Hoopeston School Board Candidates Answer Student Questions

These questions were created by Hoopeston Area High School students during the Youth Media Summit at Illinois Public Media in Urbana on March 13^th.

Connie Catron

What can we do to recruit and retain high quality teaching staff?

Recruiting teachers in IL is very hard right now for a number of reasons. However we can start with student teachers that we get within our district as well as trying to reach out to our local universities. There is not really a way of doing incentive bonuses because those funds have to come from somewhere.

How can we create drug rehabilitation programs for students in our schools?

Personally I do not feel that is our school’s responsibility.

How do we secure funding for support programs to help students & families with drug addiction problems?

Again I do not feel that is in the realm of a school’s responsibility.

We learned today that other communities have a student delegate on their school boards. How can students have a voice on the Hoopeston school board?

I do not know if this would fall under the policy and procedure of our Board guidelines. If these other communities were in IL then it would fall under guidelines that could be done. My question back to you would be how would a delegate be chosen? Would this be a single person for the entire school year or rotating monthly? Quarterly? Would it be a student with only a certain GPA? Or only upperclassman, etc? What kind of access would this student have? Access to closed sessions? What I am getting at is there are a lot of variables that need to be addressed with this particular question.

How can we better ensure the quality of those elected and hired in district administrative positions?

Due diligence. As an individual looking at someone being elected, find out information in them, attend forums like last night or simply ask them their views on particular topics. And hiring has the same criteria - do the due diligence and not take what has been put if paper as face value. We need to look at what they have done or not done at their previous positions/schools.

How are the timelines for school projects determined and why are some projects given higher priority than others?

I do not know that answer of timelines. This would have to be based off the type of project it was and if it were contracted out the length of time the contractor gave. Priority is based off of necessity.

Lloyd Lee Cox

What can we do to recruit and retain high quality teaching staff?

Recruiting Staff - I believe that we need to try recruiting our local students before they leave for college. We need to keep in touch with them and possibly offer them a stipend to student teach. I believe that homegrown is our best bet. We could also reach out to different universities' teachers education programs to see if they will let us talk to their upcoming graduating students. Another idea would be to offer signing bonuses. I also feel that we need to be competitive and look at teachers in other districts to try to recruit.

Staff Retention - I think the quickest way to sum it up is teachers leave because the job promises high stress and a wage that doesn't reflect the time, energy, heart and a lot of times their own money that they put into their work. To break that down, most teachers work more than 40 hours a week. It is not possible to finish the things they're supposed to do during their planning period.  By the time they sit down to do their planning, they're probably exhausted.  So, they either take their work home or stay late. Besides making teachers feel more appreciated for the work they do every day, there are some other options and ideas that may help with teacher retention such as student discipline, flex time, performance bonuses and conducting exit interviews.

How can we create drug rehabilitation programs for students in our schools?

How do we secure funding for support programs to help students & families with drug addiction problems?

First, I would like to review Illinois Youth Survey results for our school and our county. Whatever decisions we make should be driven by data and facts.  Next, as community and school district need to identify our current resources to address drug and alcohol abuse. My first step would be to leverage our local resources in Vermillion country. This would include meeting with the Vermillion County Substance Abuse Workgroup area treatment providers to see how we could work together to better serve our students.

Once we know what is being provided, we can seek external funding to fill in the gaps.

In general, a comprehensive approach to substance abuse problems requires a 3 prong approach:

1) Prevention at the primary, middle, & high school level. It needs to be something more than DARE. It should occur several times a year and not be a one shot deal (like an assembly)

2) Intervention/Screening - Intervention involves a identifying kids who are showing some signs of early use.

3) Treatment - Our first move should be to try local treatment providers. 

I would suggest setting up a meeting with Rosecrance students with private insurance would be able to use this service.

Also meet with New Directions. They are partially funded by the State of Illinois (Department of Alcohol & Substance Abuse). They would treat students on medicaid. 

I would offer these agencies some space to meet with students at the school.

I would consider hiring a school counselor is a Licensed Professional Counselor...if you don't have one.  LPC do both guidance counseling & mental health counseling.

Lastly, we should pursue grant funding to help us with our initiatives. I think we should reach out to the Department of Alcohol & Substance Abuse, University of Illinois Center for Prevention Research & Development for guidance and technical assistance. They will be able to help us identify grant opportunities, collect needed data, and assist with writing grants.

We learned today that other communities have a student delegate on their school boards. How can students have a voice on the Hoopeston school board?

I do think it is great that students get involved in the political process and discovering the process of boards. I would be open to having a Hoopeston student as a delegate for the student body. I would like to see the voting process used to select such a student. This would give students an insight into the electoral process. Also, I would like to see more students attend school board meetings and to speak up on issues they feel strongly on.

How can we better ensure the quality of those elected and hired in district administrative positions?

You cannot insure the quality of the people elected to the board, you have to trust that the community as a whole, is well informed on each candidate and elect the most qualified person they see fit. In turn you hope you have the right people on the board to find the right superintendent for the district. I believe it is the school board's responsibility to hire a superintendent that has character, good morals and sound judgement. If the board hires such a person, then this leader will be responsible for finding quality administrators for the district. In turn the board will the vote to accept or not accept these administrators employment into the district, if they agree with the superintendents choice. In the end the fate of the district rests in the boards hands.

How are the timelines for school projects determined and why are some projects given higher priority than others?

Not being on the board, I would speculate school projects are done by necessity. Far as that, I would have to do more research into this questions. It is hard to know when our board is in Executive Session almost 4hrs a month, there’s so many things that can be discussed behind closed doors.

JoHanna Gash

1. What can we do to recruit and retain high quality teaching staff?

I believe if we as a district are making our current teachers happy in their position they will be more apt to recruit people, I would like to see more local teachers, local people have a vested interest in this community and I believe they would stay in the district. When we hire from outside our district those teachers tend to be waiting for a job closer to their home and we can’t keep them.

2. How can we create drug rehabilitation programs for students in our schools?

I think this would be great for our community. I’m not sure how much the school itself could do to create a program like this, I’m not sure if they would be allowed to, I don’t know the logistics of that. But I believe if they couldn’t do it personally, they could definitely aid a group that is wanting to create something like this. The school could be a great asset in helping especially with knowing the students that would need it.

3. How do we secure funding for support programs to help students & families with drug addiction problems?

At this point in time I do not know much about the districts funding and finances, I am hoping to learn more if I am elected. I would love to help in any way I could to try and find funding if it is available to help with a program of this nature. I believe in our community it is definitely something that could benefit a lot of families.

4. We learned today that other communities have a student delegate on their school boards. How can students have a voice on the Hoopeston school board?

I did not know that other communities had a student delegate, I think that is a great idea. I do know that the board meetings are open to the public, and I believe if you sign up at the meeting you can voice your opinion, so that is one way students could voice their opinions.

5. How can we better ensure the quality of those elected and hired in district administrative positions?

I believe by the community educating themselves on each candidate before any election they can use their vote to ensure the best person for the job is elected. The more that our community continues to improve and grow I believe that the pool of quality candidates will continue to get bigger and bigger and we will have nothing but quality to choose from.

6. How are the timelines for school projects determined and why are some projects given higher priority than others?

If we are talking about projects that students have to do in class, I can honestly say I don’t know the answer to that. I do believe that each teacher has their own lesson plans and they determine how long each project gets. Some projects may be harder or may need more time than another one.

If we are taking about projects around the school building, I believe that each school building has plans to do each project in the order of importance and necessity. Some projects are more time and labor intensive, so that would determine their timeline.

RICH EISENMAN

No answers

DAVE MCFADDEN

What can we do to recruit and retain high quality teaching staff?

The teacher shortage we face has put increased pressure on school districts to make their schools a desirable place to work. Having an environment where current teachers feel valued and fulfilled is the key to attracting new teachers, as our current teachers are the greatest advocates for potential recruits. Maintaining this type of culture as well as providing mentors for new teachers to help them assimilate to the school and community is key to retaining them and reducing turnover. In addition, providing competitive salary and benefits should also be a top priority.

How can we create drug rehabilitation programs for students in our schools?

Creating drug rehabilitation programs at the basic education level would be difficult given a district's limited access to financial resources. A district's greatest opportunity in preventing and identifying substance abuse is the mental health training of its staff and partnering with community outreach and prevention strategies. Providing access to information regarding these resources to families is key in helping to identify and treat this issue at the community level.

How do we secure funding for support programs to help students & families with drug addiction problems?

Funding for programs such as ones that promote substance free prom and after-prom activities can be secured through available grants. Potential opportunities to fund various substance abuse programs exist through grants and would require monitoring of and effective application for these grants as they become available

We learned today that other communities have a student delegate on their school boards. How can students have a voice on the Hoopeston school board?

The current school policies don't provide for a student delegate. I am an advocate for voices of all levels relevant to a school district to be heard. This would include community members, school district staff, and students. If a desire to have a student delegate on our school board exists, the best place to initiate this conversation would be for proponents to request this topic to be an item on the Board of Education meeting agenda or to speak during the public comment portion of that agenda.

How can we better ensure the quality of those hired in district administrative positions?

The quality of a school district administrator is ultimately subject to the satisfaction that members of the Board of Education feel that the needs and desires of the community have been met. To ensure this happens, community input should be sought in determining the initial qualities and traits of potential candidates.

Once this is accomplished, a rigorous interview and vetting process is necessary to ensure that the best possible candidate that meets this criteria is selected. To provide long term satisfaction, thorough periodic evaluations of the administrator are necessary.

How are the timelines for school projects determined and why are some projects given higher priority than others?

Timelines ultimately are determined by need, funding, and state mandates. These also play a role in determining priority. The first obligation of school district leadership is to meet the the legal requirements of the state. Occasionally projects are mandate driven. Otherwise priority falls to projects that address safety, mobility access, and those that benefit the greatest portion of the district population as well as those that have a greater impact on quality of life.

CHRIS SMALL

No Answers