District 303 school board drops Citizen Advisory Committee as district launches community engagement plan

The St. Charles Unit District 303 school board agreed Monday that its Citizen Advisory Committee should be discontinued in the face of the district launching a community engagement plan.

The school board established the Citizen Advisory Committee in 2019 to provide information, feedback, support and guidance to the board. The committee was comprised of more than three dozen community members and current students and most recently has been co-chaired by school board members Becky McCabe and Kate Bell.

As part of a community engagement plan, the district plans to conduct listening sessions, with the first round set to take place in late August and early September. The first-round sessions will be on Aug. 31, Sept. 6 and Sept. 8.

"We just feel this is an opportunity to broaden our community engagement efforts with our plan and really bring more people to the table to have that conversation, that two-way dialogue," said Scott Harvey, the district's chief communications officer.

McCabe and Bell support the administration's decision to discontinue the CAC as a board committee. McCabe said she hopes the community will participate in the listening sessions.

"The CAC wasn't just about hearing voices," she said. "It was also about learning. And we did a lot of educating during those meetings."

McCabe and Bell said it is critical for student voices to be heard.

Board member Matthew Kuschert said he hopes the listening sessions will boost community engagement and increase the number of voices heard within the community.

Superintendent Paul Gordon said he will be conveying to board members what is being said at the listening sessions, a point reiterated by Harvey.

"There's going to be a lot of continued dialogue throughout this process," Harvey said. "And this first round of meetings is really going to guide where we go."