:10):
You know, if there's somethinggoing on, you know I don't want
to sound cliche, but you seesomething, you say something
right, and we tell my kids, thatmy younger ones.
Hey, if there's something goingon, you know, and someone's
saying something I'm going tohurt myself or I'm going to you
know there's going to be aschool shooting, you don't even
(37:30):
worry about getting in trouble.
You come to us and we're goingto, you know.
Take care of it right away.
So I mean, we try to letparents know that they're our
front line as well.
But there are things in thebackground that we can do and we
are doing to make sure they'reas safe as they can be.
Yeah that's a good point.
Israel (37:47):
I mean parents being the front line.
I mean really, yeah, that goesa long way.
So what advice would you giveto anybody that was considering
running for office?
Aaron Janik (37:59):
uh, be yourself.
I mean that's.
I'm kind of a outgoing person,you know.
So I, I will talk to anybodyand everyone.
I'll tell them the honest truth.
Again, I've said before,sometimes when I tell people an
answer, they don't like it.
But you just got to be honestwith people.
I mean, your word is your bond.
(38:21):
If you shift your answers orshift your, I don't want to say
your morals, but if you justgive someone what they want,
then you know you're not reallydoing a good job.
So, be yourself, be available.
Israel (38:39):
Is there anything else you'd like to say or share?
Aaron Janik (38:43):
No, I mean I think if you know this is going to be
posted prior to the election, Iwould say don't panic, vote for
Janik.
It's been a campaign slogan ofmine since 8th grade.
It seemed to work well for me8th grade.
Israel (38:55):
What were you running for in 8th grade?
Aaron Janik (38:56):
Student council.
I did not win that year, butit's worked out okay for me.
You kept the logo still.
Yeah, my kids have used it acouple times here and there.
They were successful in studentcouncil.
My daughter lost a couple yearsago in a very hotly contested
election.
Israel (39:12):
I remember that one.
Yes, known each other a lot.
Our kids have been in schooltogether since kindergarten.
Yeah, yeah, known each otherwell over the years.
Yes, yes, appreciate yousitting down with me, aaron.
Not only the first one tointerview with me, but the first
(39:33):
one to respond and offer to sitdown.
Aaron Janik (39:34):
So I appreciate your enthusiasm and your service
to our community.
Alright well, thank you forhaving us.
Alright, thanks for sitting down with me and Aaron
Janik, lincoln Way 210 SchoolBoard member, as well as the
current president, boardpresident Yep.
So I got a couple questionsfrom elected officials, some
longtime school board membersfrom outside Mokena.
Different community memberssubmitted questions, as well as
(00:37):
myself.
So first just tell us a littlebit about yourself, where you
grew up.
Aaron Janik (00:41):
Sure, so I actually grew up in Michigan.
Little bit about yourself whereyou grew up.
Sure, so I actually grew up inMichigan.
I lived there for 15 years,been in Illinois now for 32,
Mokena for 15 of those years.
My wife is originally fromMokena, born and raised.
She served some time in themilitary, but other than that
she's been in Mokena for prettymuch her whole life, so moved to
(01:02):
Mokena when we got married.
We have three kids one who Luke, who's in college.
He went through the Lincoln Wayschool system, as did my wife,
and then we have a 12-year-olddaughter, 10-year-old son, and
they're in the 159 schooldistrict and so they'll be going
to Lincoln Way 210.
Israel (01:19):
How'd you end up coming to Illinois from Detroit?
Aaron Janik (01:22):
Oh, just my dad got a job transfer type of thing,
so I didn't have much say in itback then.
Israel (01:27):
Same thing with us.
That's how we ended up fromWisconsin.
Aaron Janik (01:30):
Right.
Israel (01:30):
Tell us a little bit about what you do for fun.
Aaron Janik (01:33):
Well, these days it's shuttling my kids around
from activities and sportingevents.
My daughter plays basketball,my son plays football and
baseball, so I help coach hisbaseball team.
Hanging out with friends on theweekend when we have free time,
just you know, most nights,probably eight o'clock, you'll
find me dropping the kids off athome and then just grabbing a
(01:54):
spot on the couch to watch a youknow baseball game or a
football game or something likethat.
Try to read when I can, butbecause I'm always driving
around town I don't have muchtime to get any reading in.
Israel (02:05):
Favorite type of reading you like to do?
Aaron Janik (02:07):
I like historical books.
I have a friend who's an author.
He's written some CivilWar-type Abraham Lincoln history
books.
So if I had my choice, I wouldread something like that.
Israel (02:17):
You're not just playing up to the history crowd here.
Aaron Janik (02:20):
I was a history no, no, actually that's a good
point.
I, I was a history no, no, no,actually that's a good point.
I was a history major inundergrad, so my specialty or
foray into history was thepost-Civil War reconstruction
era.
So my friend, who was actuallya New York Times bestselling
author, has written three bookson like Abraham Lincoln.
(02:40):
He speaks all over the countryon Lincoln, so always been
interested in that kind of stuff.
So, but no, not, not, it's agood point, not trying to get
anyone's good side here, andprofessionally you're an
attorney, so talk about that alittle bit.
So I am a licensed attorney.
I don't practice per se.
I am the executive director ofa nonprofit organization in the
(03:03):
construction industry.
So I work with unioncontractors on behalf, on their
behalf, representing them innegotiations with trade unions.
So I've been doing that forabout 10 years now.
Prior to that role.
Taking on that role, I workedfor the Illinois Fraternal Order
of Police Labor Council, whichis the police union throughout
(03:24):
the state.
It's not Chicago, it's prettymuch all the other
municipalities, counties in thestate of Illinois, like
Frankfort, new Lenox, mokena isnot part of the FOP labor
council.
And then I worked for a smallfirm when I first got out of law
school that represented theChicago Teachers Union as their
main client.
Israel (03:43):
How do you think your background in law and your
professional plays into what youdo at the board?
Aaron Janik (03:50):
So obviously the state has laws.
The Illinois School Codegoverns education and all the
regulations that go into runninga school district.
Our district has an associationthat represents the teachers.
So being in labor relations inthat arena, knowing just how
(04:14):
that whole process works,collective bargaining and any
disputes arising out of acollective bargaining agreement,
that's what I've done my wholecareer.
So I think that is kind of whatdrew me to being on a school
board.
Is this?
That's really what I do for aliving?
So it's kind of an extension ofmy professional career.
Israel (04:32):
Just, you know, volunteering time to the
community so can you talk aboutmaybe some of the things that
you've been involved with, maybenegotiations or things within
the school district that you'remost proud of or been the
biggest thing you've beeninvolved?
Aaron Janik (04:48):
in Well.
I've been on the bargainingteam for the district, so
typically when we negotiate withthe association, we'll have a
board member or two participatein those negotiations.
I've been.
I think we've had three or fournegotiations with the
association since I've been onthe board.
I've been on two of them thefirst one and then this most
recent one.
(05:09):
There was a time where I wasn'table to participate because of
work obligations.
I just didn't have the time togo from work negotiations into
school board negotiations.
But yeah, so we've done well.
I've been a part of twonegotiations and they've gone
well.
The district and theassociation have a great
relationship.
We've come to fair agreementsthat benefit both sides, and so
(05:34):
that's something I'm proud of.
Obviously, if you followedwhat's been going on at Lincoln
Way for the past decade, when Ifirst got on, we were in pretty
dire financial straits.
So having been involved in, youknow, just getting us out of a
financial hole to where we aretoday, that's something that I'm
extremely proud of, not onlymyself, but the other board
(05:55):
members, the administration, theteachers and even the community
that supported us.
Israel (06:01):
So one of the questions I got was kind of about that.
So one of the questions I gotwas kind of about that.
And now that the financial shiphas been righted, so to say of
the Lincoln Way School District.
What are the plans goingforward?
Aaron Janik (06:14):
For the district itself Any particular issue.
Israel (06:18):
I'd say the district going forward and then obviously
the Lincoln Way North is a bigSure.
Aaron Janik (06:23):
So I mean, obviously we have a budget each
year.
We have to prepare a budgetthat we have our finance
director, dr Dubek.
He's actually the chief schoolbusiness official, the CSBO.
He puts that together inconsultation with his team, dr
Tingley, our superintendent inthe board.
So we put that together everyyear, just keeping us on that
(06:51):
path, that straight, narrow path, if you will.
There's always work to be donein terms of facilities.
It's not very fun to talk about, but parking lots, roofs,
things of that nature.
I mean people think, oh, you'reon the school board, you, you
know education, which we do, buta lot of times we're talking
about you know, hey, how much isa control panel for an HVAC
unit?
You know stuff.
You're like, geez, this is kindof mundane but it's very
(07:13):
important because when you havemultiple buildings of varying
ages, there's always work to bedone.
So, keeping us on this goodfiscal financial path, you know
we're going to do school work,renovations and upgrades, just
(07:35):
keeping it, you know, facilitiesin good working condition.
So that's a big thing thatwe're going to do.
You know we're not looking tochange too much at Lincoln Way
at this point.
The three schools are three ofthe top performing schools in
Will County, typically one, twoand three, generally for all the
(07:55):
high schools in Will County.
You know, maybe there's a yearit's one, two and four.
What's the rating?
Well, like when you look at interms of graduations rate and
test scores and things of thatnature, lincoln Way East,
lincoln Way Central, lincoln WayWest all come in top three.
Sometimes they may be, like Isaid, one, two and four.
(08:16):
So there's always competitionamong the three schools and
who's got the better test scoresand frankly they're all right
there.
Who's got the better testscores and frankly they're all
you know, right there.
You know some years it's, youknow, a difference of a point or
two in terms of, like those youknow, sats that the kids take
and things like that, providingaccess to all our students for
(08:36):
careers outside of high school.
We have about 6,800 students.
Not all of them are going to goto college.
We know that we have about6,800 students.
Not all of them are going to goto college.
We know that we want to makesure that we're going to provide
opportunities for thosestudents outside of two or
four-year universities.
So this week actually on's outthere.
(09:13):
Besides, you know college, soit could be anything from the
carpenters union, electriciansunion, the operating engineers
union, to cosmetology school, toEMT school, to, I think Amazon
will be there.
People think, well, amazon.
Well, sometimes you start offjust picking packages and you
work your way up to director ofmarketing, you don't know.
(09:34):
So it's giving those studentsthat are in our schools the
opportunity to see what is outthere after they graduate.
Israel (09:42):
Are those actual recruiting opportunities for
those?
Aaron Janik (09:45):
Yeah, there will be businesses in town,
manufacturers that come.
Hey, we don't require a collegedegree.
If you're not looking to go tocollege after Lincoln, if you're
after you graduate Lincoln Way,you can come work for us.
So there will be students goingthrough the fair on Wednesday
(10:06):
and they'll have an opportunityto be like you know what, I'm
really interested in that and sothey'll have, you know, their
teachers there with them, kindof making sure they're not just
you know, milling about butactually going through and
seeing the different booths.
There's, like I said, emt,there's police, there's fire,
there's local businesses, tradeunions, cosmetology school.
Israel (10:32):
So talk a little bit more about that, and I know
you've talked before aboutincreasing that and the trades
and the trades are huge in ourarea as well as the balance of
you know, preparing for college,Sure sure, so the Lincoln Way
community is a very blue collarcommunity.
Aaron Janik (10:47):
Sure, so the Lincoln Way community is a very
blue collar community.
If you look at a lot of thetrade unions in the area, a lot
of their members live in WillCounty, not necessarily maybe
the Lincoln Way, but the WillCounty area.
So my connection to theconstruction industry is I have
relationships being in laborwith several different trade
unions.
So I've contacted many of themand said, hey, lincoln Way's
(11:08):
putting this on, I'd love foryou guys to be there.
And they're sending.
I think there's at least ninetrade unions that I'm aware of
that are sending some of theirapprenticeship fund training
staff to the fair on Wednesdayjust to give the students that
go through it.
I think there's gonna be six toseven hundred students going
through an opportunity to see,like, not only the trades, but
(11:32):
you know the other types oforganizations I mentioned.
You know my background being inthe trades.
That's kind of what I'm proudof Giving them the ability to
look and say, hey, you know,maybe I will apply to become a
carpenter apprentice or, youknow, a operating engineer or
labor, whatever it may be.
There are several college fairsthat the district will host
(11:55):
throughout the year where you'llhave 40 to 50, 60 colleges come
in and I don't know if youremember back when we were in
high school.
You walk around the table andyou kind of pick up their
pamphlets and where do you wantto go?
And they tell you, well, whydon't you come to our school?
And that's where you start tolook at those flyers.
We still have thoseopportunities for students that
want to do that.
It's, you know, a lot differentthan from when, I think, we
(12:20):
were in high school, whereeveryone was kind of pushed in a
sense to go to college.
We were in high school whereeveryone was kind of pushed in a
sense to go to college.
But I mean there will be a goodportion of our students at
Lincoln Way that go to a two orfour-year university, so we have
those opportunities throughoutthe course of the year for them
as well.
Israel (12:35):
Do you know about what the percentage of it is.
Aaron Janik (12:38):
You know, don't quote me 100% on it, but I think
that's about 15% of thestudents don't go to two or four
year university.
Now does that mean they're not,they're going to do something
after?
Maybe they take a year off,right?
(12:59):
So you kind of lose thosestatistics after a few years.
Obviously Someone might go tocollege for two years and decide
you know what, I'm not going togo back and I'm going to go
into the apprenticeship, right?
So you kind of have to takethose numbers necessarily with a
little bit of a caveat to them.
Israel (13:18):
And then maybe talk a little bit about Lincoln Way
North Any plans that we knowthere At the moment.
Aaron Janik (13:23):
No, you know, we did get it up and running last
year when Lockport had thesituation where they had their
ceiling collapse at theirfreshman building and they bused
their freshman over.
They reached out to us when thatoccurred and said, hey, we need
to find a facility that canhold about a thousand people.
And said, hey, we need to finda facility that can hold about
1,000 people.
We said, well, we have thebuilding available and we got it
(13:44):
up and running in about two anda half weeks.
So you know, it's not justturning the light switch on, it
was making sure all the you knoweverything worked.
So I mean, obviously we stillare paying for the upkeep of it,
but there's a big differencebetween upkeeping it and putting
1,000 people in it.
So that got up and running inabout two weeks.
(14:06):
Lockport paid for the cleaningand everything like that.
There was really no cost toanybody at Lincoln Way for that.
It was a true rental-typeopportunity community.
But other than that, at thispoint you know the school is not
going to be open for a LincolnWay school, probably again, you
(14:28):
know we need a certain number ofstudents in the district to
operate that and we just don'thave that at this point.
Israel (14:36):
And there was talk at the time about the state police
purchasing it right.
Aaron Janik (14:39):
Yeah.
So they had walked through,they had toured it, multiple
state agencies.
The Illinois Department ofPublic Health was looking to
maybe consolidate somefacilities they had and use a
portion of it and it's not FEMA,but the Illinois Emergency
Management Agency was similar toFEMA.
They were talking about takingsome space too, but for whatever
(15:03):
reason, I think that kind ofhappened all around the time
that the pandemic started andpriorities shifted and things
happened and now it's four yearslater and building's still
available.
So the bonds on it will be paidoff again.
I want to say 2032.
So at that point it would bepaid off and we'll have a little
(15:28):
bit less restriction on whatcan be done with it Right now.
If you were to try to use it,it's the bonds.
The way the bonds arestructured, it's limited in what
we can do with it.
So right now the FrankfortSquare Park District uses North
for the field house and some ofthe fields, the gym and the
(15:52):
weight room.
So for 210 residents, frankfortSquare residents can go there
and play basketball and walk thetrack.
So that's an intergovernmentalagreement.
I mean, it's not what it wasintended for, but it's still
being used somewhat.
What do you think are some ofthe biggest challenges?
Israel (16:12):
that the district faces right now.
Aaron Janik (16:16):
You know the Mack on Wood.
We're in a pretty good spotright now.
I don't think we have a lot ofchallenges where, if you went
back 10 years, you know youlooked at borrowing money to
make payroll right.
We're nowhere near thatsituation Now.
You're always going to have achallenge.
An entity as big as Lincoln Wayis, you know there's hundreds
(16:38):
of employees, there's multiplebuildings, but I don't think you
have the challenges that we hada decade ago.
You know changing educationtools and ways that we educate.
You know advent of AI I'm sureyou know you've talked about it
(16:59):
and using.
You know using your technology.
Here we have to get studentsready for the future and how
that's going to look.
So maybe some technology-basedtype of issues, but we have a
good staff at Lincoln Way, goodadministration, and so they're
going to work together to facethose challenges and get the
(17:20):
students ready to face them aswell.
Israel (17:23):
You were prior to the 210, you were on the 159 school
board, Yep.
So you know, going back thenand then, as you ran for 210,
what made you want to run forschool board?
Aaron Janik (17:36):
So the first time I was on the 159 board, a spot
opened up.
Actually, someone had resignedand I don't remember who it was,
but they were takingapplications for to fill that
seat.
So I put in for it and theboard, the board members the six
of them at the time selected meto fill that spot and at the
(17:59):
time we had our youngest in thatschool district.
So I filled out the remainingtwo years of that term and then
I ran again for a four-year term.
Halfway through that's whenthings at Lincoln Way kind of
started coming to light.
My wife, when I was gettingready to run for 210, she was
why are you gonna run for 210?
(18:21):
We didn't have any students inthe district.
I go well, I think I can make adifference, that guy can help.
And so I ran.
I was one of 13 candidatesrunning for five seats and was,
you know, lucky enough and to towin and get on.
And my first meeting was oftaking a vote to borrow money
(18:41):
from one of the south suburbanvillages to loan us some money
to make payroll the next day,because if we didn't borrow the
money people wouldn't havegotten a paycheck.
So um, now welcome to the bigtime I guess they say, uh, so,
yeah, so we.
So we made that decision toborrow that money.
(19:03):
The interest rate wasn't thebest, but we really didn't have
a choice.
And then we slowly but surelystarted stacking some wins.
I'll call them and you did thatand we got into a good spot,
where we are today.
Israel (19:18):
And how long do you think it took to right the ship,
so to say?
Aaron Janik (19:23):
I would say it took probably a good six years.
Yeah, six and a half.
You know we've been in a goodspot.
We just refinanced some of thedebt.
We had the interest rate.
I want to say it's at 1.76%.
Wow, we lucked out, becauseabout two months later is when
interest rates really spiked.
(19:43):
That was kind of justfortuitous timing.
That wasn't necessarily acrystal ball, but we had done
everything to get us into aposition to be able to refinance
debt and not have to incur hugefees.
And it was millions of dollars.
So refinancing millions ofdollars at 1.76% is a lot better
(20:07):
than refinancing millions ofdollars at 6%.
So wound up saving quite a bitof money.
And we were actually we're ableto abate some money back to
residents.
You know it wasn't a ton, butthere's not a lot of you know
public bodies out there saying,hey, we're able to, you know,
abate some money, Sure.
Israel (20:28):
So you know, lincoln Way for me accounts for 21, 27% of
my property tax bill.
So how can we, how can youreassure Lincoln Way taxpayers?
You know to be sure that theschool district is spending
their tax dollars in the mostefficient way possible.
Aaron Janik (20:45):
Yeah, well, I mean, that's the big question we
always get asked.
If you look at what we've doneover the past almost eight years
not since I've been on theboard we have spent the money
wisely.
We've done surgical type umlooks at building maintenance.
You know, like hey, could we dothis, this and this?
(21:07):
Well, sure, if we want to spenda bunch of money, but no, it's
times not right.
We need to do just this thingthis year.
You know what, whether it's aroof or an air conditioning unit
or a parking lot.
And then let's plan for two orthree years down the road to do
the other two or three thingsthat we were looking at.
And now we've gotten to a pointwhere we have enough money
(21:31):
saved up, put aside and we havea good plan in place to do the
things we need to do, but alsostill providing top-notch
education to the students thatcome through Lincoln Way.
I mean, lincoln Way is knownfor not only its academics but
its extracurriculars, its sportsteams, its marching band, its
drama program, its weldingprogram.
(21:52):
So we're still able to provideall those services while not
seeing huge increases.
Had we just said, oh yeah,we'll just go ahead and do
whatever we want.
No, I'm a taxpayer too.
I want to be mindful of thefact that we're being entrusted
with taxpayer money by stillproviding good services and
making sure the facilities arein good shape.
(22:13):
It's a fine line.
You have to walk Sure.
Israel (22:17):
What do you think is the best way to address differences
of opinion with other boardmembers, as well as the?
Aaron Janik (22:24):
administration.
Well, you know, we're allindividuals.
We always have differences ofopinion.
You know, if you watch a boardmeeting, we're always having
questions of the administration,dialogue back and forth.
They're pretty congenial boardmeetings, but we always don't
(22:51):
agree on things that we'retalking about.
So I mean there are things whereyou pick up a phone call or
pick up a phone, make a phonecall hey, you know, why did you
take that vote?
Or why are you?
What are you thinking aboutthis issue?
You know, luckily, knock onwood, we've been pretty, you
know, steady over the pastcouple of years.
But there was times when Ifirst got on the board we were
having three hour meetings.
We don't walk into a meetingand have a three hour meeting
(23:13):
without having probably aboutnine hours of phone calls and
emails and prep work anddiscussions with other board
members before you get there.
You know what I mean and justlooking through all the
information, so you know we'rein a good spot now as a board we
don't have a lot ofdisagreements, but if we do,
it's just the simplest pickingup a phone, talking to somebody
talk about the time requirementa little bit of being a board
(23:35):
member.
Israel (23:35):
How much?
How much of your regular weekdoes it take?
How much of your regular weekdoes it take?
Aaron Janik (23:39):
Well, in my current role I'm the president, so I do
a lot of the.
You know any board member cantalk to you know the
superintendent, theadministration, a lot of times.
I guess you'd say I'm theforward-facing board member as
the president, so I'll get phonecalls.
You know, often, hey, just giveyou a heads up, having a
(24:00):
meeting with this entity or thatentity or this issue popped up,
and so it's hard to quantify itbecause it happens so often.
Israel (24:12):
It kind of becomes part of daily life, yeah.
Aaron Janik (24:15):
You know I'm driving in the car.
I got some windshield timebecause I'm going from one
meeting to the next for work.
Pick up a phone and you know,now I'm already from point A to
point B and it's been 45 minutes, you know, and it's like okay,
well, we'll wrap this uptomorrow.
After you have your meeting,you call me, let me know how it
goes.
So it does kind of becomenormal.
You fit it in when you can.
(24:38):
You know I do have a Mondaythrough Friday 9 to 5 type of
job, so sometimes it'll be lateat night where I'm shooting an
email off or reading an email.
So you just fit it in when youhave the ability to.
The school board meetingsthemselves are the third
Thursday of every month.
Lately they've been relativelybrief meetings because we've
(25:03):
gotten to a good spot.
So things are kind of settled.
You know, hour, hour and a half.
When I first got on the boardthey were three hour meetings.
I want to say we were meetingtwice a month just because we
needed to make some decisionsevery couple of weeks, like hey,
we need to borrow some money topay some bills.
So it's gotten a little bitless time consuming.
(25:26):
But you know, you sign up for ajob and you do it, however long
it takes yeah, how can theBoard of Education best
communicate with its constituentgroups?
well, I mean, we have email, wehave phone.
I mean my phone number andemail address are public
(25:47):
information.
When you sign up to run for theschool board, you list where
you live and all thatinformation.
I have my Lincoln Way shirt ontoday.
I wear this out in the public alot.
Just because I'm either goingto an event or coming from one,
I'll stop at the grocery storeor whatnot, grab something to
(26:08):
eat, and so I see people out andabout town and, um, you know,
if someone has an issue, we getemails all the time, we get
phone calls all the time.
I disagree with people in thepublic.
You know, sometimes people justwant to be heard, right, um?
Sometimes they they want ananswer.
Sometimes my job is to givethem an answer that they may not
like to hear, um, but you know,you know.
(26:31):
However, anyone wants to get ahold of me, I'm available.
Israel (26:35):
You know, as we sit today, there's three people that
are up for election this term.
Right, and so you really don'thave a challenger.
But what made you still want tosit down and talk with me
tonight?
Aaron Janik (26:49):
Well, I always like to engage the public.
This is an easy way to do it,so your podcast will be
broadcast out.
I'll be able to share it acrossmy social media pages.
People can get to know me.
Hello, you know, it's just.
I think it's part of electedofficials' duty is to be, you
(27:10):
know, available and makethemselves known.
I don't think it's right forsomeone to get into a position
and not respond or not.
You know, make it known whothey are.
You know who they are.
So at this point, you know, aswe sit here today doing this
interview, there are just thethree incumbents that have
pulled petitions.
(27:31):
There's still time.
I'm not sure when this will bebroadcast, but maybe there would
be a fourth or fifth personrunning for election, and that's
okay.
I'm doing this again.
This would be my third time.
I do have two younger childrengetting ready to go through the
Lincoln Way school system andthe biggest thing that a board
(27:51):
member does is the hiring andfiring of a superintendent.
We're not firing oursuperintendent now and we're not
hiring one, but our currentsuperintendent will be probably
retiring within the next fouryears or so.
Maybe I think it's four years,from May of 2025.
(28:15):
So if you look at that, youknow you're kind of getting into
that position where you'regoing to hire a new
superintendent.
Well, being on the board foreight years, going from where we
were to where we are, I'd liketo be part of the process of you
know, hey, here's somebody thatwe're going to hire.
Let's make sure we have someinstitutional knowledge of where
(28:38):
we were eight years ago or 10years ago, wherever it's going
to be, to get that next personin to lead the district.
Israel (28:45):
So slightly off topic, but 159 is going through a
superintendent search right now,making a very public search,
looking for input from thecommunity.
Talk a little bit about whatgoes on with that process and
what's involved.
Aaron Janik (29:03):
Yeah, so typically for a superintendent search a
board will hire a consultingfirm.
Board members are volunteers sothey're doing their day-to-day
job.
Superintendent search a boardwill hire a consulting firm.
You know board members arevolunteers so you know they're
doing their day-to-day job.
The consulting firm you knowthis is what they do.
They go out and and gathercandidates for school boards to
vet.
I know 159 in the past hasalways involved community
(29:27):
members, different constituentgroups.
I was involved earlier thisyear in just providing some
feedback of what we'd be lookingfor at a first superintendent
at the 159 district.
So in that group were membersof the village fire department,
retired individuals, stilltaxpayers in the district, maybe
(29:50):
no kids.
So you're going to get a widecross-section of input from the
various constituent groups.
The board obviously makes theultimate decision, but going
through a process where you getcommunity input is important.
I'm assuming when the timecomes at Lincoln Way we'll do
the same thing.
Israel (30:10):
I'm assuming when the time comes, at Lincoln Way,
we'll do the same thing.
And what kind of things are isthe board looking for in a
candidate?
Aaron Janik (30:17):
Well, I mean you need someone that's going to be
a leader, right?
I mean, the superintendent isthe probably the person that is
the most forward facing of adistrict.
They're the one where all thecommunication is coming from,
especially on big issues.
Right, you might hear from yourchild's principal on some.
You know events coming up andday-to-day type things, but when
(30:38):
it comes to the big issues youknow budgets and you know other
things of that nature it's goingto be the superintendent.
So you want someone that'sgoing to one be able to lead the
organization but also havepeople to follow their lead put
together a good team.
Administration is not made upof just superintendents the
finance office, curriculumdepartment, so a lot goes into
(31:02):
running an organization as bigas Lincoln Way, but also 159.
So we'll need to find someoneat Lincoln Way in a few years of
who's going to be a good leader, good communicator.
Israel (31:16):
And say, in that process going forward, this
superintendent Tingley would beretiring at that point.
Yeah, and would he have aninput typically as well, or not?
Aaron Janik (31:27):
You know, I don't know if superintendents that are
leaving have input.
I think we'd probably want someinput from him.
You know, having been in therole, you know what's required.
I think it would be good.
The decision's ultimately theboard's, though, so you know you
can get all the input in theworld, but that decision is
(31:47):
going to come down to, you know,the seven board members in the
world, but that decision isgoing to come down to the seven
board members.
Israel (31:56):
Talk a little bit about how you see the role of a school
board member.
Aaron Janik (31:59):
Well, again, it goes back to the hiring and the
firing of the superintendent.
The superintendent is taskedwith implementing the policies
that the Board of Education putsin place.
You know, obviously the boardapproves the budget.
That's a very large budget.
For Lincoln Way we're overabout $120 million.
(32:20):
So you know, we have severalindividuals on the board that
will you know, have a specificarea of I want to expertise, but
we have several educators onthe board.
I'm an attorney, there's twoother attorneys on the board, we
(32:40):
have a trades person.
So we all provide our inputindividually and then
collectively, we'll we'll goahead and make decisions that
impact people.
Israel (32:55):
How about getting?
How much should a board memberbe getting involved with, say,
day-to-day or with thesuperintendent's operations,
things like that?
Aaron Janik (33:04):
Yeah, no, I mean that's, people aren't electing
me to get down into thenitty-gritty of math.
You know, in the nitty grittyof you know math.
You know what I mean.
Like you want me as far awayfrom a math book as possible.
No, I'm kidding.
Israel (33:18):
But no, I mean, where does the line drawn list say
things like curriculum?
Sure, how much involvementwould the board have with that,
compared to the administration?
Aaron Janik (33:27):
Yeah, the administration is going to
research the various I don'twant to say textbooks, but we're
going to, and I'm not aneducator so I'm not going to
make up a name but they're goingto look at.
Okay, the math curriculum hastrended towards this type of
curriculum.
History has trended toward thistype.
(33:49):
English has trended toward thistype.
English has trended toward thistype.
They're going to put thecurriculum together and they'll
update us on what are we doingin terms of classes, you know,
to support the students to getready to take the SAT, which is
how the districts are judged interms of, you know, test scores
and things of that nature, toget our rankings up.
(34:11):
You know, like I said, we'reone, two, three, so we do a
great job getting students readyto take those standardized
tests.
Again, standardized testsaren't the end all be all, but
the district administration willbe the one that's putting the
curriculum together.
Now, if there's issues with it,it's what the department heads
are there for, right, thedepartment chairs for English,
(34:34):
math and social science andforeign languages.
They're looking at it on theday-to-day level, like what's
working, you know, what's notlet's?
You know, we had this in ourcurriculum and we didn't seem to
do well on this kind of portionof the SAT.
Well, let's maybe pivot and trythis model for getting students
(34:55):
ready.
A lot of times you'll havedifferentiated instruction in
the classroom.
So it's not just you know.
Here's the curriculum.
Everyone go do it.
There's a lot of moving partsto it and the board member
doesn't necessarily get involvedin that.
Now maybe an educator, you know, like I said, we have a few
(35:18):
educators on the board.
They might take a deeper lookinto it because they're doing
that in their day-to-day job.
You know, I'm working theconstruction industry.
I'm not sure you know, lookingat the math curriculum at a
macro level.
I'm looking at more macro level.
Israel (35:34):
One of the things you know as a parent.
We're all concerned aboutsending our kids to school and
you think about safety.
So how can parents be sure thattheir kids are safe going on
Lincoln Way schools?
Aaron Janik (35:45):
Yeah.
So I'm sure you recall, earlierthis year there was a lot of
social media stuff out thereabout school shootings.
It was out in Joliet, I believe, is where it initiated, started
at.
It got picked up Various otherschool districts, kids sharing
it and whatnot.
I was getting a lot of phonecalls on that.
(36:07):
My first thing was well, I'mpicking up the phone and I'm
calling the superintendent andhe goes yep, we already know
about it, we're already on it.
You know can't really get intospecifics on what our security
and safety plans are, butthey're good.
(36:27):
You know, obviously they'realways being looked at and
refined with our partners in lawenforcement.
There was just another recentone that happened at Providence
where the New Lenox police hadthe subject in custody before an
alert could even really be out.
(36:49):
I mean, that's how quick thingsmoved.
You know we do have schoolresource officers at each school
Will County Sheriff, you know,deputy.
So you know there's alwaysthings going on to keep our kids
safe.
The biggest one is the parentsand the community members and
other students.
(37:10):
You know, if there's somethinggoing on, you know I don't want
to sound cliche, but you seesomething, you say something
right, and we tell my kids, thatmy younger ones.
Hey, if there's something goingon, you know, and someone's
saying something I'm going tohurt myself or I'm going to you
know there's going to be aschool shooting, you don't even
(37:30):
worry about getting in trouble.
You come to us and we're goingto, you know.
Take care of it right away.
So I mean, we try to letparents know that they're our
front line as well.
But there are things in thebackground that we can do and we
are doing to make sure they'reas safe as they can be.
Yeah that's a good point.
Israel (37:47):
I mean parents being the front line.
I mean really, yeah, that goesa long way.
So what advice would you giveto anybody that was considering
running for office?
Aaron Janik (37:59):
uh, be yourself.
I mean that's.
I'm kind of a outgoing person,you know.
So I, I will talk to anybodyand everyone.
I'll tell them the honest truth.
Again, I've said before,sometimes when I tell people an
answer, they don't like it.
But you just got to be honestwith people.
I mean, your word is your bond.
(38:21):
If you shift your answers orshift your, I don't want to say
your morals, but if you justgive someone what they want,
then you know you're not reallydoing a good job.
So, be yourself, be available.
Israel (38:39):
Is there anything else you'd like to say or share?
Aaron Janik (38:43):
No, I mean I think if you know this is going to be
posted prior to the election, Iwould say don't panic, vote for
Janik.
It's been a campaign slogan ofmine since 8th grade.
It seemed to work well for me8th grade.
Israel (38:55):
What were you running for in 8th grade?
Aaron Janik (38:56):
Student council.
I did not win that year, butit's worked out okay for me.
You kept the logo still.
Yeah, my kids have used it acouple times here and there.
They were successful in studentcouncil.
My daughter lost a couple yearsago in a very hotly contested
election.
Israel (39:12):
I remember that one.
Yes, known each other a lot.
Our kids have been in schooltogether since kindergarten.
Yeah, yeah, known each otherwell over the years.
Yes, yes, appreciate yousitting down with me, aaron.
Not only the first one tointerview with me, but the first
(39:33):
one to respond and offer to sitdown.
Aaron Janik (39:34):
So I appreciate your enthusiasm and your service
to our community.
Alright well, thank you forhaving us.
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