Since January, Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia has visited every school in the district at least once, speaking with students and staff to gauge their views on three key issues.
Plascencia has also made an effort to attend community gatherings to hear from parents on the same topics. The effort started with a survey late last year gauging the climate on safety, trust and a sense of belonging.
At times during the meetings, other subjects have arisen, like when two Robert Abbott Middle School eighth graders — Isabella Diaz and Julie Zarinana — returned to the room to talk to the superintendent about the food at school.
“The food in the cafeteria isn’t very good,” Diaz, the student council president, said.
Acknowledging her concern, Plascencia said it is highly likely there will be a new company providing cafeteria food for the 2026-2027 school year. The girls left the room pleased.
Plascencia met with more than 40 parents Saturday at the Waukegan to College office, and five student leaders on Monday at Robert Abbott Middle School on Monday, hearing what they had to say about safety, a sense of belonging and other things on their minds.
By the time she finishes with the last listening sessions this week, Plasencia will have conducted 26 meetings with staff, 23 with students and five with parents. They were all part of a planned tour after the results of a survey on the same subjects taken last fall were tabulated.
Taking a more formal approach with parents on Saturday, she started the discussion with a PowerPoint presentation talking about the survey and its results. With the five students, she sat at a table and had a conversation. She did not want them to feel they were in another class.
During meetings with students and staff, Plascencia said one of the things she has heard regularly is that discipline varies from class to class. One teacher could impose a more stringent punishment than another for the same misdeed.
“Teachers and staff seemed to feel safe at school,” she said. “The most common problem I heard was discipline was not dispensed the same from teacher to student, and from administrator to student.”
After each slide of the PowerPoint presentation, Plascencia stopped to hear what people had to say and listened to their thoughts. The third parent raised the same objection that many of the students mentioned about discipline.
“Not all administrators and teachers are balanced; they don’t treat students the same way,” a parent said, explaining how her child was sent out of class, but another student received an oral rebuke for the same conduct.
Another parent expressed concern about drugs around the school, particularly in bathrooms. She did not identify the school or the age of her children.
“There are too many drugs,” the parent said. “It’s a very big concern. Security doesn’t do anything.”
Explaining she will take a closer look at the situation at the particular school, Plascencia said random locker checks in the middle of the school day are not standard procedure. But, there are actions that can be taken, she said.
“We did a sweep at night when no students were there,” she said. “Drugs in general are a problem in our society. I’m going to be looking at what we can do to educate our parents. If you see something, please say something.”
One parent let Plascencia know she did not always feel welcome when she was around her child’s school, particularly when it was time to get them after class. Bilingual security personnel would help.
“Security did not know what to do,” the parent said. “They need to work hard to make us welcome.”
Besides asking parents to let school officials know when there is an issue that needs attention, Plascencia enlisted their help.
“We need our parents to support the children at home,” Plascencia said.
Sitting with the five Abbott students, she said she was asking them questions “to help me make decisions about how to make the school better.” Then she asked them if they felt safe in the building, as well as going to and from school. They generally said they did.
“Very, very safe,” sixth grader Carlos Tello said about how he felt inside. “There are a lot of police around,” he added, referring to his feelings walking home. “They stop the cars for us.”
One complaint Plasencia got from the students was related to bathroom cleanliness. Tello said he heard “bad words” from other students there. Luke Felix said the lunchroom floors were always dirty.
