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

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
All right, thank you all for meeting with me today.
This is by far the biggestgroup that I've had to talk to.
So after we rearrange the househere, I'm happy to sit down
with all of you.
And just for a littlebackground, patrick reached out
to me after seeing some of theother candidate interviews and I
had not done really reached outor done much with the 161,

(00:39):
because it's not as big of apart of Mokena but we're a
section of that and ourattention has been more on the
159 as well as the VillageMokena races and that.
But this is an extremelyimportant race and, as anybody
that's been paying attentionknows that, there's been a lot
going on in the 161 schooldistrict over the last year or

(01:00):
so, and so I really appreciatethe opportunity, you guys
reaching out to us, to me, andwanting to come down.
I you know I love seeingcandidates that are wanting to
talk.
Transparency is extremelyimportant, especially in these
school board races where hugechunks of our tax dollars are
going and you know, moreimportantly than that, you know

(01:21):
it's our, our children and ouryouth.
Don't mind my cat.
Importantly than that, you knowit's our children and our youth
, Don't mind my cat.
So, as we get started, whydon't we just we want to go down
, and we'll start with Amy hereand just introduce?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
yourself.
Tell us who you are, and alittle bit.
I'm Amy Burke.
Thank you again so much forgiving us this opportunity to
talk out.
This is my first term on theboard.
I'm running for reelection, soI've been on the board for four
years.
I'm a 16-year Frankfordresident, 16 years married to my
husband.
I have one beautiful daughternamed Lyra, who's in eighth
grade and decided that it was anopportunity to show her to step

(01:58):
up when I first ran and want tocontinue my work.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
All right, my name is Patrick Oliphant.
This is my first time everrunning for public office.
I live in the Arbury Hillsneighborhood right off of
basically 193rd in LaGrange.
My entire community issurrounded by Mokena, so my
driver's license actually saysMokena.
We have lived in the area for10 years.
My wife is from the New LenoxManhattan area.

(02:22):
I grew up in Elstub, so this wasa nice meet in the middle.
We're both about 20 minutesaway from our parents' house.
It worked out very well thatway.
I have a 10-year-old daughterand an 8-year-old son.
Both attend Summit Hill Schools, and I became involved in this.
Never really wanted to run forpublic office.
I actually got involved duringthe school closing process.
One of the top two reasons thatthey gave for closing the

(02:44):
schools was facilitiesoperations and maintenance costs
.
I am a local 399 stationaryengineer and proud, proud union
member and also now for the lastthree years, an engineering
manager for ABM.
I work with many differentdepartments throughout the
Chicagoland area and wespecialize in facilities
operations and maintenance,right Long-term cost projections

(03:07):
, short-term repairs andeverything and anything in
between.
When that was stated that thatwas a major cause, I said I can
actually do something here, LikeI can really help and I
convinced my company to offerfree services, free evaluation
audits, to give long-termsolutions and cost benefits that
are much more accurate than thetools that I know they were
using, because I've worked withthat in the past and when I

(03:31):
presented my services for free,just as a citizen, it was sat on
for about a month and a halfand then, less than five days
before they voted to close theschools, they had a board member
tell me thanks but no thanks,claim there was a conflict of
interest, which there wasabsolutely none, and that really
was upsetting to me because themath didn't add up right, Like

(03:54):
why don't good leadership usesthe resources that are available
to them?
And they were clearly not evenentertaining this.
And then they kind ofrailroaded it through and the
more questions I asked afterthat, the more digging, the more
the math didn't add up.
So that's really what broughtme into the limelight here.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, I'm sure that was a issue A lot of people got
were passionate about.
I know your board meetings wereextremely contentious at the
time, so we'll definitely spendsome time hearing more about
that.
So, melissa, how about you?

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Hi, I'm Melissa Ryan.
I've been in the district herefor five years now.
We moved the end of January2020.
So we came to the district andmy kids were in school a few
weeks later.
Covid happened.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, what an interesting time to move into a
district it really was.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
I never paid attention to local politics
until that year, and that's kindof when I started going to the
meetings and paying attentionand have ever since.
I lucked out because I actuallywas able to get on the Rogus
SEO before I even moved here.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
What's that?
Can you explain what that is?

Speaker 4 (05:03):
So the SEO is basically a PTO, it's a school
community organization, and sowe just raise funds and put on
fun events and I'm probablyminimizing it.
It's a lot of work, but it'sfun.
It's fun and, yeah, we get togive back to the school, the
teachers, the students, so, um.

(05:24):
So, yeah, I got to do that andsince I was on the SEO, I was
actually only allowed in theschool because of that, which
was you know I was grateful for,because if it wasn't for that,
I wouldn't have stepped foot inthe school, probably until two
years later.
So, so, yeah, so it was a greatopportunity.
I've gotten to develop a lot ofrelationships in the school and

(05:44):
the community and, yeah, I'm aself-employed CPA.
I have three daughters One's afreshman at East, one's in fifth
grade at Hill to Walker, andthen I have a four-year-old who
will start kindergarten fall of2026.
So I'll start all over again.
So I'm very invested.

(06:06):
So, which is, you know, anotherreason to get involved and step
up and do this.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
So, um it's great yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:15):
All right, ronnie, how about you?
I'm Ron Petrie.
Um, I've been in a communityfor about 17 years now.
Um, back in uh, 2020 with theCOVID thing is when I kind of
got involved in the communityand in the district and started
going to board meetings, startedasking questions, started
standing up.
I actually worked with Amy backat Eisenhower when we first

(06:36):
started teaching together.
So I reached out to her andstarted having conversations
with her when I saw that she wason the board and then just kind
of started that she was on theboard and then, um, just kind of
started getting involved.
Uh, two years ago I ran for umto get on the board, um, because
of all the stuff that I've seenwas happening, um, and so, um,
just missed it by 200 votes tobe on the board.

(06:58):
So I decided to continue to tryto do it again, um, because, uh
, the things that have beenhappening need to stop.
And so a little history about mykids.
Is I, my first son, who is nowa sophomore in college?
He was in first grade at MaryDrew when they closed Mary Drew
down and then we had obviouslyonly going north.
That closed down not too farafter that, and so you know,

(07:21):
after north kind of shut down iswhen I kind of started like
stuff, what is going on in ourcommunity when we have a, you
know, after North kind of shutdown is when I kind of started
like stuff, what is going on inour community when we have a
community high school that goesdown?
We have a school that you knowhouses first and fourth graders
close down in the community, andthen you know COVID hit, and
then you know, got all thesemasks and you know you have to
wear a mask on a bus, and thenyou know we're going to continue

(07:43):
to do our masking.
Oh no, you have to wear a maskon a bus.
And then you know we're goingto continue to do our masking.
Oh no, you're going to stay athome for a little bit.
Where 157C, everybody's atschool, you know, and so it's
like what's going on?
And that's kind of where I kindof jumped in, you know.

(08:05):
So then my daughter graduatedfrom Summit Hill during COVID
and then now my son is going tobe graduating this year as an
eighth grader as well, and so Istarted paying attention,
started asking questions, andwhat I've kind of realized is
parents' voice don't matter.
So that's kind of thrown out.
They'll have a hot topic.
You'll come up, you'll talkabout the hot topic, you'll talk
to parents on the side and thenimmediately at the end of the
board meeting they'll passthrough.
So it doesn't even matter.
They don't even take the timeto think about parents' voice.

(08:25):
They don't allow the parents toeven talk in the community
about it.
It's already done deal beforeit's even up there, it's signed
on over with and it's happenedmultiple times and maybe we can
get more into that as we goalong.
So I live by Indian Trail, byHickory Creek, I also lived over
by Sycamore, which was over byMary Drew, and so I've done in

(08:46):
two different houses in thecommunity.
And you know the community wasbuilt on the reason I moved here
.
The community was built onbeing able to walk your kids to
school.
You know it's called communityschool district because the
community felt like they canbring their kids to school back
and forth, they don't have toride a bus, felt like they can
bring their kids to school backand forth, they don't have to

(09:07):
ride a bus.
Now we shut off our busingtransportation costs because now
we're busing kids all over theplace.

Speaker 6 (09:13):
I'm Adrian, or Adrian Chavez, and I feel like the
dinosaur of the group because myfamily, we've all been in this
community for over 35 years.
I actually walked to IndianTrail and I went to Indian Trail
.
I actually went to Arbury Hillsin kindergarten and that was
back then, and then I wentthroughout.
I went to Mary Drew when it wasboth Hill to Walker and Summit

(09:36):
Hill within the Mary Drewbuilding, and I went to Linkaway
East and then Central and backthen it was two years at one and
two years at the other, and mybrother and my sister were both
at Linkaway East for their fouryears and, you know, grew up in
the area, loved the area, myfamily being immigrants.
They came from Mexico and Cuba.

(09:56):
They understood that this was areally nice community to bring
up their family, and so it was.
It was an outstandingexperience and so I was.
When I started having kids ofmy own, there was no better
place and I wanted to come backto.
And my background is verydifferent as far as from other
candidates and from the existingboard.

(10:16):
I do not have an academicbackground.
I'm not an academia at all.
I wasn't even really a greatstudent.
However, I did find a reallygreat path as a food service
professional.
So I worked with larger brandssuch as like PepsiCo, simplot,
which is a manufacturer forFrench fries for McDonald's, and
I was an account executivewhere I would be working with

(10:39):
every state except for Illinoisin training and working with
franchise owners and workingwith frontline teams at
McDonald's and training them andteaching them.
And now I'm a regional accountmanager for a company and major
manufacturer of majoringredients for, like sauces and
dressings and things like that.

(11:00):
But throughout my whole careeryou know my, my emphasis has
always been bringing differentpeople with different
backgrounds and different pointsof views together to a table to
try to find, you know, mutuallybeneficial, mutually beneficial
, um, uh, paths forward, um,where we could create a win, win
, win situation.
And, um, I think you know Istarted to try and get involved

(11:21):
when I started going to thesemeetings and I understood that
there was such a disconnectbetween the board and the
community and the parents thatneeded repairing and, I think,
needs a reset, and I was justhoping that I could be a voice
for that and I could be aconduit to bring people who have
these contentious views, bringthem to the table and understand

(11:42):
we're all neighbors, we're allwanting the same success for our
community, and for me it's.
You know, yes, I have a lot ofvested interests.
I have five children.
My daughter isn't in thedistrict but I have my son, who
was at Frankfurt when theyclosed Frankfurt Frankfurt
Square School.
So now he's at Indian Trail,which is cool for me because
that was my alma mater.

(12:02):
But I've also got three otherkids in the chamber that are now
going to be startingkindergarten, also at Rogas.
But for me, the way that I lookat it is, it's not only for my
kids that I'm involved.
For me what's really importantis the children that are around
them as well, the community thatis around them that we build
around them.
So that's really my focus and Ijust hope to bring kind of a

(12:25):
voice of, you know, unity andbringing the community together
and finding common ground andunderstanding that how important
community is not only to thechildren, the students, the
teachers, but also thebusinesses that are involved,
the administrators as well, howthey're looped in and how
they're utilized, theadministrators as well, how
they're looped in and howthey're utilized.
So I'm hoping to kind of bringsome efficiency, bring better

(12:48):
communication, kind of almostlike a rebranding of Frankfurt
back to what it was, and it wasa very welcoming community.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
But that's me in a nutshell.
I guess I want to come back toyou, amy, as a current board
member.
Talk a little bit about whatyou're seeing from the inside.
What's the attitudes like, whatis the atmosphere of the board
and are you able to get thingsdone, or what's going on yeah
spill the beans Let it all.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Tell the team no, no and all sincereness.
So it's funny how we all saidyou know, people don't really.
If everything's going good fortheir kid, they don't really pay
attention.
My issue was COVID.
When I started, you know, Inever thought I'd be in a public
position and it was COVID thatgot me started in the meeting.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Maybe explain what.
What part of COVID was it thatgot you involved?

Speaker 2 (13:37):
So it was how it was impacting and affecting our
students and similar to what waspossessed here, what was
expressed here.
People's voices weren't beingheard, whether they were in the
80% majority or 20% you knowminority of what they thought
should be happening.
Their voices weren't be heard.
So I started a community grouponline and I was getting input.
I was attending meetings alsoat the time.

(13:59):
So not speaking of currentboard or anything but at the
time before I was elected, therewas a lot of contention, even
between board members, themeetings I mean there was public
fighting in the meetings.
So I'm watching this and going.
You know what?
I'm a pretty professionalperson.
I believe in being able to havedifferent values, such as we

(14:22):
all do you know, and be able tocome together and have those
difficult conversations and dothat.
So that was also part of thereason that I ran Up into the
school closing.
I think I made progress on that.
My motto was growth withrespect.
I believe that we were able totalk through things when it came

(14:42):
time to the school closing.
I asked for different options.
I asked what are our options?
You know, can we look at?
We had Mary Drew that issitting with 18 or so
administrators there and theother half was being rented by
the park district.
How can we utilize this?
I want to be approachable.
I want to listen to thecommunity.

(15:03):
I do feel you know when you cansee the contention and how the
voting played out.
You know it was five.

(15:30):
You know a lot of times it'sfive to school closings, five to
or four or three.
So you voted against closing Ivoted against closing the
schools and, obviously, fiscalresponsibility I'm responsible
to the taxpayers and community,absolutely 100%.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
And there was another vote as well that was against
it.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
So there was a first vote.
First vote was 4-3.
And that was December of theprevious year, not 2024, 2023.
And then another vote.
We tried to bring it up on theagenda again after parents were
still asking you know thisprocess, we're seeing it happen

(16:16):
too fast, and so we absolutelytried to put it on the agenda
again.
The board members had agreed toput it on the agenda again
because the process a lot ofpeople don't know is you have
the board president and thesuperintendent who create the
agenda based on the input fromthe other board members.
So we got it in there, but thatwas voted down at a time we had
lost one board member who hadmoved.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
Even John and Amy asked the board.
Are we voting to close schoolsbefore December?
And was stated in the meeting.
No, we're not going to closethe schools before December.
Yeah, but they did it five daysbefore Christmas.
They did it five days beforeChristmas.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
The problem.
The issue I had as a sittingmember was that when you're
asked that in public and you sayno, that's not guaranteed, no,
that's not what it's going to be, we're going to go through and
I was on the buildings andground commission too.
So they went through the stepsof we went through the steps of
having the buildings and groundcommission and the data being

(17:18):
presented.
People were questioning a lotof the data in general.
Myself, I talked to anaccountant, I looked through the
numbers, I toured the buildings.
We had myself and a few otherstour the buildings.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
What did you question ?
What did you think didn't lookright?

Speaker 2 (17:37):
I questioned why the need to go through the process
so quickly.
That was my main question.
I think the community, I thinkmyself.
Had it been the right decisionfor the board, for the community
, for the students, for ourfiscal health, I would have had
no problem voting in favor ofdoing that, had the process been

(18:04):
more understood.

Speaker 6 (18:08):
And I think that's a crux of a lot of the contention
that is happening with thecommunity is they're not
understanding that processthat's taking place and because
of that, credibility goes outthe window and you start just
creating that space for division, right?

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Do you think that if the school board had been more
open about it, there would havebeen less contention and maybe,
you know, we would have been abetter place?

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Yes, can I take this one?
Yeah, so I would agree withthat wholeheartedly.
Right, like there was less than60 days from the time that it
was presented.
And it was presented onHalloween night of 2023 in a
patch article when everybody wasout and it was snowing that day
.
For those that remember, yes,it was, but a lot of people
don't notice that right.
And what was first presented tothe public officially on

(18:52):
Halloween night was then votedon December 20th and there were
building and grounds committeemeetings, there were a lot of
studies that were promised butweren't followed up on, and then
, in the time between the twovotes that Amy very graciously
just explained, from theclosings in December to the
second vote in February, a groupof concerned citizens led by

(19:14):
Lisa Brace I helped as best as Ipossibly could and a lot of
people I mean it was a realhomegrown community movement.
Mind you, in the middle of apolar vortex and then with very
heavy snow conditions, we wentaround collectively and got over
a thousand signatures ofconcerned citizens requesting a
delay and an explanation ofexactly what's happening.

(19:36):
Right, and in that Februarymeeting, you know, the
superintendent spoke for about30 to 40 minutes on many things
and publicly discredited theeffort, saying that he
questioned the validity of thosesignatures.
He accused us of all justforfeiting and counterfeiting.
And you don't build trust thatway.
When you're in a public meetingwith public officials and

(19:59):
taxpayers who are wanting to beheard in a very legitimate
manner, they just said well, wethink that you're all lying and
that this doesn't matter.
And in that meeting even theyblocked people from talking
right, which is also notwonderful.
But I think it's very importantto emphasize at this juncture
that while we were going door todoor and this was very personal

(20:20):
for me is that I would go doorto door, explain what we were
doing and people time and again.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Now, mind you, we are in the district of Lincoln Way
North, where all of our kidswould have gone to that school.
That's the thing too.
You have to have a sense ofempathy for what this community
has been through.
Thank you this communityabsolutely went through the
closing of North If you'relooking at our own district of
161,.
That same community wentthrough the closing of Mary Jew
in 2012.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah, and you're teeing this up perfectly,
because I would talk to peopleat their door and they would
tell me we love what you'redoing.
This is incredible, but I'mgoing to tell you none of it's
ever going to matter.
None of it's ever going tomatter.
They're never going to listento you and they're just going to
do what they want anyways, andthat this is all a complete
waste of time, because peoplehave already had a complete
disconnect with local governmentand what they were afraid of

(21:07):
came into fruition in February.
But I rejected that.
I rejected that as being true.
It was very upsetting to me andI kind of it burned a fire in
me to help change that narrativeand restore a voice to people
and restore accountability inthe relationship of the taxpayer
and the community in generalwith local government.

Speaker 5 (21:26):
To help out with Patrick on that.
I mean multiple times parentsask can we get current studies?
Can we get you know currentstudies on the enrollment?
Because one of the things theytalked about is enrollment was
going down, going down, goingdown, going down, going down.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
The main reasons Right.

Speaker 5 (21:41):
And in February, obviously 8th, during the last
meeting in february, eighth forcurriculum meeting, we had
obviously our enrollment allwent up.
So I mean we're asking we have,we have building, we have
structures going on,enrollment's gonna go up?
And then dismiss that, sayingthat only old people move into
our community and they don'thave kids and we're like no new
families will be coming in youknow it was told that 75 percent

(22:02):
of our tax, of our tax base, donot have students in the
district.
We asked for how much money doesour district have in reserves?

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Is that realistic?
75%, I mean?
That seems we don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
It's high.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
Yeah, I feel like that census is dated.
It's a high percentage eitherway.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
It's still a high percentage either way.
But the thing with that, evenin addition to what they're all
saying, you look at the numbers.
We had been prior again priorto this current board and
superintendent.
We had not been in great shapefinancially, but we were prior
to the school closing we haddone an excellent job in seeking

(22:42):
out grants.
We had done an excellent job inbeing responsible and heading
towards the right direction.
So there was no need toconsolidate the schools in order
to continue down that route orin order to pay down bonds.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
When you looked at the numbers, which the major
bond that we're talking aboutwas a result tied into what
Ronnie was bringing up.
Yeah, there was a majorinvestment put into the Mary
Drew School shortly before theyvoted to close it.
Yeah, and then we as a taxpayercommunity were just left with
the bill still to this day withthe bill, and we can cover more

(23:23):
about that later, but that isthe bond that she's talking
about was a school that remainedclosed for over a decade and
then was voted to be reopenedwithout any any public
conversation whatsoever.
It was never an agenda item,never even discussed, and then,
right when they voted to closethe schools, they just threw on
the agenda to reopen the MaryDrew School.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
It was.
The next agenda item was toreopen the Mary Drew School and
I tried to table it so we hadmore data and information,
because we had faculty from thetwo consolidated schools saying
if you're going to do this to us, could Mary Drew be a
possibility where we start ournew school together?
And that was not considered inhard data or open discussion.

Speaker 5 (24:07):
I mean some of the things that we didn't even
understand as a public.
As a community member beingthere for so many years, I
didn't even really understandthat we were still paying
operation costs to keep MaryDrew open.
So a school was closed, but wewere spending $600,000 a year
keeping the operation costsgoing, when we thought, as a
community, that the FrankfortPark District was paying the

(24:28):
operation costs on the side thatthey were actually using.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
They have an agreement for the half, and then
the other half of the buildingis for admin, so we're spending
all this money on a buildingthat our kids don't even use.

Speaker 5 (24:37):
And so when we were talking about closing schools,
we're asking the question whycan't you just close down, mary
Drew, then Just completely shutit and sell it then, and then
that will give us enough moneyto cover these extraordinary
costs that they came up with ofour school.
Buildings are falling apart andit's going to cost this much
million dollars to build a roof,and this and that you know, and

(24:59):
some of the questions we evenhad was like Indian Trail's roof
was leaking for years, foryears, like five, six years,
they're telling us, and it's allfalling apart.
Well, what have you been doingfor five, six years?
Why haven't you been takingcare of that?
You know, like, so, like we pay.
We pay a lot of money in ourcommunity for our school
district of 161.

(25:19):
We believe in our schooldistrict of 161.
We believe in our kids, and sopeople in our community have no
issues paying those tax money,but they do have an issues when
you're, when we don't knowwhat's going on and it feels
like there's a lies coming to us, and then when you go ahead and
you close down these schoolsand then then then you sell the

(25:39):
school and then on return, theprayer center tells us that the
school is in the greatest shapeit can ever be.
All we have to do is slap upsome paint on it to make it look
where we want it paint wise.
That, just that's another shotin our face when we're sitting
there, say these schools are ingreat condition.
And so there's another lie thatcame.
That came out of it because theproperty was sold in july yeah,

(26:01):
is yeah, so talk about that.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Was everybody for that?
What was the board sentimentlike at that time?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
I mean, I think after the school closings nobody
wants buildings to sit there.
No community member wants themto sit there.
So it was discussing the future.
That went fairly quickly aswell.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
Yes, it did, it was an open bid process.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Sealed open bid process.
The Chicago Autism was theother bidder on that property.
I think what constituentsquestioned was the amount that
it was sold for.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
Was it 1.75 million, something like that.
That 1.9, 1.9, to be exact.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah and you.
You feel it should have beenmore.
I think that's what theconstituents okay felt as well.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
you know, as a board member, we get um.
You know we go through theproper procedure and go out to
get okay, how?
How does this is assessed?
How is this?
You know, legally, what are wedoing that?
Then we get the information andthen I did not vote to sell it
Um what was the vote there?

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Do you remember?

Speaker 2 (27:16):
The vote was five to five.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
The vote was five to five.

Speaker 6 (27:22):
I think the ongoing trend was that everything's been
done super fast, yeah, right,and so one thing that I wanted
to point out was part of thereason why it's been moving so
fast is we've kind of had acurrent board that's kind of all
running on the same kind ofthought path, and I don't know
if that's from top down or howthat is happening Amy would know
more but what we as a team havekind of been looking at, we're

(27:48):
looking at each other and we'regoing.
Okay, we see things verydifferently.
We're coming at these thingsfrom very different angles.
What a board really should haveis time to vet problems and try
to check each other's blindspots look at these issues from
different angles, and anotherbig part of the issue was we
keep on pointing out thecommunity not trusting the board
, but there's this sentimentthat the board doesn't trust the
community either, becausethey're not providing the

(28:10):
information to the community toactually reflect on these
decisions and take a look at.
Ok, what's the future going tolook like with this?
You know nobody.
There's so many people thatdidn't know that their school
was actually going to be closed,that their school was actually
going to be closed and if, in myopinion and maybe it's a novice
way, but if we're going toclose a school in the center of
a community, I would put a bigbanner on that school and say,
hey, make sure you understand.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
I'm sorry.
What was the communication when?
When it was announced?

Speaker 2 (28:34):
So there, were public ads and public meetings in the
buildings and grounds andwhatever legally minimally was
required, such as ads innewspapers, the buildings and
grounds.
Those were the only things.
And this goes back to and thisstems from the issue with the
full-day kindergarten the issuewith communication.

(28:55):
I think there's ways to be moreproactive as far as changing
things in the future, ways to besuper, super proactive in how
we're communicating that toeveryone.
So, yes, there was notification, absolutely yeah, it was legal.

Speaker 5 (29:11):
They did it legally there's bare minimum and then
there's like making sure youhave apathy for your community
but I'd like to add a bareminimum by the law, taken care
of, I think, as a board member.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
It's difficult because we do have close
sessions.
You know there's discussionsthat happen Obviously.
Main stuff needs to absolutelyhappen in open discussion and
forum.
I know when there was an issuewith the equity audit, I
advocated for a town hall and Iknow it's been mentioned in the
community outreach meeting thattown halls, things like that.

(29:48):
It was mentioned by communitymembers during the process as
well yes that's one way, onething they could have had felt
that their voice was heard tooso this is, you know, a huge
topic and I so very important.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
I don't want to, you know, move past.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
But I want to say now , like obviously you, guys have
all been very passionate aboutit.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
The community has been very passionate.
What's the next step?
So you guys get in.
How do you one keep this fromhappening?
You know where are the schoolsat now.
Is there a chance that somebodychanges there?
But what do you tell voters?
What's the solution?

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Amy, do you tell voters what's the solution?
Amy, do you?

Speaker 3 (30:27):
want to start.
I can jump in.
You can jump in first, sure?
So I think, uh, one thing thatwe're all very passionate about
is we got to fix, fix the basicshere, right like we all have
the exact same goals of puttingbeing fiscally accountable,
transparency, doing everythingto put the children first, which
is all of our top goals, but Ithink, I want to point out, it's
putting the children first,which is all of our top goals.

Speaker 6 (30:45):
But I think I want to point out, putting the children
first is also about putting thevalues and the morals and the
community feel around those kids.
So these kids become neighbors,these kids become the kids who
are helping the elderly orgetting involved in the elderly.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
They become the DNA of our community, so that's one
way that I would look at it, butwe need to fix the most basic
things, which is opencommunication.
We have a text message systemthat we send to all the parents
when a school bus is going to belate, why not remind them of a
school board meeting?
Maybe some major topics?
These are just some ideas thatwe're going to kick around, but

(31:21):
there are many avenues ofcommunication that are just not
being exercised.
Another thing that we're goingto do is, anytime a community
member comes to a school boardmeeting and has something to say
, you listen to them withrespect, you do not interrupt
them, you do not laugh at them,you do not ridicule them while
they're speaking.
All of these things happen atthe very last meeting and happen
repeatedly.
Or close your eyes and fallasleep while and has something

(31:50):
to say is not alone, and thisyou know.
Educators say the same thing.
If somebody has the courage toask a question, 10 other people
are thinking it.
They're just the one with thecourage.
So whoever speaks at a meetingis representing a part of the
community and should be takenseriously and with respect.
I mean, that's just groundlevel.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
It's never getting easy getting up in front of a
group.
No, it's ground level stuff.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
And you're never going to please 100% of your
population, but you want to beable to make them to respect and
understand the decisions thatare being made.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
No, that's what I was going to say.
Um, you know, not to get no,please back to the school
closings.
But you know, when I firstheard that they were going to
close the schools, my firstthought process especially, you
know, doing what I do is if youcan't afford it, you can't
afford it.
So I went to the meeting wherethey presented the financial
audit report and it was clearthat it wasn't a financial issue

(32:44):
.
I requested the last five-yearaudits to be emailed to me.
They were there was nofinancial issue.
And then, as you listen to themeetings, you found I mean the
board members themselves wereindicating there was no
financial issue.
You know, we weren't savingmoney, we were going to be
pouring money into Mary Drew, weweren't cutting the biggest
expense, which was, you know,employees as teachers, which not

(33:06):
that we wanted anybody to losetheir job, but again it was.
All of these things wereconflicting with, you know.
Oh, it's a financial issue.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
All staff was saved unless they were choosing to
retire or do that, and they madethat point and that is very
true, that all staff was saved.
However, if you go to recently,when you look at the numbers
when the small group gets toHilda Walker, there's going to
be a need for changes.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
For fewer teachers, or yeah?

Speaker 4 (33:39):
So I guess my point was that, you know, then the
question was okay, well then,why are we really doing this?
And there was never really ananswer.
You know, and anybody whoquestioned it you know we were
just the community was justannoying them Like they had
their, they had what they weregoing to do and that was it.
So it was a done deal, as youknow.

(34:00):
It's already been said that.
You know, I feel like and I'mnot an expert, but I feel like,
you know, issues should bebrought to the table, discussed
in front of the community, andwe should see the process, and
we've pretty much figured out bynow that once something's
talked about at the boardmeeting, it's a done deal and
it's happening, it's already setup.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Do you want to answer the question of what your
things that you're going toimplement?
It's something important forthe viewers to notice is the
reason why there's five of us isthat four of us are running for
full four-year terms.
Amy myself, ronnie and Adrianare running for four-year terms.
Melissa's running for atwo-year term that was vacated
by one of the members who movedout of district and she's
running directly against anincumbent, but it's only those
two.
So it's important for everybodyat home watching this to

(34:42):
realize that the rest of us havea 12.5% chance.
Statistically right, just bythe numbers, melissa has a 50%
chance.
So what type of things wouldyou bring?

Speaker 2 (34:51):
It is so important that you vote.
And we're is so important thatyou vote.
It is just so important thatyou vote and I consider Melissa
our consigliere, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
No doubt, but you have such good experience and
knowledge.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
No no, no Fiscal accountability and all that.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
What kind of changes?

Speaker 1 (35:07):
would you want to?

Speaker 4 (35:08):
implicate.
My biggest thing is just thetransparency and communication.
Same thing, like I understand.
I sat on an HOA board before.
It's a completely differentlevel.
I get it, but the point is isyou can't please everyone.
You're always going to havesomebody who's unhappy with your
decision.
But I at least want people,even if they're unhappy with my

(35:31):
decision, to know why I votedthe way I voted and to see the
whole process play out andthat's not happening.
And just for the communitymembers to know that we value
their decision and that you knowthey, god willing, were there,
you know, sitting behind thattable in a few months, that we
understand they put us there andthat we do owe them answers and

(35:51):
information.
I mean they are the taxpayers,it's their money.
I just want to be there for thecommunity, a voice for the
parents, students and teachers.
You know, another kind ofbenefit I have with being on the
SEO is that I'm in the schoolmore than some parents.
You know, I get to see somestuff that some parents don't
see and where maybe things arelacking, where we could use more

(36:14):
resources.
And you know, sometimes I feelmaybe staff doesn't want to
speak out, they don't feelcomfortable, they don't want,
you know they're afraid ofrepercussions or whatever, and I
don't know how, but I'd like tosee that change.
I'd like them to feel like theirvoice matters.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
Good point, good point.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
If I can add to that, when obviously I think we would
all say we want to do what'sbest for our kids, such as we
implemented full daykindergarten.
I was not voting for that.
I voted present.
But there was a reason why, andagain it was because of the
process with the staff.
The staff was not notified Eventeachers that they were hiring,

(36:54):
like new teachers.
That they were hiring was notlike, hey, this might be
happening.
This is a head up.
You know we're going to go tofull time.
So it was not at all that I wasagainst the idea of full day.
It was again the process andcommunications.
Parents had concerns aboutbusing Staff, didn't know
clearly what it was going tolook like or aware of you know

(37:17):
what everything might entail.
So add.

Speaker 5 (37:19):
To add on to amy I spoke up at the board meeting
for that.
When full day kindergarten cameout, it was nobody knew it was
happening.
So then they sent out theagenda two days I think it's two
days before the actual boardmeeting happened.
So that monday the agenda comeson, it says full, says full-day
kindergarten.
And so the social media justblew up.
And what is that going to looklike?
What is this?
What is that?

(37:40):
And so I stood up at the boardmeeting not saying I didn't, I'm
all cool with full-daykindergarten, but what is the
plan?
How are we going to bus thekids?
Because right now, currently inthe old day, the
kindergarteners got picked upearly and they got dropped off
early and it was justkindergarten buses that went
around our community and I'mlike how's this going to work
out?
And so their solution was well,oh, they could just ride the

(38:02):
bus with the first and fourthgraders, which brought a huge
bunch of fears.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Parents were scared.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
It's brand new, big change and it's like can you
just get a plan?
What is it going to look likein the school?
Can you just get a plan?
What is it going to look likein the school?
How are you guys going to do PE?
How are you guys going to dothis?
How are you going to do that?
And that was the questions I hadis can we just table it for
right now or just push it down acouple more months, give time?

(38:33):
And that is one thing that Ifelt like we as a group, how we
all came together, was becausewe want parents to have a voice,
and that voice means, ifparents are standing up and
they're asking for time, that wegive that time for them.
Now, it might not be the nextboard meeting, we might vote on
it, but at least we get to talkabout it in public, we get to
hear their voice, and then weget to talk to each other, to
the public, what we're feeling,and then we wait and we give it
a month before we vote on itagain.

(38:54):
Yep, that is called time andthat gives people voice, even if
we disagree with it, at leastwe're all hearing it, we're
hearing each other and we moveforward.
You know, and it's interestingis that all of us we're at board
meetings and we are all talkingto each other and we.
That's how we met with eachother.
You know, when you get a slate,people sometimes like, oh,
you're all on.
Well, it's because we're alldiverse and we all have

(39:16):
different backgrounds and we allbring something.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
I like calling us a team or a coalition.
It is more of a coalition.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
But we're like a team now, because we all kind of
talk to each other like, yeah,this is the reason why I want to
run for it, this is the reasonwe want to run for it.
And when you come to anelection after November, it's
very hard to get people to comeout and vote again, right, and
so it's better when you couldtake five people and try to run
the campaign trail instead oftrying to do it by yourself.

(39:43):
And that's where I think we allcame together and like, yes, we
want to do together as a slate,but we also are individuals that
we all bring to somethingdifferent to the table.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah, and this emphasizes our greatest strength
, right, because we're up heretalking about the importance of
communication, taking people'sdifferent point of views into
mind and listening to them andinternalizing them and acting on
them.
Well, you know, I think it'ssafe to say that majority of the
viewers understand that talk ischeap and that, especially when
it comes to candidates forpolitical office, they'll say a
lot of things and they won'tactually follow up with it or

(40:13):
put it into action.
It's important to note we are atruly independent team, and by
independent team I meanbipartisan team.
I am a registered Democratworking with a running, with a
team of Republicans, and I couldnot be prouder to do it.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
No, it's important to know the reason why it's there.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
It's important to know because we walk the walk,
like we are not focusing on, andwe all in our hearts believe
that we have way more in commonand way more beneficial to all
of us and to the community, andthat our different viewpoints,
our different personal andprofessional experiences and our
ability to listen to each otherrespect each other, respect the

(40:49):
public.
We're already doing thosethings.
It's not something that we'rejust saying once we get elected
we're going to do it.
No, we're doing it now, and thepublic has shown us that they
accept and are really thirstyfor that.
They're very hungry for itBecause even with something as
simple as our community science,we're on back order.
People want them in their yardsFor a school board.

(41:11):
We can't keep up with thedemand and that is, I think, the
first real sign the canary inthe coal mine, that change out
of dignity and respect is onhand and that we are walking the
walk to bring that into thereal world.

Speaker 6 (41:25):
Yeah, and it's so like, like you had asked about
what's.
What's the change that's goingto need to happen?
Right, and I think we're all inagreement that the major change
is that our community needs tofeel empowered, and empowered,
and on so many different levelsthat they can feel that they can
be involved, they know thatthey will be listening yes they
know that even and I know withthis group, even my bad ideas

(41:46):
are going to be listened to andat least either you know I told
yeah, all righty.
You know, adrian, let's calmdown with your ideas, or let's
have something develop out ofthat.
We need that exchange and weneed the community to feel that
they can be part of thatexchange and be part of the
solutions and understand theproblems and therefore they're
going to just have that muchmore of a vested interest,

(42:07):
whether they have children inthe district or not talk about
how you guys or how this, howthe district can increase
communication to the communityum, I think number one we do.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
I just want to piggyback on one thing we do
have an idea of common sense andservice leadership in common
we're going to serve the people.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
I've said that since day one.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
That's what I've signed up for.
It's being available throughemails.
It's being available ifsomebody stops you in Target or
wherever and you're willing totalk and respond to that.
I know we've talked abouttaking time on decisions or if
something does need to be madein a time frame, we're just
saying this needs to be made inthis time frame.

(42:53):
So if you have any input,please get it out.
Um I am part of the communityoutreach committee.
I serve, along with anotherboard member on that um and it's
a great first step and I thinkpeople, there's a lot of
miscommunication of you knowwhat is it?
uh, who's on it?
Um, how did the selectionprocess go?

(43:14):
What is it supposed to do is anextension of the word, and we
had a really good meeting interms of getting taxpayer
involved, whether it be townhalls, whether it be paper
surveys at the district officethat you sign out with an ID QR
codes for different things inour flyer, for different things
in our flyer.
Looking at what goes into ourflyer, the parents do get a 161

(43:38):
newsletter, which I think is agreat thing if it's utilized for
decision-making correctly.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
I'm sorry, and are the board meetings online?

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Yeah, they're on video.
So if you go to the website, Ifeel like they're a little bit
harder to find than before.
But if you go to the website,uh, they're.
I feel like they're a littlebit harder to find them before.
But if you go to the um website, you go to agendas and you go
to the past meetings, it'll giveyou the video more and more
school districts are going thedirection of.
You know it's posting on youtubeand because, again, I mean, I

(44:09):
find that you know with ours,even our village in mokina, you
have to kind of go here to hereand here instead of having a
place that's a little more umyeah, because we have a board
there, right so?

Speaker 4 (44:20):
that's kind of upstream yeah we are lucky
though, because Amy, being acurrent board member, she does.
You're good about.
You know the agendas and thereminders for the meeting and
then we have a couple othergroups um where they will post
like the links for the meetings,because they, you know, you
can't, not every parent can makecorrect.
You know seven o'clock at nightyou got kids sports and
everything.
So it is nice they're online,but try to find them on the on

(44:41):
the district website.
It's a little, it could be verydifficult, so you know we, we
are fortunate that we have, youknow, not only amy but a couple
other um people who have, likethe group facebook pages, have
stepped up and share thatinformation to help make it
easier.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah, I think another thing that we can do is just be
accessible, right, like that'sreally, really important.
Everybody kind of watching hereand knows that we have baseball
and softball opening dayparades coming up.
We have students in thoseparades.
Why don't we take part in them?
Why don't we just go meet withthem?
Things like Frankfurt Fest, youknow things, organizations and
events going on in thesummertime here in Mokino why
don't we just get a booth andjust be accessible so people

(45:15):
come up and ask us questions.
It should be obligatory for aboard.
You would think it's commonsense, right?
But those are different thingsthat we can do, not to kind of
take away from it.
But one thing that I plan ondoing is, every summer, go
walking door to door just to sayhello and see if people have
questions, right, no-transcript,but they can all go back to

(45:46):
your interview with Joe Kral tofind out that the levy rate does
affect taxpayers and homeowners, not just commercial businesses
.
But going door to door was aresumption of that January story
that I told and people werereally able to convey their
concerns.
I was able to alleviateconcerns, answer some questions
and just something as simple astaking a month to go

(46:06):
door-to-door and you're notgoing to cover the whole
district, but you know, everyyear you can hit a different
area Be accessible.
That is just so critical topublic service.

Speaker 5 (46:15):
Well, the other thing I think us being being really
want the community to be back isus being at these events that
these schools host.
Like you know, just because youknow one of our kids go to the
Indian Trail doesn't mean wecan't, as a board member, go to
Rogas or go to Summit Hill andbe in an event over there.
You know, a board member beingat these different events and

(46:38):
and doing out throughout a year,you know is is a good thing to
show that also the communitythat hey, we're around, we're
listening to you, we're, we'rehere, we're involved and we're
celebrating the success that wehave not just showing up at
election time.
And you know, oh yes, you know,my life, life is so difficult.
All our lives are difficult, weall have kids, but if we make
time out of the time to do that,it's a great thing.

(47:00):
You know.
And the reason?
I know that?
Because one of the things theFrankfurt mayor, mr O'Keefe, has
always done.
I've seen him all the time I gowalking down Frankfurt and I
see him all the time, and thatis just a cool thing.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
You see the mayor there and it's like it just
makes it all right cool themayor and I talked to him for
two minutes and that's it, andto be just so sorry.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, okay, my good, my bad.
Along those lines it's been.
There's been a suggestion madeand I haven't even mentioned
this yet of like once, um, theboard members rotating what even
school events they go to, andLike having a calendar of events
that rotate, and so you'reseeing some representation in
that manner.

Speaker 6 (47:39):
I think my idea is a little more off the wall, but I
think even now, with technologyspeeding forward, we can even
look into even having, like acommunity app that everybody can
kind of have and be able to beinformed of what's going on.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
There was an existing app that's not utilized.
There we go.

Speaker 6 (47:55):
Something that I'm throwing at the wall and I
haven't even vetted it with thembut even having office hours of
the board Because some peoplemay feel intimidated going to
these board meetings and thenspeaking in front of everybody
but if they can have a knowntime where they can go and be
heard as well and voice theiropinion or their ideas, I think
that's a great step.

(48:16):
And then another, another thingwe've talked a lot about also
school events and us beingpresent at that and the board
being present at those.
But we also have some reallygreat businesses inside of our
community as well.
That if we had like, like, like, how 157 has like restaurant
week.
Right, if we had that we havesome really great businesses as
well that our community can feellike they're participating in

(48:37):
and being able to be involvedand have their kids attend those
, and they might not even havestudents in the schools, but now
we're developing a communityenvironment that is welcoming,
that is thinking not solely inone direction of only students
and only administrative ideas,but we're bringing in our but
we're bringing in our businessesand we're bringing in our
seniors.
You know that's incrediblyimportant to me.

(48:59):
My grandmother still lives inthis area and she lives in one
of the senior livings, and forme there's nothing better than
touching base with our oldercommunity as well and having our
kids realize that these arejust untapped.
You know resources as well, andI think that those are the
kinds of ideas that we want tobe kind of stirring up.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
I want to hear a little bit about the
relationship between theadministration and the board.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Is that a?

Speaker 1 (49:25):
good relationship.
I love this one.
Yeah, this is a good one, amy.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
I am going to start by widening the definition of
admin meaning.
Like our administrationbuilding Y is all of our
administrators.
We have some excellent,excellent administrative staff.
I mean we have our principalsgoing out in the lot during, you
know, pickup and drop off.

(49:51):
They care about their kids.
We truly, truly, truly see thatand we truly value that.
As far as I know, one hotbutton topic I don't know if you
guys want to go for it, roll it.
Has been recently the approvalof the extension of the
superintendent's contract.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Maybe a little bit on that it's up for renewal.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
It was up to 2027.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
It was renewed to 2028.

Speaker 5 (50:21):
Two years left to go With a brand new board coming in
With a retirement in mind.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Yeah, so that was renewed and residents were not
happy with the monetarycomponent of it.

Speaker 5 (50:35):
Well, I think one of the biggest things they're upset
about is that thesuperintendent has only been
here for how many years?
Four years, four years.
And he's getting paid more thana superintendent that is at
District 210, lincoln Way School, district 210, who's been there
his whole career.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
That becomes hard In the timing, keep in mind context
matters here the public thatalready fills a disconnect with
local government, that alreadywent through the Lincoln Way
North debacle and then had aschool closed vote five days
before Christmas, just over twomonths after it was first
brought out there, a couple ofmonths before the talk of a
school resource, studentresource officer, a safety

(51:16):
resource officer, sro, wasbrought to the table and the
board president veryspecifically said.
Something as serious andimportant as an SRO officer is
too important for this board todecide on.
We're going to table it for thenext board Makes perfect sense,
right?
Yes, but then the extension ofa superintendent's contract that

(51:36):
has two years left to go, whichthrows a Cadillac of benefits
on for an additional year.
I mean it's just.
That's the general, the public,it's been released to the
public.
The public sentiment is it's aCadillac extension.
Right, that was not tooimportant for a new board.
That had to happen and one ofthe most common reasons given by
three of the board members thatvoted to close the schools was

(51:58):
it was he met his goals but thenhe did such an exemplary job
with the school closing processby designing, implementing it
right and taking lead completedirection from the board.
You know they, they shieldedthem, but his service to the
community during that processwas, poignantly, a reason why he
got that extension with twoyears already left and people

(52:19):
that have a mistrust for localgovernment, that have a mistrust
on why their community centerwas closed without real
justification.
You know, I live in Arbery.
That affected me directly.
I met so many community membersjust walking my kids to and
from school directly.
I met so many community membersjust walking my kids to and
from school and that was takenaway in ways that were never
really justified and are kind ofproven by actions not to be as

(52:40):
legit as they were presented.
That's why people are veryupset about the contract
extension.

Speaker 6 (52:46):
I don't want it to be lost From my point of view.
In my opinion, he does afantastic job, for what he's
being asked to do.
And I think that that'ssomething that I don't want
anybody to get lost in the mix.
I think he's a sharp guy, Ithink he tries very hard, I
think he's very involved.
But back to your question.
Any of the direction that hasbeen given is from the board.

(53:08):
It's not the superintendentmaking decisions for our
community.
It's the existing board that isdriving any decisions to be
made.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
The superintendent has seven bosses.
Right, I mean technically, thesuperintendent has seven.
That's not easy.
I've had a great workingrelationship.
My number one changed with theprocess of how the full-day
kindergarten went on and I'vesaid that to admin.
So admin and the board have agood working relationship,
absolutely.

(53:37):
But I said the number onechange was when the process of
how the full day kindergartenwas implemented after the first
contract extension Just to throwsomething else in there.

Speaker 6 (53:48):
Thank you for that, and something that I've been
kind of beating my drum about isthe board right now also has
people with administrativebackgrounds on it, right, and
you also got candidates that arerunning that only have
administrative backgrounds on it.
So when you get a board that'sfull of people with that kind of
mindset, those decisions aregoing to be made faster because
they're all thinking on the samekind of wavelength.

(54:08):
I'm not saying that they allhave the same exact thought
patterns or values or anythinglike that, but there is a
different set of approaches toany issues, right, and so that's
what I'm hoping.
What we could bring to theboard is that we're going to
have different points of viewscovered.
It's not going to beadministrative people, it's not
going to be teachers.
It's people who also havebusiness backgrounds, who have

(54:32):
know maybe they weren't always,uh, uh, you know fantastic
students or anything like that,but hey, most of our population
isn't only on a roll it isn'tonly those well this is
conducted school audits likethat's something that none of us
can bring to the table you know, yeah, yeah, and I've been

Speaker 2 (54:47):
told since the first time I ran um because the prior
board had an accountant on it.
Like we need another accountanton it.
We need another accountant onit.
Not to say that that board hadan accountant on it.
Like we need another accountanton it.
Not to say that that board hadan excellent financial record at
the time.
But I've gotten that input,which is why I'm so proud of
this, and not only that.
If I can just point out, werepresent every different area
of the district, yep.

(55:08):
Right now there's a current, alot of Indian Trail
representation, but right now werepresent every area of the
district between all of us,which I think is crucial.

Speaker 5 (55:17):
Yeah.
So like going back to thesuperintendent contract
extension.
I stood up, asked for time.
I said let the next board dealwith the contract extensions
because he's got two years on italready.
It has nothing to do with whathe's done.
What he's done, this, this,it's just give it time for the
community.
And and then again, just like Ianticipated that the vote was
going to be done because theyput it on the ballot, they put

(55:39):
it on the agenda and I knew assoon as they put it on the
agenda it was already passed andthat that back door stuff that
keeps happening needs to stop.
Like, so the public needs toknow what is going on and then
give the public get, allow thepublic to have time before a
vote is done.
Yeah, like that has to happen.

(55:59):
The backdoor stuff I'm donewith.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
I can't do this anymore.
So one of the other big issuesthat I saw was important in the
district was the change intransportation 43% Switched over
from 210 providing bus serviceto now you have your own or a?
Contracted bus service right soum, but not how is.
Has that been a good decision?

(56:22):
Uh, how?

Speaker 2 (56:23):
do you?
How did that happen?

Speaker 1 (56:24):
and what's the story there?
I?

Speaker 2 (56:25):
can explain how we got to that decision, and then
they can go on if that's, ifthat's okay yeah, please um no,
so 210, obviously I mean they'reon double schedule buses to
begin with, like A&B routes forEast.
We were in communication withthem all the time.
They said, hey, we're not goingto be able to handle your load

(56:46):
or the price.
If we can't handle your load,the price is going to increase.
So we went out to bid properly.
The price is going to increase.
So we went out to bid properly.
When we had the current companycome and speak to us.
They had a very experiencedmanager, very, very seasoned, 20
, 30 plus person running this.

(57:07):
And then there was some issues.
The first year Okay, Secondyear comes in, there's all
things kind of happened withintheir company.
That person was no longer there.
So the person who came in thatwe thought we were getting was
no longer there.
That's issue number one.

Speaker 6 (57:25):
We call that the closer.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
Then there was a question about the additional
routes after the consolidationas well.
If that played a role, I thinktheir management was a bigger
role in it, um, so we tried tocommunicate with them on our end
.
I asked because we also hadissues with changed bus stops,
so that was another separateissue that I felt the district

(57:52):
could deal with more um.
So the reason we got to the votewas it was saving us money and
it sounded.
I voted for that companybecause it sounded as though in
the details they gave us soundedgreat.
And for the first year, acouple of hiccups.
Second year, complete mess.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
What kind of hiccups were you seeing?

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Well, in the first year the normal lags, but this
year I mean we're having busstops missed, bus stops late,
problems with lack of drivers.
So they can go on more, but Iwanted to explain how we got to
that the status currently is.
First of all, we held moneypayment from them and we got

(58:34):
some of that money back, sothat's a good thing, since the
service was nowhere near ahundred percent um the first,
the first part of this year,through November, um, and then
we are currently going out forbid.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Is that a three year contract?
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Oh, you know, I don't remember I'd have to look, I'd
have to look at it, but you'renow looking at potential.
Is there any?

Speaker 1 (58:58):
thought of going back to 210 service.
I don't know if it's even apossibility at this point.
Any other comments?
Anybody else?

Speaker 3 (59:08):
want to talk about this.
Yeah, I mean, we don't want totalk all day about this right,
but let's play the hits andissues here.

Speaker 5 (59:11):
He has a good personal story that really
upsets you, and it was after acouple months too.
On top of that, sure was To laythe groundwork.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
you know, in the November 2023 Building Grounds
meeting, it was mentioned thatthere would be a study done on
what this would look like, andthe board president legitimately
said well, we already bussedthis many kids.
We can bus more Like it's not aproblem, right?
Remember that.
So then we get into thebrand-new format here.
Bus stops are being missed.
There was a bus ofkindergartners for hours left on

(59:43):
the bus, unaccounted forShortages of bus drivers.
That could have been veryforeseen, right, Asking the
right questions to see what thestatus is.
But when you had to jameverything through in such a
short time, these are thingsthat get missed.
The first week of school busdriver comes by, asks where my
son is.
He's like oh, he's on the wrongbus, he must not be on this bus

(01:00:04):
because he's not here.
I'm like what do you mean?
He's not here.
Thankfully, he got off with afourth grader and was probably
about released four blocks awayand then, after a little bit of
time, comes walking up a hill.
And they were fine, right,right, but that's a little bit
of terror, right?

Speaker 6 (01:00:20):
uh, it's a lot of real it sure is.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
It's even five minutes.
Don't be nice.
Don't be nice, it's.
That's problem.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
That's the nice one the not so nice one there go my
daughter fifth grade.
Her entire bus was taken tomantino.
Mantino.
They got on i80.
They went way past where welived, across the district, get
on the expressway.
The bus driver's like, yeah,we're almost there.
The kids are like we aren'thome, we don't live here.

(01:00:48):
Thankfully, some kids hadphones.
My daughter had a gizmo.
We were able to kind of trackwhere they were.
The district was playing fullreaction.
It was a nightmare.
What was the explanation there?
New bus driver, substitute busdriver and in the end took them
back to Lincoln Way North, whichat least was something.

(01:01:10):
But we're talking hours of notknowing where your children are
in a day and age whereaccountability and danger is
around every corner.
And it was horrifying and itwas a lot of parents that dealt
with this.
And I want to take the momentto give so much praise to the
administrators in the school.
The principal, ms Carol HildaWalker, did such an amazing job,

(01:01:34):
taking bullets eight ways fromTuesday, not literally,
figuratively, but trying toanswer these phone calls, keep
parents calm, tell them thatthey're doing everything that
they can and wearing the stressof it right During this entire
process.
Good to plug here that theadministration, like the
administrators of each school,have done such a good job Like
they got to have backaches fromcarrying the weight at night.

(01:01:57):
They did such an incredible job.
But what a terrifying situation.
Right to not have anycommunication and contact.
My daughter's gizmo was dead,so thankfully the neighbor's kid
you know.
We were able to find outthrough tracking their phone.
That's how we knew they were inManteno right Craziness.
And all of this was seeminglyavoidable.
Was seemingly avoidable.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
Are there any other big issues that you all maybe,
as candidates, see as importantcoming up in the school district
?

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Student growth.

Speaker 5 (01:02:27):
Yes, Student growth that's a big hot topic.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Student growth, academics excellence, Getting
our I know at one point- Talkabout student growth.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
What do you mean by that?

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Yeah, student growth Okay.
So we know our staff arefabulous.
My daughter has personally hadnothing but excellent
experiences within this district.
We know, we recognizestandardized tests are just a
snapshot.
However, it's what you'rejudged on.

(01:02:56):
It's what you're judged on.
It's what you're judged on.

Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
It's what you're evaluated on.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
It's what our non-student holding taxpayers
look at.
We want to be competitive, wewant people to move here for
that and we saw test scoresobviously dip post-COVID, but
prior historically we had beenleading neighboring districts in
test scores.
Now we are in, you know, 40thish percentile and stuff, 30 um.

(01:03:27):
You can look at the numbers aswell, um, but that is something
that we need to help all worktogether and figure out how to
improve those growth on thosestandardized test scores which
our students are judged on.

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
Yeah, and to do so, let's utilize the best resources
we have, our educators right.
Perform some field levelstudies.
Let's see what's working,what's not working in the
classrooms, instead of gettingdirectives from three levels up
right.
I can tell you from personalexperience, the educators that
have worked with my childrenhave done such an amazing job.
I have seen so much growth,especially in areas where they
had challenges.

(01:04:02):
Right.
The teachers go out of theirway.
They're empathetic, they'revery professional.
They work with them, not aroundthem.
It's very important, but let'sget their opinions more.
If we don't trust them to makegood policy decisions or
recommendations good policyrecommendations because we don't
trust them to make good policydecisions or recommendations.
Good policy recommendationsbecause we don't think that
they're qualified to do thatthen why are they qualified to

(01:04:23):
teach our children?
It's just this is common sense,resource use that you know we
can emphasize to grow evenbetter than where we are today.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
So I mean one of the things that just for the
previous years, you know, I wantto put it out there that we've
developed new curriculums and wehave a tracking system of how
we and then, after thecurriculum gets so old, we get a
new curriculum to come in butwhat we're still seeing is we're
still seeing test scores notbeing high enough.
So are the curriculum that wehave currently, is it doing

(01:04:52):
enough?
You know?
So, putting together teams tofigure out ways we can resource
that additional to thecurriculum that we have to help
test scores get even higher?
Are we tracking our kidscorrectly?
Are we giving our kids theopportunity to get an
accelerated more or to be ableto move up into that summit
program?
What can we do with that?

(01:05:13):
So you know, to growth needs tomove currently and we need to
kind of look at that so we canbe more competitive with the
surrounding school districts,and we all know this.
I mean you probably have talkedto the Mokena School District
and what is the nearest schoolthat we always look at is 157C.
Their test scores seem to bealways higher than all the other

(01:05:34):
ones in this area come in.
So what are they doing?
That is so much more, which isbetter, or what are they doing
to get their test scores so muchhigher, and what can we do to
implement in the currentcurriculum we have right now?
You know?
So those are.
We need to move that bar, weneed to keep moving that needle.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Just for reference.
So our students take theIllinois assessment readiness
that's the statewide test andthen they also take map tests
for our individual information.
So there's two scores thatthey're evaluated or assessed on
, and it's been suggested thatwe possibly look at a task force
when they were in schools toaddress that, to look at our

(01:06:16):
curriculum and say what are we?
how much exposure, like?
I know, for example, thestudents that jump I speak from
personal experience with my ownchild student that jumps
accelerated.
Her growth was simply just frombeing exposed to the material
at the accelerated level hergrowth was from, was from that
so looking at, are we teaching?

Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
is something on the test that we're?

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
not teaching till later in the curriculum or after
Not teaching to the test by anymean.
But just looking at, is therethose little tweaks that we can
adjust?

Speaker 6 (01:06:48):
And I'm coming from a completely left wing kind of
approach to it as well, like I,and kind of like, because I
entrust you guys and I entrustour teachers to look at the
scores and for me the biggestthings are, like our values that
we're putting forth for ourchildren, because not every
child is going to be on a rollin advanced programs.

(01:07:08):
So we need to also encourageentrepreneurship and free
thought.
And I'm in the camp of whereyou know I grew up, where ADD
wasn't even really recognized,so it was, you know, kind of
brushed away and not reallyunderstood, or encouraged those
things.
Um one entrusting our communityto be committed to be
participating in it, um beingfeeling that there can be

(01:07:29):
comfortable enough to bringforward their children and and
and also empowering these kidsto also be able to uh, not that
they don't now can speakdirectly to their teachers, but
Not that they don't now canspeak directly to their teachers
.
But I think we need more inputfrom areas like I've mentioned
outside of academia, outside ofthe administrative side.
Most of our kids are not goingto be in schools forever.

(01:07:52):
They're going to go out intothe wild and either start their
own businesses or jump intodifferent industries, and they
need to know that that's alsoavailable to them.
They can take those paths.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Yeah, it's interesting you say that because
I feel like you know my son'sin sixth grade and you have less
and less of that kind of thecommunity coming in or people
coming in and talking to themand yeah, and that idea of you

(01:08:32):
know we live in extremely bluecollar area.
Yeah, and you know, promoteentrepreneurship or ideas like
that.

Speaker 6 (01:08:37):
I think kids need to have those ideas, Like we need
to, kind of, if we can empowerthe community, we can, I think,
then ask of the community toparticipate more and so people
who may not have kids in thedistrict we can have kind of a
career day and these kids canalso see that there are paths
forward, no matter what yourinterests are.
Yeah, that's a great idea andyou can, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
I think at the junior high especially, they need to
get.
They do career day at Walkerand they do career day at the
junior high and we need to get.
But, like you said, it's socrucial that we can get those
real life examples in there andget those parents to volunteer
and do that.
Like with my own job, we havespecific our kids sign up for

(01:09:15):
the plumbing, electrician, pipefitters all those come to our
school and talk to them.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
I love that stuff, I love the trade, so that makes me
happy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
It's an excellent, excellent opportunity.

Speaker 5 (01:09:25):
Well, keep building on our STEM program too, as well
.
You know one of the things thatwas started already in the
district which I think every oneof us kind of liked, that some
of the direction went was theSTEM program and now they have
labs.
Some of the direction went wasthe STEM program and now they
have labs.
They're developing labs in Hillto Walker as well as Summit
Hill and you know, continue tobuild on that as well will help.
You know, the goal is for kidsto graduate and be like Adrian

(01:09:51):
and come back to our communityand start a family.
You know that is the goal,Better than Adrian.

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
But there was a program that Adrian brought up
when we were talking that itactually is employed in the
school that she teaches atprofessionally my nephew was in
it in that district but like adual language program where they
start in kindergarten, there'sa group of students that sign up
and they're eligible for it andeverything is taught in Spanish
and English, even if they don'tunderstand Spanish.

(01:10:19):
And the growth rate and thereason why I even know this is
because I'm involved with myfamily right, the growth rate is
a little.
It dips below the median in thefirst year or two, around year
three it levels out and then,from year four on, it explodes
in terms of success, academicsuccess for the students who are
in that program.
Right, and that's somethingAdrian brought up and I was a

(01:10:41):
little upset that I had notthought of it because I had
family experience with it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
No 159 actually had a dual language that my son was
part of and they discontinued.
I think it was his fourth gradeyear, ironically enough, you
say that, but it was veryupsetting for a lot of the
parents that were in it.
Very upsetting for a lot ofparents that were in it.
And yeah, the idea of havingthese extras or these additional

(01:11:04):
items that you know we'reintroducing in schools that just
enrich them a little more inthese enrichment programs, so
bringing back.

Speaker 5 (01:11:10):
Some of the things we've talked about was you know
what would be a better outlookof it?
Well, it's taking the moneythat our taxpayer is giving and
then strategically having commonsense and putting it back to
the kids and put it back intoour schools that are good things
, you know.
Like we don't need a solar farmput in on the ground.
What we need to do is take themoney that we have and invest it

(01:11:33):
into programs that our kids cangrow in.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Or clubs that our teachers can use, or resources
that our kids can grow in youknow, and that is that's correct
, or resources that are teachersthat need.
You know that the teachers cansponsor, and yeah and to
encapsulate this, this concept,right?

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
this is something that I bring to the table with
my professional experiences I'ma united states green building
council lead, green associateright and the bottom, the.
The core concept of that andit's a professional thing in my
industry, but it applieseverywhere is that there's a
triple bottom line.
You have what's good forfinancially, what's good for the
community within that buildingand then what's good for the

(01:12:09):
neighborhood, right, like interms of health, economic growth
, all overall betterment, alloverall betterment.
And this process has survivedmultiple different types of
governmental entities and itcontinues to be successful
because the core value is inmaking the entire community
better while being financiallyand fiscally responsible.
So it's in everybody's interestto pursue this, and that's

(01:12:31):
something that we can bring onday one which encapsulates all
of these different ideas that webrought up.
All of them Well, I want toyeah, go ahead, ronnie.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
I had to.
Well, I want to.
Yeah, go ahead, ronnie.

Speaker 3 (01:12:39):
I have to yeah, I'm actually going to wrap it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
So what I want to do is we'll give you guys each an
opportunity to just quickly saywhy you're the best candidate,
why people should vote for you,and Ronnie, we can start with
you.

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
We'll start with Adrian and work our way back
down I don't know if I'm thebest candidate.

Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
I couldn't say that.
I think, you are Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
I kind of like you still.

Speaker 6 (01:13:04):
I just think that we need a diverse group that could
cover more bases and also bewelcoming to the voices that do
kind of fall in between thecracks.
That do kind of fall in betweenthe cracks.
I think that I'm a goodcandidate because I feel that I
would be the most welcoming andI feel like I have a calming

(01:13:24):
kind of approach to problems.
I like to be inclusive ofpeople and making sure that
everybody's heard.
Like Amy said, you can't makeeverybody happy, but at the very
least we can help peopleunderstand that they are part of
the process, something wetouched on.
This election is extremelyimportant.
Yeah, everybody voted inNovember, but this is your local

(01:13:46):
government.
Your voice is even louder.
You're a smaller pool, so Ithink engagement is huge.
I think I just offer a differentperspective.
I think I offer a challengingperspective.
Just offer a differentperspective.
I think I offer a challengingperspective, somebody who's
going to be a voice for theharebrained ideas.
And also I'm very muchcommunity-driven.
Being that I've grown up hereand also that I'm planning on

(01:14:10):
raising my children here, Iunderstand the value of
community and encouraging greatcharacter, and I think we could
all use a little bit of that.
And I also, I consider, becauseI'm outside of the bubble of
academia, I also take a look attechnology and how fast we're
moving and how we'recommunicating.
Now you know, we talked aboutmessaging via Facebook and

(01:14:30):
things like that, but we'redeveloping way past that and I
think that we just need peoplefrom outside of the bubble to
offer that kind of perspectivebut also be respectful with
other people who have differentviews and different approaches
to problems.

Speaker 5 (01:14:46):
That's what I feel that I would bring to the table.
I think I'm a good candidatebecause I've been in the
community for about 17 years.
I've stood up and listened tocommunity members in board
meetings.
I stood up and asked for moretime.
So one of the biggest thingsthat I'm about is community.
I have a three-pillar systembased on what I've run and
that's who I am Community isnumber one, academics is number

(01:15:08):
two and excellence is numberthree.
And the reason I put excellencedown is to hold everybody
accountable.
We have to start becoming aboard that holds our
administration accountable aswell as holding our students
accountable as well, holding ourcommunity members accountable.
And as we hold each otheraccountable even each other on
the board, holding each otheraccountable, we grow as a
community.

(01:15:29):
You know, our community is isphenomenal.
This is the reason why I'vebeen here.
I mean moved to two differenthouses.
I didn't want to leave thecommunity because I love the
community.
I coach in the community.
I've coached in this communityfor over 22 years in all
different sports.
You know, I believe in givingback.
You know, and I think that'show you grow.
You grow because our, our, ourcommunity is about the schools.

(01:15:50):
We grow it there.
You know this is our town hall,is a, is a, is a board, you know
, and so therefore, you have tolisten to community, and if the
community's crying, then we needto listen to that and we need
to bridge a gap and we can buildit together, you know, and we
want our kids to be.
Everybody in the communitywants their kids to be more
successful, and that's it.
I know we all want that heretoo.

(01:16:11):
You know everybody in thecommunity wants us to be able to
spend the money wisely, and Iknow everybody on this board
wants that as well.
You know, and so is for me as acandidate.
I will be there.
I am here to listen.
I'm here to do exactly what Itend to do is is who I am.
I am person, you know.
If anybody talks to me, theyknow is who I am is right on my

(01:16:31):
sleeve, so, and that's exactlywhat I'm going to be for for our
community um, I just, I reallyjust love our community.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
I love our schools.
We have great staff, greatteachers I mean teachers, front
office, the whole staff.
I mean I have nothing but greatthings to say and I want our
board to match that and I wouldlike all those members to feel
about their school board the wayI feel about all of them.
Yes, I would hope that mybackground in finance can bring

(01:17:05):
something to the table and justmy involvement in the community
yeah, I think I've got anestablished track record of
fighting for the community.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
I haven't been volunteering in the community as
long as Melissa has, but overthe last year I have been trying
to be a voice for the people, avoice of reason.
We talked about the petitiondrive in January and then we
touched on the advisoryreferendum.
But you know, it's important tonotice that we can say
definitively now that just under87% of the public disagreed
with the school closing process.
Yes, Because of the work thatwe put in going door to door in

(01:17:38):
the summer, getting the advisoryreferendum, which is still
legal, you know, opinion poll onthe November ballot, so that we
can get a real temperature ofwhat the community feels, and we
fought for that.
We have shown that we canrepresent the voice of the
people.
But this isn't just a burn itdown.
You know this is a rebuild,Right, and I don't mean that
we're burning anything down, butit's important because there's

(01:17:59):
a perception of that that we'rejust.
You know, angry, angry,pitchforks, but in my line of
business I oversee 150 unionmembers, team members.
I very much so bring an air ofaccountability while also being
very positive, right, Like Iit's what I do professionally is
I create an atmosphere ofupward mobility.

(01:18:20):
Uh, support, you must challenge, but support right Like we can
incorporate these things.
I've created multimilliondollar operational and capital
budgets.
I have brought sustainabilityto buildings.
I understand the mechanical andfinancial aspects of success
and it's just one avenue that Ican help contribute to make my

(01:18:41):
community even better, which isso critical, because I do
absolutely love this community.
I have no plans of leaving andit's been so good to me that I
think especially people, notwhatever, but our age.
We have been the beneficiariesour whole lives of people in
local institutions holding it upand giving us the opportunities
that we have to grow and todevelop, and now it's our turn

(01:19:01):
to give back and I reallybelieve and I'm passionate about
that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
I think a strength of our community is the fierceness
with which we fight for ourkids and for each other.
We are absolutely there foreach other and our kids and I
want to continue to fight forthat and represent that with
respect and professionalism.
Yep, I have a proven record oflistening to the people, fiscal

(01:19:31):
responsibility and workingrelationships with people that
don't always see eye to eye.
I would love to continue thatwork and help our students grow.

Speaker 1 (01:19:43):
This is awesome.
Thank you very much for takingtime, you guys have the best
shirts I've seen this electionso far and I wanted to say it.
I told Patrick when we talked.
I want to extend the sameopportunity for any of the other
candidates for 161.
As I said, I didn't seek youguys out.
Thank you very much for seekingme out and this opportunity out

(01:20:05):
, so I want to make sure Ioffered for any other candidates
.

Speaker 3 (01:20:07):
We have Mokina residents in our district, tara
Hills man.
They're great.
One of my community members,his daughter, came up from this
area and now she's got a fullscholarship to play softball at
Loyola.

Speaker 1 (01:20:25):
That is this area.
And now she's got a fullscholarship to play softball at
loyola.
So that is the hickory family.
We'll show the map so everybodyknows, understands where the
district is, because it itzigzags in a little bit into
moquina here.
But uh, again, thank you verymuch for taking time to talk to
me.
There's 10 total candidatesrunning for this race.
Uh, two for the two year andeight for the four year.
So make sure you pay attention,listen.
I really again appreciategetting their message out,
having an opportunity for youall to meet them and be sure to

(01:20:47):
vote.
Early voting starts March 17thand Election Day is April 1st.
Thank you.

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

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