Challengers, incumbents disagree on finances of Barrington District 220

While most of the challengers running for seats on the Barrington Area Unit School District 220 board of education say district finances could be handled better, a pair of incumbents seeking reelection maintain they have been good stewards of taxpayers' dollars.

Seven candidates are running for three, four-year terms on the board in the April 4 election. They include incumbents Barry Altshuler and Leah Collister-Lazzari; newcomers Matt Sheriff, Leonard Munson and Katey Baldassano, running together as a slate; Nelda Munoz; and Diana L. Clopton.

Sheriff said the district is well-funded, but its money is not well-managed.

"When I'm out talking to taxpayers, they don't know where a lot of the money's going," he said.

But Altshuler said that despite dealing with higher costs, the board works to tighten its spending every year. He said he wants to avoid cuts to core curriculum programs and excessive class sizes.

"If we're going to make big cuts in the budget, that's where the cuts are going to have to be," Altshuler said "And that's a difficult thing to try and sell to the community."

Baldassano, a school administrator in West Chicago Elementary School District 33, said she would like to see the school board look more critically at spending.

Collister-Lazzari, said she would consider "reasonable" spending cuts.

"(But) I would be very careful about cutting staff to increase class sizes unreasonably or to cut programs that are directly connected to our curriculum," she added. "I don't want to make irresponsible cuts."

Collister-Lazzari said that federal COVID relief funding that helped the district hire psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and counselors will soon go away, but it will remain important to support the mental health of students.

Munson said the district needs to examine spending in areas such as its school bus contract and administrative costs.

"We just voted for another tax increase (in 2020)," he said. "I get that we are in a high inflationary period. As a business owner, even in a high inflationary period, I can't continue to push that down onto my (customers)."

Challenger Nelda Munoz said she believes the district should spend more to support teachers, and supports hiring more of them.

"Each parent pays anywhere between $200 to $400 for school supplies in the classroom per child. Now, teachers are given $50 per classroom for supplies. How does that math work?" she said.

Diana L. Clopton, took a different view from the other challengers, saying the district is doing well financially.

"We have had a AAA bond rating for many years, and I think the district has done a great job of trying to balance the needs of the district with the budget," she said.

School officials should annually assess programs and class sizes to look for opportunities to streamline, but shouldn't make wholesale cuts that potentially damage the district.