The most vocal critics running for the Palatine Township High School District 211 school board say the biggest issue is communication–not so much how the district gets information out, but how it seeks input from the parents and residents it serves.
Never mind that the district expects to spend $12 million more than it will bring in this budget year–a shortfall it can offset with the $50 million surplus in its education fund. And never mind that there’s talk of asking voters for a tax increase in the next three years to correct the spending imbalance.
Without better communication, some say, fixing those problems will be a hard sell. How that plays out will depend on the makeup of the school board that voters in Inverness, Palatine, Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates elect April 13. Eight candidates are seeking four 4-year terms on the seven-member board.
Candidates including Don Laxton, an omnipresent critic who faulted the district’s documentation of closed meetings as well as the board’s overall communication style, say District 211 should start a citizens advisory committee to give residents a bigger voice.
It’s a technique that has been used in districts large and small, including Barrington District 220 and Elgin Unit District 46.
“We need to change the fundamental way we do business in District 211,” Laxton said. “The management style has to change; we have to make decisions from the bottom up instead of the top down.”
But District 211, the biggest high school district in Illinois, with 12,000 students at five high schools, points to a long list of tools it says it uses to get information to the public and praises parent councils at each of its schools.
“When you look at the amount of material we send home and to the community, and the number of press releases we issue, and the number of opportunities people have to interact with their schools, I don’t know what they mean,” said Robert Rozycki, an assistant superintendent and the spokesman for the district.
He added: “No matter how much we do in whatever arena it is, people always have expectations for more. If people have suggestions for us, we would be foolish not to include them.”
Up for re-election are Martha Swierczewski of Hoffman Estates, a former high school English teacher who has been board president since 1994, and Mary Wroblewski of Schaumburg, a nurse who has been on the board for eight years.
The District 211 Teachers Union endorsed four people, including Wroblewski and Laxton, 43, of Hoffman Estates, a self-employed insurance broker and financial planner who attends most board meetings.
It also endorsed two new faces, Paulette McDowell, 42, a secretary at DeVry Institute of Technology in Addison, and Lynn Davis, 43, who has been active in the Parent Teacher Association at a Schaumburg District 54 elementary school. Both women are from Schaumburg.
Also running are Charles M. Fritz Jr., 45, of Palatine, who owns an Inverness company that sets up computer networks for engineering and manufacturing businesses, and Debra Strauss, 40, of Palatine, who has worked in PTA leadership in Palatine Elementary District 15.
Candidate Timothy Buckley of Inverness could not be reached for comment.
Incumbents Swierczewski and Wroblewski said the school board used to be much less open about communication than it is now. The board meets twice a month and does not use committees to hash out issues. Though that brings more issues before the full board, some have expressed disappointment that it hasn’t resulted in more debate.
Many board members have held their seats for years and choose not to question perfunctory decisions, said Dora Wolf, a board member who is not up for re-election. She said she often tires fellow board members with what she calls her “jaundiced eye” questioning.
“There is no discussion of issues–or very little,” said Wolf, who began serving her first term in 1997. “I sat in meetings for two years in the audience, and I did not know what was going on.”
Voters have two more opportunities to hear candidates spar. The Palatine League of Women Voters will sponsor a forum at 7:30 p.m. March 23 at Sundling Junior High School in Palatine, and the Parent Teacher Association at Frost Junior High School in Schaumburg will hold a forum there at 7 p.m. March 24.
