Erin Chan Ding: 2025 candidate for Barrington Unit District 220 board
Bio
Office sought: Barrington Unit District 220 board (Vote for 4)
City: South Barrington
Age: 43
Occupation: Independent journalist
Previous offices held: Barrington 220 board member since 2021
Why are you running for this office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you?
It has been an absolute honor to serve on Barrington 220’s board of education for the past four years. I’ve used these years of board member service to really learn how our school district works, embraced my oversight role and served enthusiastically on our district’s board policy committee and equity team.
During the past few years, we’ve navigated the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, constructed a five-year, six-pillar strategic framework, broken ground on and cut ribbons on every aspect of our 2020 $147 million referendum, hired a new superintendent, implemented free, full-day kindergarten throughout the district, passed four responsible budgets, and negotiated and approved multiyear contracts with our two employee unions.
In November, the community approved a new $64 million referendum that will help us build STEAM classrooms, a community auditorium and safety and security enhancements.
I’m running for another term in part to see this referendum through. I’m committed to continue fostering belonging and listening to the concerns of our families, staff and community members. There’s still a lot of incredible and challenging work to do!
What is the role of the school board in setting and monitoring the curriculum?
My board member role focuses on governance and oversight. An effective analogy is that of a dance hall. Board members are not the dancers, nor the DJ playing the music. We’re not the chaperones or security guards. Instead, we’re watching from the balcony, ensuring the dance is going smoothly and that everyone is thriving.
Similarly, when it comes to curriculum, we have hired a very capable superintendent who has hired an incredibly talented staff to decide on instructional materials and implement curriculum.
We also have a robust curriculum review process, and at any given time, each aspect of our core curriculum, which ranges from literacy to social emotional learning to science to math to health, is undergoing one of four stages in our process: research and plan, develop, implement or monitor and refine.
Our Teaching and Learning Department oversees steering committees with educational experts in each area to review our teaching practices and instructional materials and bring recommendations before the board for our approval. We’re thus kept up-to-date with changes and innovations to each part of our curriculum.
Are there curriculum issues within the district that you feel need particular attention from the board?
We need to keep abreast of legislative changes at the state level and ensure that our curriculum and instructional materials align. For example, when the Illinois General Assembly passed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History so that every student in K-12 public education learns about the contributions of Asian Americans to our country, we approved multiple additions to our instructional materials that wove in the history and experiences of Asian Americans.
To bolster and support students, we also implemented a vibrant social and emotional learning initiative, Character Strong, into our curriculum, to focus on students’ holistic needs.
The program’s research-based curriculum catalyzes belonging, well-being and engagement, and aligns with our district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports in identifying students who may need additional, customized learning.
Our district has also launched a social media awareness and digital citizenship advisory committee to advise the board with recommendations to improve student learning and emotional health. We need to continue adjusting our offerings and resources based on students’ evolving emotional needs.
How do you view your role in confronting policy or curriculum controversies: provide leadership even if unpopular, give a voice to constituents — even ones with whom you disagree, or defer to state authorities?
A key charge that we as board members have in our governance role lies in connecting with the community. We need to listen, listen, listen. When we planned our strategic framework, we sought feedback online, over the phone and with in-person sessions from our community.
What resulted is a guiding initiative called Framework 220 that focuses on six key areas: personalized learning, future readiness, inclusive education, health and well-being, community partnerships and communication and stewardship.
Central to this is our Barrington 220 Learner Profile, which means shaping students who, in addition to engaging in rigorous academics, also creates, practices advocacy and empathy, collaborates, exhibits initiative and self drive, thinks critically and solves problems and communicates effectively.
That said, when it comes to difficult choices, my approach is to listen as deeply and broadly as I can and then make the decision — or in our case, cast the vote — that I feel is best for our students, our staff and our district as a whole.
Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage school district policy? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions for your school board.
As a member of our board policy committee, which is composed of educators, administrators and board members, I am tasked with reviewing and bringing updates to our district policy manual to the full board for discussion and approval.
We have an extensive policy manual that consists of eight sections and gives guidance for every aspect of our district. It’s the job of our district administrators and staff to implement best practices and procedures, using our policy manual as a guide.
Policies come before our committee in various ways: We systematically review each policy every five years, we examine our policies when there changes at the state level (as subscribers to the Policy Reference Education Subscription Service, we regularly updates on policy language and references when there state law modifications), and we can request reviews of specific policies.
As a committee, we take public comment at each meeting, review current and proposed language and then decide what changes we’ll move forward to the full board for discussion and a vote. This has been an effective process that allows for input from multiple stakeholders.
What is your assessment of the school district's diversity and equity efforts? Do you support the continuation or enhancement of such programs, or would you rather see them diminished. Please explain your reasoning.
When I first ran for school board office in 2020, the district had just hired its first director of equity, race and cultural diversity initiatives. For two years, I served on the 220 District Equity Team, which is made up of a cross-section of educators and community members; now, board members rotate who attends the meeting so that we all have the chance to go.
I’ve been encouraged by our district’s multipronged approach to equity. We have a board-directed mandate for our district to focus on inclusive education and hiring as part of our strategic framework.
Our assistant superintendent of human resources has also added talent acquisition as a key responsibility, and we’ve strengthened and formed new partnerships with area colleges and historically Black colleges and universities. We’re also more conscious of hiring leaders and staff that are both highly qualified and more closely reflect our student demographics — now composed of more than 40% students of color — in not only race and culture but also in socioeconomics, diversity of thought and lived experiences. And we’ve formed cohorts at each K-12 building focused on culturally responsive teaching.
What makes you the best candidate for the job?
An effective school board member collaborates. And collaborates. The board collaborates with each other, with the administration, with community members, with students, with families, with educators and with surrounding governing bodies. A board must collaborate for maximum effectiveness, as we make decisions together, by majority vote.
At times, we board members disagree — and that’s OK! When we do, it’s imperative that we listen to each other’s perspectives, refrain from engaging in personal attacks and respect the outcome of a vote. We need to have high engagement with our superintendent, who’s the board’s sole employee, and fulfill our role in oversight of the superintendent and the district.
We’ve grown a lot as a board in the past four years, and I’ve grown so much as a board member. I have gotten to know the district well and the processes we work within to make substantial change — such as implementing free, full-day kindergarten and our innovative K-Lab (kindergarten lab) at Barrington High School — and am flexible and open-minded enough to continue improving our students’ and families’ experiences. And, of course, collaboration is my thing!
What’s one good idea you have to better your district that no one is talking about yet?
During my term, I attended an illuminating night at Harper College with several district administrators focusing on “The Suburbanization of Poverty.” I experienced something so impactful: For an hour, we played assigned roles.
Some of us were elementary kids being raised by our grandparents, some were single teen parents, and some had just immigrated and had limited English ability. Proctors had set up various agencies around the gym, and in playing our roles, we experienced huge difficulties earning sufficient money for food and shelter, a lack of ability and time to attend school and obstacles accessing social services. It gave us just a glimpse into what some of our families experience every day.