NEWELL
Early voting March 17 – 31, 2025
- FOR DISTRICT 227-
SCHOOL BOARD
Election – April 1, 2025
Initiatives/Solutions
Dr. Mason’s New P.A.T.H. Forward ​
Partnership with the Community
Accountability
Transparency
Hope for a Brighter Future
Partnership with the Community
The school district collaborates with local leaders to better utilize the district's resources for the betterment of the community. For example, educational research has demonstrated that students involved in extra-curricular activities are more successful in high school and obtaining admission into colleges and universities. Therefore, the district can work with the Matteson Bears and provide free tutoring for Matteson Bears participants before practice at a District 227 campus. After tutoring sessions, the Matteson Bears can use the fields free of charge to conduct their practices. This will reduce the financial burden of childcare for some families, support struggling learners, and strengthen community bonds with our youth. Additionally, they can utilize the field for game day activities and have local vendors increase community participation. By implementing this practice, we can reduce the cost of a community program, increase student participation, develop the high school program, provide structure for students to succeed in high school on their way to a college or university, and promote community opportunities.
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The district can work with local government entities, Homeowner Associations, and local newspapers to advertise contracts for district projects for two months before expanding the advertising to other communities. For certain projects, we can require that vendors include our students in our proposed Apprenticeship/Internship program. This practice will allow tax dollars to remain local and enable our students to learn from community members and expand their knowledge in their fields of interest.
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The district can coordinate with local leaders to remove and utilize lightly used furniture. The school district has a plethora of furniture, including tables, chairs, file cabinets, etc., that can be donated to local businesses and community organizations rather than thrown away. These stakeholders can obtain these items before they are disposed of permanently.
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Coordinate with community centers to orchestrate supervisory groups that will include various community members who can volunteer their time and provide guidance/mentorship to our students.
Accountability
The district SAT scores in Math and English/Language Arts are dramatically lower than the state average. Only 4% of the juniors during the 2023-2024 school year meet the state expectations in Math, whereas 0% of juniors exceed the expectations, and 96% of the juniors are either partially meeting or approaching expectations in Math. Additionally, during the same period, the district has been making local and national negative attention with the 600 "gradutate stoles" debacle in 2023, various news coverage for violence in District 227 schools, and at least three occurrences during the 2024-2025 school year which students have brought firearms to the schools.
The community requires solutions to these problems, but the community also demands answers to why these situations consistently occur annually when surrounding schools do not have similar issues. The school board must implement new practices to hold district leadership accountable but require them to attend community events (HOA meetings, community town hall meetings, etc.) to provide answers to the community. Furthermore, the school district must incorporate more evidence-based practices and community resources to make students feel safe, include more community resources, and hold administrators accountable rather than "passing the buck" and blaming teachers.
Transparency
The school board must provide more details on the board reports on vendors bidding on district contracts and vendors receiving contracts. Regarding the resources (tax dollars), the district must be more transparent in providing details on the contract length, the name and address of the vendor, and the services they will be providing.
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The district must give the community more opportunities to provide feedback on some of the decisions that are being made. The district must create committees that include community stakeholders so they can provide feedback. For example, when I am on the board, I will encourage the creation of a finance committee so the community can have conversations about any bids from vendors and projects that cost more than ten thousand dollars. The community has a right and responsibility to discuss how their tax dollars are spent.
Hope For a Better Future
Monitoring the district's finances and focusing more on students will create a stronger community. More resources supporting student academics and academic opportunities will increase the likelihood of student success after high school. By monitoring district finances, we can reduce wasteful spending on needless projects and programs and increase confidence in the community that taxpayer's dollars are being properly utilized for the benefit of the students and the community.