Wheaton Warrenville District 200 forms citizen advisory panel

In an effort to improve community engagement, the Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 school board on Wednesday voted to form a new resident advisory committee that will serve as a link between the board and the community.

The idea to create a resident advisory committee stems from Engage200, a series of six community engagement sessions held last year to collect input from district taxpayers.

One of the conclusions of Engage200 was the district needed to work on communication to build trust with residents.

The new committee will deliberate on issues the board is studying and provide policy recommendations; members also will be expected to publicize and promote district proposals in the community and gather friends' thoughts on the district.

Superintendent Jeff Schuler said if the board decides the committee's feedback is not valuable, it can vote to end the committee at any time.

"This is one (community engagement) strategy, and I believe - through a combination of strategies - we reach the broadest base of the community that we can. And then my job, your job, is to consider all those pieces of feedback when we're making decisions," he said. "I don't see a downside to introducing this and seeing what comes of this."

According to the committee bylaws approved Wednesday, it will include at least 20 members but no more than 36.

The bylaws also state membership should reflect the diversity of residents in the district, including parents from multiple schools, people whose children already have graduated from District 200 and others who don't have any kids in the district.

Board President Jim Vroman said he thought it was "a no brainer" to approve the committee.

"I think we owe it not only to ourselves, but to our community, to implement this and certainly give it a good, honest try," he said. "It probably won't stop people from telling us we need to be more interactive with the community, but at least we can point to something and say, 'We tried.' If we don't do this people are going to say, 'You have no interest in doing it.'"

Two board members - Jim Mathieson and Jim Gambaiani - voted against the committee's charter and bylaws, saying they felt the committee's purpose and expected outcomes were unclear.

Gambaiani said he was torn but ultimately voted no because he thinks there are already a lot of current and future opportunities for the district to collect ideas and input from residents, including an upcoming State of the Schools address on Sept. 23 and several community meetings about facility planning.

"I would like to see us go through these items ... let those things play out and vet out and see if we can achieve the outcome we think the citizens advisory committee could," he said.

Mathieson said he doesn't think the committee is going to be "this magic thing" that will improve community engagement, and he is worried the committee will be a group of people who are "going to nod their head on everything we ask them."

He also said he's concerned the majority of the committee will be made up of parents of current students rather than a mix of people who represent the community as a whole.

"I have a lot of concerns," Mathieson said. "I can't think of a good example of something we would use this committee for."