Jillian Barker: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Jillian Barker

City: St. Charles

Office sought: CUSD 303 School Board Candidate

Age: 41

Family: My husband Adam and I have four children in three CUSD 303 schools, next year we will have students from high school down through preschool.

Occupation: Educator

Education: M.S. ED

Civic involvement: While nothing of political significance besides being an informed voter, I did teach children about the constitution, their civic responsibilities and about being a voter for years.

Previous elected offices held: I have not previously held a political office.

Website: barker4board.com

Facebook: @VoteJillianBarker

Twitter: N/A

Issue questions

What are the most important issues facing your district and how do you intend to address them?

The most important issues facing CUSD 303 that are critical work of a school board are discrepant performance between 10 elementary and 2 high schools, lack of social-emotional wellness continuity between feeder schools and enrollment numbers.

Addressing these issues starts with strategic planning and EC-21+ alignment created by partnering with the stakeholders to develop well-constructed board goals and appropriate indicators based upon our unique local needs and issues. This work will be the basis for the goals and expectations given to the superintendent to create action items in order to meet the terms of the stakeholder expectations and desired results. Accountability to these expectations is accomplished by deeply examining data to measure student progress, to measure program effectiveness, to determine instructional effectiveness and to guide innovative programming; and by creating a robust contract with the superintendent and evaluating the superintendent based upon agreed upon criteria.

How satisfied are you that your school district is adequately preparing students for the next stage in their lives, whether it be from elementary into high school or high school into college or full-time employment? What changes, if any, do you think need to be made?

Having a continuous improvement mindset does not include ratings of satisfaction, there are three areas I would like to focus on improving to adequately prepare students for the next stages in their lives are EC-12 strategic alignment, social-emotional wellness and community engagement.

I believe student wellness and achievement are the central work of the board and its stakeholders. It is the job of the board with the administration to ensure educators are trained and immersed in a system that makes social-emotional well-being and makes positive behavior supports a priority. It is about working together to provide educators with the skills and the environment to work with a diverse set of emotional needs and to use effective self-care techniques.

High student achievement is created with specific goals surrounding instruction and properly vetting curriculum by asking critical questions surrounding effectiveness, adherence to brain science, need and intended implementation process. The local control with the stakeholders should examine the unique issues in achievement within the district and within buildings to determine necessary implementation planning across grades and content areas, continuing with early adopters unpacking strengths and gaps and developing resources before district-wide implementation fidelity is expected. It is equally important to examine both diagnostic assessments and evaluative assessments to determine local effectiveness with any program or curriculum for continuous improvement in student achievement. A top performing district boosts economic development. The most important thing a family looks at when moving is the school district, good school districts create more consumers.

What budgetary issues will your district have to confront during the next four years and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, be specific about programs and expenses that should be considered for reduction or elimination. On the income side, do you support any tax increases? Be specific.

One of the budgetary issues we face is what to do with the Haines building. There are some concerns that I have with the presented proposals. I sat in a room several years ago while the public was told that the Haines building wasn't worth saving. Now, 4 different options have been given, including sell, lease, demo, and repurpose. I believe

that the lease and sell options have not been adequately explored. The option to repurpose part of the building with demoing the other part included sub-proposals that would create centralized administrative offices with transition programming and northeast academy housed there. I do not disagree with a district office that houses all the players, I believe it creates collaborative environments and quicker turnarounds in solving cross-departmental problems. However, my concern lies with the funding source. I am troubled that the district has been saving Medicaid money for construction purposes and intends to use 1 million dollars for these purposes. Medicaid is billed by the district to offset costs of specific health services it may provide such as speech and language, occupational therapy, physical therapy, social work/mental health services - Medicaid is billed off of the services provided to Medicaid eligible students. The law reads that the district "should" use the funds for IEP implementation, school health services,

hiring staff for those services, supplies for those services, assistive technology, tube feeding expenses, and the funds may return to the programs that generate the revenue for things such as professional development and innovative intervention programs etc.

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.

As contract talks come up with various school employee groups - teachers, support staff, etc. - what posture should the school board take? Do you believe the district should ask for concessions from its employees, expect employee costs to stay about the same as they are now or provide increases in pay or benefits?

Unfortunately, the country has been moving into a teacher shortage crisis, this makes this topic a critical issue for the sustainability of our status as a "good school district" to move into and to work within as a teacher, administrator, paraprofessional or support staff. Teacher turnover is expensive. Teachers have the largest influence on student achievement. The higher the teacher turnover rates; the larger the impact on student achievement. It is important that the public know that CUSD 303 has a teacher retention rate lower than 80% and that the average teacher salary is lower than the average of the state. The school board, administrators and union members must work together to make sure that we offer competitive compensation, supportive teaching environments, give value to staff input on how to improve working conditions and utilize innovative recruitment and retention plans as a way to improve student achievement and cut the expense of teacher turnover.

If your district had a superintendent or other administrator nearing retirement, would you support a substantial increase in his or her pay to help boost pension benefits? Why or why not?

In July, the state imposed a cap on salary bumps requiring districts to cover the added pension benefits over a 3% raise at the end of the administrator's career. The TRS pension system was not designed to support these types of increases and school boards must be wise to this and should not place the district in a contractual situation that calls for paying for parachutes. However, we do need to offer competitive compensation to administrators in accordance with Illinois state law which requires payout for unused sick and vacation days.