Activist Toolkit

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What makes you qualified to serve? What metrics of success do you plan on holding yourself accountable to?

I have watched the current board majority use the district finances to destroy the educational experience for our students and hope to correct this devastation.  I have a background in financial management, accounting, investments, negotiations and contract law.  I have started, bought and sold a number of businesses and colleagues consider me a serial entrepreneur.   Bringing up the money spent per student on education needs to be brought back to the 45 plus percentile.  

2. How do you make decisions? How do you handle working with others with whom you disagree?

Any time a decision needs to be made I listen to all stakeholders involved.  Different viewpoints and opinions are welcomed and needed to have a healthy dialogue to come to a consensus to make the most educated decision.  When I am in disagreement with anyone I listen and try to understand why they feel the way they do.  If I am not persuaded to agree with them at that point, I try to find a middle ground that both of us are happy with.  

3. How will you work to ensure that District 209 provides an excellent educational experience for all its students?

Every action and decision we take as a board needs to have the student’s best interest in mind.  Whether it is adding support staff for the teachers, extra security guards for safety, psychologists to address mental health, or translators to help parents communicate with teachers we need to make sure all of our resources are put towards giving our students the best experience possible.  

4. How would you approach the budgeting process? What is the per student spending on curriculum at Proviso now? What is recommended for best practices for the average student at District 209? How does that spending vary by school (East, West, PMSA)? 

As we set the yearly budget, we need to focus on spending the resources we receive from the state, federal and local taxing bodies to provide the best educational experience possible.  We need to look at every line item to ensure that the students are benefiting and if not remove that line item and allocate the fund elsewhere.  Currently Proviso is spending a little less then 29% of the annual budget on Students.  We need to get this back to 44-48% range. 

5. What would you say to voters who are worried about the tax burden?

Currently the money received by the district from local, state and federal sources is more than enough to ensure an amazing education for all students.  If we can stop the wasteful spending of Dr Henderson and the H5 Board members there should be no reason that we have to raise property taxes.  Gross mismanagement of the district’s current resources is the only reason we would be needing to raise property taxes in the future.  

6. Special education is mandated by federal law. Recently, District 209 pulled out of its relationship with the Proviso Area for Exceptional Children (PAEC) consortium, to in-house services. How have you tracked the results of that move, and how can District 209 better work to provide an excellent education for students in need of special education?

Everything I have heard from Parents and Teachers is that pulling out of PAEC has been a disaster.  The in-house services have been grossly mismanaged if available at all.  Certain parts of the educational experience need to be handled by partner entities that specialize in those areas.  Partnering or outsourcing ensures that each student gets the education they deserve.  

7. Since the 1960s, Proviso high schools have had a tense relationship with the communities that it services, arguably due to issues related to race and class. How do you propose to better educate all community members and ensure they support our public high schools?

The Proviso high schools board and administration should not have a tense relationship with the communities it serves.  Open dialogue, respect and understanding of everyone’s different backgrounds needs to be celebrated and embraced.  Listening and respect of others is key to getting everyone to support educational change.  

8. How do you define equity? Have recent events and discussions in the larger community informed or changed your thinking?

Equity in education is the process of taking all opportunities presented to students and combining them with support, resources and tools needed to ensure that the education system is made level for them.  This means that disadvantaged students will get support in any area they need to become equal to those students who are not disadvantaged.  

9. Proviso has recently re-invested in its career and technical education curriculum (auto shop, culinary lab, etc.). How can Proviso ensure its investments in these programs are successful and balanced with the needs of students pursuing a career in trade vs those who wish to pursue higher academics? 

Currently the re-investment in the career and technical education curriculum is not benefiting the students in any way due to the fact that they Superintendent is not funding the supplies needed to teach these classes.  Students in the culinary lab are not given any food or supplies to actually cook, students in the auto and machine shop are not given the metal supplies to actually do the repairs.  Investing in the classroom without giving the students the supplies needed to complete the work shows you how out of touch Dr Henderson is.  Purchasing basic supplies so the teachers can teach and the students can learn is crucial to providing a proper education.  

10. A student organization, “Students for a Better Proviso”, has raised concerns about conditions in the school - including a teacher shortage that could impact the ability of students to graduate, overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating buildings, etc. Would you establish lines of communication with students who have concerns and address their concerns? And if so, how would you address their concerns?

Student concern is extremely important to address.  If students are speaking out about deficiencies seen in the buildings or their education, we as board members should ask the superintendent to rectify them immediately.  Students should have a way to get any concerns heard and a response made without fear of retaliation by the superintendent.  

11. The School Board’s primary responsibility is oversight of the Superintendent. What criteria will you use to evaluate the success of District 209 Superintendent James Henderson?

We need to look at his first contract and what it stipulated he do.  We need to carefully measure what was done and not done.  Based on these findings we can determine if the subsequent contracts should have been offered or he should have been terminated.  The state standards used to measure all schools should be used to measure his effectiveness.  Where did we stand when he came into leadership and where do we stand now? 

12. As elected public officials, school board members have fiduciary responsibility to the school district and have an obligation to provide financial oversight and accountability. Superintendent Henderson has been asked to repay $91,000 in alleged improper spending to his previous district in Mississippi, which is now under state financial oversight; an audit found material weaknesses in internal financial controls. Please discuss District 209’s internal financial controls. What (if any) structural changes need to be made in order to guarantee District 209’s fiscal soundness and integrity?

Currently the school district doesn’t have any financial controls in place that are expected under generally accepted accounting principles.  Our auditors quit and there are 100’s of thousands of dollars in un-itemized spending occurring each month including credit card bills as high as $161,000 made by the Superintendent.  We need a forensic audit to be performed on every month that Dr Henderson has been here.  If the improper spending in Mississippi was $91,000, I hate to fathom what it is here.  

13. District 209 has had a contentious relationship with its teachers and is facing a shortage of teachers exacerbated by a nationwide shortage of teachers. Please discuss how the district could bring more teachers, proficient in working with students from a wide array of backgrounds, into the classroom.

The district has shown that it has zero respect for the teachers and their support staff.  Basic respect and appreciation would be the first step to bring more teachers into the district.  Fair pay and benefits and not allowing the administration to blame the teachers for their mishandling of the education the past couple of years.  

14. There has been a lot of discussion locally and nationally about the presence of police in school buildings. What is your vision for a safe school environment? How do police officers in the schools relate to that vision?

Police officers should be used as the very last resort in schools.  Security staff, mental health staff, teachers and administration should be able to work together to address almost every issue students will have or can have during the day. 

15. What lessons learned from the pandemic’s early years do you believe will continue to be applicable to the ways that schools operate?

In person learning is far better for the students physical and emotional wellbeing.  I believe we learned first-hand during the pandemic that distance learning and computer classes for high school students doesn’t have the educational benefit of in person learning.  

16. Public schools have been faced with deciding whether or not to remove books from their shelves if a parent or group of parents deem the content to be inappropriate, too controversial or objectionable. How would you handle this issue and how should District 209 handle this question?

Seeing that each parent is going to have different opinion on what is inappropriate, too controversial, or objectionable I feel we need to act with understanding.  Seeing that the majority of the students are under 18 they are still minors and live under their parent’s rules.  We need to be respectful of a parent’s method of raising their kids.  Just as we have movie ratings of G, PG, PG-13, and R we should have some method of rating books.  This enables parents to have a guide and if they choose to let their kids read or view something that might not be age appropriate for every parent it is their choice to allow their kid access to that information.  It is not just books, but movies, video game, certain websites on the internet.  Parents should be able to choose what their kids are allowed to read, see and do.  

17. Do you see a role for the Board in ensuring that the climate at District 209 schools is welcoming to students in minority populations, whether racial, religious identity, LGBTQ, etc.? How are the schools assessing the experience of students now? What specific actions or policies would you propose? 

Currently I don’t feel that the board or superintendent are doing anything to create a welcoming school community for all.  Currently many of the board members and superintendent use racial slurs and make racially charged statements creating further division of our community.  I think the first step to rectifying this would be to create a diversity committee comprised of students, parents, teachers, administrators and board members to put into place actions that will make our schools welcoming to all.  

18. A new report issued by the Centers of Disease and Control found that in 2021, very large numbers of students experienced poor mental health. Twenty-two percent of students seriously considered attempting suicide and ten percent attempted suicide. Our District has had many tragic losses in the past few years to suicide. These feelings were found to be more common among LGBTQ+ students, female students, and students across racial and ethnic groups. What can D209 do to address this trend?

We need to make sure we have adequate mental health staffing in each school and create an environment where students know there is nothing wrong with asking for help.  

19. In 2015, sitting board members were challenged because they sat on the Board while not personally sending their high school age children to D209 schools. Where do you stand on a person sitting on a Board of Education but not sending their own kids to that school, especially during the term they are seeking election for?

I don’t believe having kids in the district is any better than not having kids in the district.  We all have different POV’s, skill sets, and levels of free time.  Looking at the board as a whole and having varied talents is the most important aspect of a good functioning board.