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William F. Kelley: 2021 candidate for Harper College board of trustees

Bio

City: Schaumburg

Age: 66

Occupation: Attorney at Kelley, Kelley & Kelley Attorneys and Counselors at Law

Civic involvement: Vice chair and trustee of Harper College; Central Region chair and director of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT); Northeast region co-chair and past president of the Illinois Community College Trustee Association (ICCTA); past president of the Northwest Suburban Bar Association; past president of the Schaumburg Hoffman Estates Rotary Club; past chair of the Kenneth Young Center; founding board member of the Schaumburg Business Association; founding board member of the Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts Foundation

Q&A

Q: Why are you running for this office, whether for reelection or election the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you, and if so, what is it?

A: I want to ensure that the outstanding educational opportunity I received at Harper College years ago, is affordable and accessible to everyone in our community. Continuing to improve upon our nationally recognized student success, persistence, and advancement initiatives while strategically addressing national trends of declining enrollment in community colleges is job one. Even though Harper College significantly beats the state and national trends of declining enrollment, it still breaks my heart knowing that fewer students, unemployed and underemployed in our community are turning to Harper College. We need to continue to rein in the costs and knock down the barriers of getting an education if we have any hope of giving our students and workforce, so desperately in need of training and retraining, the same opportunities I had many years ago.

Q: How would you grade the current school board on its response to the pandemic? Why?

A: While we can always do better, and should continue to strive and stretch, I believe we did an outstanding job during these unprecedented times. While our enrollment for the fall and spring semester did decline, we significantly beat both the state and national averages for community colleges. We were innovative and flexible in addressing the emerging needs of our students as the parameters continued to change. I believe our efforts to immediately address the needs of our students, like providing Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hot spots as well as emergency assistance, all made a difference.

Q: Did your district continue to adequately serve students during the disruptions caused by the pandemic? If so, please cite an example of how it successfully adjusted to continue providing services. If not, please cite a specific example of what could have been done better.

A: The Harper College board has been singularly focused on safely meeting out students' needs throughout the pandemic. The board dedicated over $300,000 from our surplus to match the generosity of our foundation to provide Emergency Aid Funds for our students. Our efforts helped bridge the technology divide among our students by providing Chromebooks, Wi-Fi hot spots, and graphing calculators. Our emergency aid gave a much needed lifeline to our students. This gave our students a fighting chance to continue their studies and training online. Harper faculty and staff made a concerted effort to call and text students, ascertaining their needs and directing them to the many resources available. Since the onset of the pandemic, we offered curbside pickup for textbooks and supplies. We also adopted "No Harm Grading" where a student's GPA would not be negatively impacted by withdrawal or failing grade. I really believe these efforts were the main reason we were successful.

Q: Do you have a plan on how to safely and effectively conduct classes in the spring? What have you learned from the fall semester that you would change in the spring?

A: As Central Region chair of the ACCT, our national community college trustees association, I have collaborated with community college trustees, presidents, state and federal education leaders, and elected officials throughout the pandemic. Our focus is to strategically bring to scale best practices and most promising initiatives to address the damage to our students and communities from the pandemic. First and foremost, in Illinois, our faculty and staff need to be reclassified as "essential workers" to make them eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, just like our K-12 teachers and staff are classified now. As part of the leadership team of the ICCTA, our state trustee association, I have urged Gov. Pritzker to immediately correct this oversight. I am committed to devoting the resources required to allow Harper to provide in person education and training as soon as possible in compliance with the CDC guidelines. Scientific data has guided our decisions throughout the pandemic. I wholeheartedly endorsed our efforts to first focus on bringing the students back to campus for programs that require "hands on" learning, like dental hygiene, nursing, HVAV, welding, etc.

Q: In tough economic times, many students (and working professionals) turn to a community college for its educational value. How do you ensure that a person's financial sacrifice results in an educational benefit?

A: The value of education is a core questions for all of us. This is true whether we are seeking a four-year degree or training to upskill for jobs that can provide sustainable earnings. I received every bit as good an education at Harper as I did at Loyola University. Both were outstanding, dedicated faculty, small class sizes. Five years ago while beginning to serve on the ACCT board, I helped develop a strategic plan to guide the 1,100 community colleges in our country. We decided to champion the three most promising best practices to move the needle on student success. These three strategies are: 1.) Freshmen orientation class to acclimate students to college rigor; 2.) early alerts and advising for students who display warning signs of struggling; and 3.) academic pathways to assure that students are reminded and encouraged to stay on task with their course selections and complete their work on time. Harper has been at the vanguard of this movement and dramatically moved the needle, increasing student success, advancement and completion rates. These best practices helped students succeed and brought even more value to Harper students during this pandemic.

Q: From the college's point of view, what budget issues will your district have to confront and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, what programs and expenses should be reduced or eliminated? On the income side, do you support any tax or fee increases?

A: As a trustee, I see myself as a watchdog over our community's tax dollars, making sure they are properly utilized. Two of the toughest questions I face each year are tuition and tax rates. I truly believe our board's stewardship has been exemplary. Next year we will again submit a balanced budget without any tuition increase, just as we did last year. We are fortunate to have built strong financial reserves, meeting our board goal of 40%-60% of annual operating expenses. Our strong reserves have positioned us to maintain an enviable AAA bond rating, unusual for Illinois. It has positioned us to address major financial issues now or in the future, without having to ask for a tax or major tuition increase. Whether we need to immediately deploy surpluses to meet the needs of a pandemic riddled economy or position ourselves to the possibility of Illinois shifting pension obligations from the state onto our shoulders, or making sure that our facilities continue to be up to date, we are ready and well positioned. I see no need right now to significantly cut any programs, although I have in the past and will continue to be open to this.

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