Julie Byrne Shroka: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Julie Byrne Shroka

City: Grayslake

Office sought: College of Lake County Trustee

Age: 59

Family:

Occupation: Retired CLC Administrator

Education: MA/Marketing/Webster University; BA/Journalism & Communications/Drake University

Civic involvement: Reading Power - Tutor reading to 1st and 2nd graders in underserved schools.

Previous elected offices held:

Incumbent? Yes. If yes, when were you first elected? Appointed by the board of trustees to replace Trustee Phil Carrigan in October 2017.

Website: julieshroka.com

Facebook: Julie Shroka for CLC Trustee

Twitter: N/A

Issue questions

Describe your vision for the primary role of a community college.

The College of Lake County plays a significant role in higher education, economic opportunity and community relations. I am passionate about community colleges, I see how CLC impacts our community and how it can transform the lives of individuals. My vision of CLC's primary goal is delivering affordable and high quality learning opportunities to advance student success. We need to provide an inclusive student-ready environment so that every student who walks through our doors can achieve their educational goals. Whether that goal is to obtain an Associate Degree and transfer to a 4-year institution, or obtain career skills to get a job that can support a family, or provide intellectual learning opportunities for the lifetime learner.

How well is your community college fulfilling that role? What changes, if any, need to be made?

We are taking a hard look at ourselves and realize that we have some work to do in fulfilling that role. We are not only ready for that challenge we are excited about it! Change is constant; if you're not willing to change you will become irrelevant. We need to be change agents, flexible and nimble so we can fulfill our promise of advancing student success. Last year, the board of trustees hired a new President, Dr. Lori Suddick. She is exactly who we need to lead the College at this time. In her first year, she has traveled all over Lake County meeting organizations, businesses and schools to ascertain the educational, economic and cultural needs of our community. She is already putting programs in place to address these needs and to ensure CLC is a high functioning educational organization. For example, CLC is initiating a pilot program at area high schools to ensure that new students entering CLC are ready for college-level classes. This is crucial to retention, completion and student success. CLC has also applied and been accepted into the Achieving the Dream National Reform Network; a national, nonprofit leader in championing evidence-based institutional improvement. Dr. Suddick has also been instrumental in connecting with area manufacturing businesses with the goal of developing a talent pipeline and economic opportunities for our students.

Are you currently employed by or retired from a school district, if so, which one? Is any member of your direct family - spouse, child or child-in-law - employed by the school district where you are seeking a school board seat?

No family member is currently employed by the College of Lake County. After 30 years of service, I retired from the College of Lake County in June 2016.

Is a tax rate increase needed and, if so, how do you justify it?

There is no need at this time for a tax rate increase. CLC is a fiscally responsible community partner. We have exceptional budget planning and every department/division at the College is part of the budget planning process. It is a challenge to continue to deliver affordable, high quality education when we can't rely on state funding. For the FY 2019 budget, CLC implemented cost-efficiency efforts throughout the college, including changes to health insurance and plan designs, to achieve a balanced budget. Also, CLC again received an AAA bond rating from Moody's Investor Services; very good news for the College and our taxpayers. CLC is one of only a handful of community colleges in the nation to receive this designation.

Community colleges provide many services to a diverse population. Is there a service your college should be providing that it is not, or reaching a segment of the population that it is not?

We try to be equitable to all our diverse populations we serve, but the College recognizes that we have equity gaps to address. Through our research and environmental scanning we are discovering areas where we are underserving students and are finding ways to address those gaps. We want to build bridges to learning and will find ways to do that through flexible educational delivery models and making sure that we are providing culturally relevant student learning experiences. The success of all our students is vital for a healthy and vibrant College and Lake County community.