Reed-Custer School Board candidates lay out their plans

There are four candidates vying for three open seats on the Reed-Custer Board of Education in next week’s consolidated election. Each seat is a 4-year term on the board.

The Braidwood Journal asked each of those candidates a variety of questions on fiscal responsibility, plans to ensure student success for all students, including those with special needs, and teacher retention.

The candidates' answers to those questions are listed below in the order they appear on the ballot.

Election day is April 4.

Greg Boyer
Q. How do you define the duties of a member of the Reed-Custer board of education, and what do you see as the difference between the duties of a board member, versus the duties of the administrative team?
A. The first responsibility of the Board of Education is to hire a Superintendent. They are then responsible for establishing district policy and vision. The Board also evaluates the Superintendent's performance. The administrative team is responsible for day to day operations and follow through on board established policies and vision.

Q. The district recently entered into a 6-year, $19.6 million tax agreement with Constellation Energy’s Braidwood Station. What do you see as the district’s priorities for utilizing these funds (ie, education, capital improvements, teacher retention projects, etc)?
A. These funds will be used to provide needed services for all students. The new collective bargaining agreement salary increases will also be supported. The District is looking at increased staffing to support the recently discussed strategic priority regarding student support services. Any budget surplus will be used to make early payments on the debt service agreement for the new Reed-Custer Elementary School and other facility needs.

Q. How will you support the administration in efforts to recruit and retain staff amid a national teacher shortage? What programs will you support or propose that directly address staff retention?
A. I will support the salary increases through the new contract with staff, I support signing bonuses to recruit the best possible staff, I will continue to support our newly implemented daycare program for children of district employees, and I will continue to allow our administrators sufficient time to network with local colleges and universities to recruit new staff.

Q. Roughly 14% of Reed-Custer students have an IEP for disabilities including developmental delays, speech or hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and autism. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. I will support continuing our membership of SOWIC. SOWIC offers professional development through the SOWIC academy. Local teachers are encouraged to visit SOWIC out of district programs to become familiar with services. We will continue to look for ways to improve our Social/Emotional services potentially adding a social worker. I will support maintaining classroom assistants and will carefully monitor staffing needs.

Q. Roughly 32% of Reed-Custer students are low income. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. To support our low income students and families we offer robust summer school opportunities, free school supplies, we waive student fees, including K-8 registration fees, we also offer breakfast for students. Every student gets a device to utilize technology (chromebook, I-pad, etc.) and for our families in need we offer mobile hotspots for home internet access. We provide food and clothing, we shortened our transportation radius to 1 mile rather than the State law of 1.5 miles. I support our Reed-Custer Cares program, the Holiday Cares program, and I support the Give Something Back Scholarship Participation program.

Q. What is the role of the school district when it comes to ensuring that graduates of Reed-Custer High School exit the district college and/or career ready? How are you as a board member accountable to parents and students to make sure that all of those graduates have the best chance for success?
A. All students go through the Naviance Career Prep Program. We sponsor college and career fairs, WILCO participation, JJC visits for students, we have a Teacher Internship Program, we have a Career internship Program, and our counselors meet with students annually to discuss future plans. As a board member, I feel responsible to make sure our students and parents are aware of all the programs mentioned and any other services offered to make sure all of our students are prepared for their chosen path after high school.

Melissa Micklos
Q. How do you define the duties of a member of the Reed-Custer board of education, and what do you see as the difference between the duties of a board member, versus the duties of the administrative team?
A. I feel the Board is responsible for the oversight of the District, holds the Superintendent accountable for leading the District and being fiscally responsible with district resources, and advocates for education/curriculum and extracurriculars that meet the needs of all students whether college, career, trades, or military bound.
Administration Team deals with the day-to-day leadership management of the District. The Board will hold the Superintendent accountable – the Superintendent holds the Administration Team accountable while also keeping the Board informed of any major issues. The Superintendent also gets the opinions and guidance from the Board on how to handle major issues. If an issue is minor and can be resolved without Board intervention, it is done so and the Board is briefed on what happened and how it was resolved.

Q. The district recently entered into a 6-year, $19.6 million tax agreement with Constellation Energy’s Braidwood Station. What do you see as the district’s priorities for utilizing these funds (ie, education, capital improvements, teacher retention projects, etc)?
A. Priorities I would like to see are to attract and retain quality teachers and staff with competitive wages to both combat and address the teacher shortage. Hire a school resource officer that is dedicated solely to the middle school, thus enabling the District to have an officer present in all three buildings. Ensure we have education curriculum and programs that meet the needs of all students (college, career, trades, and military bound). Promote mental health awareness and combat bullying/cyberbullying in all the schools. I would like to partner with the Braidwood Health and Community Coalition to let students know all the available options they have. I would work with the Superintendent and Administration Team to identify any capital projects and explore funding opportunities.

Q. How will you support the administration in efforts to recruit and retain staff amid a national teacher shortage? What programs will you support or propose that directly address staff retention?
A. To start I would support the Superintendent and Administration Team in attracting and retaining teachers with competitive wages. I will continue to support the growth of the daycare program that the District recently started. Having an affordable daycare option for teachers can entice teachers to stay/join in our district. It takes a lot of stress away and shows teachers that the District cares about this important issue.
I would work with the Superintendent and Administrative Team to seek out teacher candidates from colleges. Finding college students about to graduate with education degrees in subject areas we need would be a great resource.
Lastly, I support and encourage the Superintendent and Admin Team to attend networking events, with intent of meeting and attaining qualified teacher candidates.

Q. Roughly 14% of Reed-Custer students have an IEP for disabilities including developmental delays, speech or hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and autism. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. I understand there is a large concern in recent discussions throughout our community as to why the School District does not solely support students with special needs and in some cases, busses them out of district. As a new candidate, I do not have institutional knowledge of the current financial contract with SOWIC. I believe there is an opportunity to better understand why the contract is in place and weigh that against the costs associated with having a program exclusively for Reed-Custer. Once I learn more about the financials, I can better provide insight to the pros and cons.
While attending the monthly board meetings, I do know that the District is represented by Superintendent Mark Mitchell, at a monthly meeting with SOWIC. I would make sure that any recommendations that are made during the monthly SOWIC meeting are presented and discussed at the School Board Meetings. Relative to the in-house students, I would support the feedback from the individual schools. If the Administration, Teachers, or Aides feel that there is more that can be done to support any students education, and help assist them with learning, I would want the Superintendent to bring those ideas to the Board, for the collective group to determine how to meet those needs.

Q. Roughly 32% of Reed-Custer students are low income. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. With the low-income percentage being elevated within our District, I would encourage the guidance counselors to find any and all scholarship and grant opportunities to assist those students that want to pursue college. I would encourage apprenticeships and trades be promoted as available career opportunities and give guidance to those that are interested. Many may not know, but Wilco held a satellite fire program at the Braidwood Fire Protection District. The program was predominantly Wilmington and Braidwood students but was operated on behalf of Wilco. The program was successful, but staffing, logistics and financial support was still needed. I would need to better understand strengths and weaknesses of these types of arrangements to explore whether opportunities such as this are possible in the future. If not, fully explain the reasoning to the parents with statistics and clear information.
I would also support the programs that allow us to cover school supplies, send Chromebooks home with every student for homework completion, and even supply Wi-Fi hot spots for those that need it. I would promote and support discounted and free meals, and ensure we always have breakfast available. Free sack lunches in the summertime, along with the free day camps, and extra meals/care packages of food that can be sent home for those students that may not be getting enough for dinner. There are grant opportunities for funding various programs that can be looked into, if they are not being looked into already.

Q. What is the role of the school district when it comes to ensuring that graduates of Reed-Custer High School exit the district college and/or career ready? How are you as a board member accountable to parents and students to make sure that all of those graduates have the best chance for success?
A. I would encourage and support the Curriculum Director to continuously look for curriculum improvements to meet the needs of all the students. Possibly an adoption of college and career readiness software that the students can use to explore areas of interest, different career paths, and college choices. I would encourage career fairs, apprenticeships, and job shadowing experiences. I would have the Curriculum Director work with the staff to ensure all state and assessment tests are performed and they are continuously working together to improve scores and increase educational opportunities. I would also make sure all buildings are working together to ensure a smooth transition for students from elementary to middle and from middle to high school as homework and tests increase in volume and level of difficulty. Lastly, be accountable to parents by communicating that they are encouraged to address any issues they have with their child’s education through the chain of command, and making sure they know the proper steps to take to address any potential issues.

Chris Cavanaugh
Q. How do you define the duties of a member of the Reed-Custer board of education, and what do you see as the difference between the duties of a board member, versus the duties of the administrative team?
A. The board is a seven member team elected by the community to provide guidance to the administrative team as to the direction the community wishes for the school district to move forward in.

Q. The district recently entered into a 6-year, $19.6 million tax agreement with Constellation Energy’s Braidwood Station. What do you see as the district’s priorities for utilizing these funds (ie, education, capital improvements, teacher retention projects, etc)?
A. The current board members recently conducted a strategic planning session which included members of the community, staff, administrators, and students to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the district. The primary opportunity identified at this session was to focus on Student Supports. The board is now working together with administration to form and execute proposals to improve the education provided by the district to all student groups, based off of the feedback we were provided during the planning session.

Q. How will you support the administration in efforts to recruit and retain staff amid a national teacher shortage? What programs will you support or propose that directly address staff retention?
A. If re-elected I will continue to try to find ways to improve recruitment and retention of staff as we have done in recent years. Some examples of this include board sponsored changes in the Collective Bargaining Agreement to assist us in attracting quality applicants and the addition of affordable in-house childcare for staff. We have also recently requested that our administrators start networking with local Colleges and Universities in an attempt to build bridges for future recruitment of new grads.

Q. Roughly 14% of Reed-Custer students have an IEP for disabilities including developmental delays, speech or hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and autism. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. We continue to be a member of SOWIC which is a provider for some of our special needs students. When we built the new Elementary we as a board made a commitment to keep as much of the SOWIC in house as possible by signing a long term lease for a portion of the new building with them. We have also added the Director of Student Services position which greatly helps with our special needs students. Lastly we recently added an additional class to each grade at the Elementary Building to lower the class sizes for the lower grades.

Q. Roughly 32% of Reed-Custer students are low income. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. We have added several programs in recent years to assist in this area as well. Some of these include providing free school supplies, instituting a breakfast program, waiving student fees, updated technology to include student devices and mobile hotspots for those in need. We also along with our staff support Reed Custer Cares program and the Give Something Back Scholarship Program.

Q. What is the role of the school district when it comes to ensuring that graduates of Reed-Custer High School exit the district college and/or career ready? How are you as a board member accountable to parents and students to make sure that all of those graduates have the best chance for success?
A. I requested at a board meeting a few months ago that we explore with Joliet Junior College the potential to offer additional commonly required General Education Courses as optional electives for High School Students. I am happy to say these discussions are progressing well into a very possible reality of Psychology 101, Communications 101 and a few others being offered to our students during the regular school day in the near future. I also serve on the Board of Control at the WILCO Area Career Center and am very much involved in working to expand our Career and Technical Education offerings to our students as well as. I have also supported further development in our STEM and Industrial Technology programs and look forward to seeing these continue to grow.

John Guistat
Q. How do you define the duties of a member of the Reed-Custer board of education, and what do you see as the difference between the duties of a board member, versus the duties of the administrative team?
A. The most basic duty of a school board member is to ensure local control and autonomy of the school district so that the local communities’ needs, values, and priorities take precedent over the wishes/mandates of any outside forces. The people of Reed-Custer know what’s best for their own children and students, not politicians and outsiders hundreds of miles away that have never stepped foot in our area. It’s a school board member’s duty to be responsive to the local community and to direct the school district towards fulfilling the goals and needs that the community feels are important; the administration’s duty is to enact these goals and report back to the board on progress.

Q. The district recently entered into a 6-year, $19.6 million tax agreement with Constellation Energy’s Braidwood Station. What do you see as the district’s priorities for utilizing these funds (ie, education, capital improvements, teacher retention projects, etc)?
A. The priority of the school board should be investing in the education of the students. We can have the newest, most beautiful buildings and facilities in the state, but none of that matters if we aren’t investing in the kids that are sitting in those new classrooms and making sure we do everything possible to set them up for success in life. I also believe that investing in the education of the students and providing more instructional resources will lead to better staff retention as well, so it’s a no-brainer that we should be investing in education.

Q. How will you support the administration in efforts to recruit and retain staff amid a national teacher shortage? What programs will you support or propose that directly address staff retention?
A. In addition to investing in instructional resources as I stated in the last question, I’d also like to look at providing advancement opportunities for our staff. One thing I’d like to look at is partnering with a college or university so that our staff have the opportunity to earn additional teaching endorsements or even advanced degrees. If we invest in our staff’s professional development, I believe the students can only benefit and we’d also be attracting and retaining passionate professionals who want to grow in their career.

Q. Roughly 14% of Reed-Custer students have an IEP for disabilities including developmental delays, speech or hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and autism. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. While our statistics say 14% of students have an IEP as of today, that number is going to steadily increase. In March of this year, the CDC announced that the number for children diagnosed with autism, alone, increased to 1 in 36 (a 10% jump in just two years). IEPs and how to best serve our students with special needs is something that needs to be a primary focus as these numbers continue to rise. One thing that’s helped my kids tremendously is speech, developmental, occupational, etc. therapies over the years; these basic therapies should be readily available for our students without a doubt. As a parent who’s been through IEP meetings, I know that one thing is certain; there’s no blanket cover-all approach to what your individual student needs to thrive in school. Individual Education Plans (IEP) need to be specialized for each student with the input of chiefly their parent/guardian and their educators; our role as a school board should be making sure that whatever supports the IEP team deems necessary for each individual student are readily available so that they have what is needed to succeed.

Q. Roughly 32% of Reed-Custer students are low income. What programs/supports will you support or propose to make sure these students are given all supports available for learning success?
A. This goes back to investing in the students’ success. No student, regardless of their family’s financial situation, should be turned away from participating in anything our schools have to offer and I’d strive to work with community groups and stakeholders to make sure that all resources are made available to those families that need them.

Q. What is the role of the school district when it comes to ensuring that graduates of Reed-Custer High School exit the district college and/or career ready? How are you as a board member accountable to parents and students to make sure that all of those graduates have the best chance for success?
A. Our school district’s responsibility to our community and students is to make sure that we are providing the resources, tools, and education necessary to set them up for success, with the ultimate hopes that as our students graduate and begin families of their own they can look back and be proud of where they grew up and even decide to raise their families here too. Whether a student’s goal is college, a trade, military service, or going straight into the workforce, we can and should have resources available for whatever path they want to take. It all starts with being receptive and responsive to what the community wants and values and as a board member, my duty is to be a voice for parents, community stakeholders, and the people.