Naperville Dist. 203 board not finished with self-evaluation
In between two closed meetings to discuss concerns about board leadership and communication, school board members in Naperville Unit District 203 gave only a slight clue into their internal conversations.
The board met Aug. 24 and is scheduled to meet again Sept. 21 after three members — Susan Crotty, Mike Jaensch and Jackie Romberg — asked board President Terry Fielden to step down from the role because of concerns about his leadership and communication.
During the first closed meeting to conduct a board self-evaluation, the seven elected school leaders discussed four topics, according to a report Fielden provided with materials for a public meeting Tuesday night.
• The code of conduct for school board members provided by the Illinois Association of School Boards.
• Roles and expectations of board members.
• Expectations of board leadership.
• The desire and need for proactive communication between board members.
No other board members commented Tuesday on the board evaluation process.
Fielden said the process is expected to wrap up after the second session. He would not say whether he intends to remain president of the board, on which he has served since 2007.
But Fielden did preside over Tuesday's meeting, including discussions about health care, ACT scores, recent graduate surveys and a new contract with the district's support staff.
Fielden was chosen as the board's president this spring after the April election. He was the only board member nominated to fill the role following an election in which all board members whose terms were expiring retained their seats.
Last month, Crotty, Jaensch and Romberg said the flow of information had stalled and the board's ability to govern had diminished since Fielden came into the role.
For example, the board reviewed one policy about financial management — specifically how to define “cash” and “cash equivalents” — for the third time Tuesday without voting on it. A vote is not expected until the board's Oct. 5 meeting, Superintendent Dan Bridges said.
Board members also had numerous questions about a potential agreement with Under Armour to become Naperville Central High School's official athletic gear vendor — questions that Romberg said potentially could have been addressed before Tuesday.
“We have questions that are more than normal,” Romberg said. “We all need to learn from that.”
All board members are supposed to be given information at the same time, Fielden said, which makes it difficult to anticipate and answer board questions that might come up.
The next board evaluation session is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., Sept. 21, before a public meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. that same day, Bridges said.