The following article is a local candidate profile for the District 303 School Board positions in the 2025 election, which takes place April 1. Kate Bell, Heidi Fairgrieve and Thomas Lentz are seeking reelection, and Antonietta Berton-Nicklaus, Jenna Hancock, Elias Palacios, Kim Rich and Aaron White are competing for these seats. Stargazer does not endorse any candidate. Information about disinformation circulating in the D303 School Board election can be found in one of our previous articles.
Kate Bell
What steps are you taking to inform and familiarize yourself with current issues in public education?
“Well, I do a lot of reading, but I’m currently on the school board, so I’m not saying I don’t need to refresh, but I’m living what we do here in the district constantly. I do happen to read about what’s going on across the nation. I also tend to try to stay focused on what we’re doing here because lots of people will say, ‘Oh, this is happening, that’s happening,’ and I can’t say yes or no to what’s happening in another district per se because I don’t know for sure. I know what’s going on here. I know what the trends are, but … I can only speak to what we’re doing here in D303.”
What are the biggest obstacles facing D303 and what are your plans to combat them?
“Well, because of federal funding changes that are happening quickly, we do need to be cognizant of that. However, part of the processes with the district that we have just wrapped up is the five year productive budget, … so we know exactly how much we can withstand and what [it looks] like if we were to lose some or all of our federal funding. … However, that’s not something that is in question at the moment, and I did read an article just the other day that JB Pritzker, the governor, was talking about being ready and proactive with regards to state funding for education, … so that whole funding thing and budgeting, while I know that’s always going to be a concern, I know that right now, D303 is looking really good as far as finances. What I would say are other things that are very important here, specifically to D303, are a couple of things. [High schoolers] know what we’re doing with our cell phone policies. Like it or hate it, that’s what we’re doing based on a lot of the things that educators, and [the] administrative team have read from “The Anxious Generation” by John Haidt, [which] talks about the really big increase in anxiety and how mental health and the effects of social media play into day to day learning, so it was really important for us to do the Cell Phone Advisory Committee, which I sat on as board member and worked through for many months … Removing the cell phones from the classroom and limiting their use during learning spaces and learning time, I have no doubt, will have a really positive effect on scores, because it’s having an effect on whether or not students are paying attention because they aren’t looking at their device. … Student behaviors and mental health and challenges in the classroom, which could be at any level, especially elementary level, [is] one of the things that I really want to focus on in my next term. … Looking at how [we can] work towards more positive student engagement and better behaviors in the classroom … relieves pressure on the other students in the classroom [and] pressure on the teacher, and then the students are having better active learning, so that’s something I really want to address.”
What actions would you take to help D303 adapt to a potential shutdown of the Department of Education?
“It’s really hard to know exactly what will happen and what changes we’ll need to adapt to, but I will say that our superintendent, Dr. Paul Gordon, has been extremely proactive and communicative with administrators and staff and the board. … Things are changing quickly, so when things happen and change, he’s communicating about how we’re going to adapt to it. We cannot possibly project everything that might change. … My understanding, from what I have read, is that it’s going to take a minimum of four months because it can’t be completely dismantled with an executive order. My understanding is that departments or entities within the government agencies that have been created by Congress have to be eliminated or changed by Congress, so it can’t be an executive order. Now, we understand that things are changing literally minute by minute some days, so I can’t say what we will do at each step, but I know financially we’re good to go. As far as regulations and what mandates will happen and things, that is completely unknown, and I know that our board will just work together to try to figure out whatever new things come our way, … so I’m not incredibly worried about [meeting] all the mandates immediately, or any changes. … We’re working as proactively as we can to continue to keep up with the changes.”
What values should D303 prioritize when problem-solving and facing difficult decisions?
“One of the really great ways to answer that question is super easy: strategic plan. I was one of the two board members on the strategic plan committee, so throughout the year, I was part of designing it and designing our commitment statement. When I ran last time in 2021, I was shocked to find we didn’t have projected budgets [or] present projected facility plans. We didn’t have a strategic plan. We didn’t have very detailed superintendent goals. All of that has changed while I’ve been up on the board. … Each time we make a decision that is a big decision, we really have to go back to the strategic plan and our commitment statement: ‘together [building] pathways [to] excellence.’ So what does that mean? … When you have a group discussion like we did with the [Cell Phone Advisory Committee] and the strategic plan, you’re hearing everybody at the table: … student, teacher, community member [and] staff member in addition to a teacher and then administrator and then board. … Pathways [are] really important to me because I have two boys that graduated from the district, a 2020 grad from East and a ‘23 grad from North. … I have a pretty wide perspective of what both high schools are like based on having kids go through them and being a parent from both. … We have to be able to have multiple pathways that kiddos want so they can excel. For example, [there are] middle school foreign language [and high school] math classes that can be taken if you choose, and if you want to, at the middle school level. … In our district, it’s important to me to make sure we have options for everybody. … It is amazing what we have, and that’s the most important thing to me, so every single decision has come back to our strategic plan and our commitment statement: ‘together building pathways to excellence.’”
Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
“I have been volunteering in this community … since 2007. … I have found in that time that really, I’m at my best when I’m in service to others. … I just have participated in so many things here in the district that it’s just been a lot of fun, and it gives purpose and meaning to me and to my life. Yes, I was a physical therapist, but I didn’t get as much out of my medical career as I have out of giving back to others, so much so that I am a co-founder of a nonprofit. We have peer to peer parent support network for parents of kiddos that have maladaptive behaviors or any kind of mental or physical diagnoses, and then also I have a youth coalition for kiddos in high school to support positive mental health choices and [help with] substance misuse. So I like to serve. When I decided to run [was] the first time I realized this is something that I was really meant to do, and it really gives me purpose. … I guess that that would be what I would want people to know, is that this is something I really, really enjoy.”
Antonietta Berton-Nicklaus
What steps are you taking to inform and familiarize yourself with current issues in public education?
“That’s a great question because there’s so many different sources out there, but I’m relying a lot on the state of Illinois school board entities, and I’m going through statistics, reports, bulletins, results of testing and things of that sort, and I’ve gotten an awful lot of information. I have had teachers kind of just mentioning things to me off to the side or whatever, so I seem to be getting a lot of really amazing information on people. The Illinois State Board of Education website has been probably the one that I had gone to the most.”
What are the biggest obstacles facing D303 and what are your plans to combat them?
“The biggest concern that I have, which I guess you can call an obstacle to really great education, is when I went online and the Illinois report card for 2024 had proficiency rates a bit low and actually concerning for me. Now, this is my first foray into the political arena. It’s the first time I’ve done something of this magnitude, so I am learning as I’m going along, but there are some things that you don’t need to be an educator in order to understand. The reading proficiency for kids is around 69 and the math is only about 59, and I thought those were rather low, and for the amount of funds that are being spent per child, I think those should be so much higher. Well, regardless of how much money is spent, our duty is to make sure every child is educated to the best of our ability, so that the kids could do to the best of their ability, so my concern at the moment is the curriculum.”
What actions would you take to help D303 adapt to a potential shutdown of the Department of Education?
“We have to look at what it is that the department is having issues with and look at ourselves and see where we have the answers to show that no, this is what was working for us. Now, there’s going to be areas that we’re not going to agree on, but by federal law, we have to follow it, so we’re going to have to truly work together, have an amazing amount of communication between the school board and the government, and we cannot be adversarial as much, as everybody feels they’re doing the very best they can. … I want to see every kid be so well educated that they can become successful, independent adults, and that can’t be done unless they’ve got all the tools and everything that they need to succeed in school, and unfortunately, I haven’t really gotten a lot of good feedback from some from some of the parents that I’ve been talking to, … so we have to make a very difficult decision in that we have to admit that we are lacking in some places, and we have to see where we could improve those, and even though the government does come in and does what and they do what they do, we still have to be able to work with them … within the parameters of what they’re giving us, so that we could make sure that we’re focusing on the kids and not on a power struggle. … We have to stop making this the ‘them and us’ type of things, because the bottom line is, the kids, whether you’re in kindergarten, whether you’re a senior in high school, our job is to make sure you are completely and fully prepared to get out in the world when we get older. … We’re gonna have to sit there and work with each other.”
What values should D303 prioritize when problem-solving and facing difficult decisions?
“We’re always told that the government has the say on what can be done, so let’s look at what the government is giving us. What are their parameters? What can we do within those parameters? We can make changes. We have legislation. We have all of our politicians that we go to and we speak with them. We say, ‘Listen, this is where we’re having a problem with agreeing with what the government’s doing, so how can we go about finding some middle ground?’ … That’s what the school board is there for. We’re not there to make it the way we want it, [we need to] do it in the best interest of what the children need, so we’re going to have to buckle down, and we’re going to have to have some very difficult discussions, but it’s all for the betterment of your education and definitely for your future.”
Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
“My three concerns that are part of my campaign, I suppose, is just that you’re kept safe, that you’re learning the very best you can because you’ve been given the very best curriculum possible, and the third point, which I didn’t bring in because we’re talking about the school board itself, but we have a lot of taxpayers who are retired. They’re very concerned about losing their homes because they can’t afford to live in this area, so we also have to look at fiscal responsibility. I’m not saying that you cut everything and you don’t ask anybody anything, … but we do have to remember that there’s other people involved here, as well, and even though they don’t have kids in school, living in this area, being able to stay around their family, their kids, their grandkids, is very important to them, so it’s kind of like a full circle of concern, but the first being, of course, the education of all of our kids, and that’s that is my greatest focus right now because, like I said, the proficiency rates were really kind of surprising for me. I really want to see them much higher.”
Recently, a flyer was distributed that said D303 educators endorse you as a candidate for school board, but the teacher’s union actually endorses Bell, Fairgrieve, Rich and Hancock — would you like to comment on this?
“‘Educators’ does not mean just the unions. That’s not a term that just the unions can use. Educators, anybody in the community, we have counselors, we have therapists, we have people with PhDs, we have people with master’s degrees, we have retired teachers. There’s a lot of educators out there. I’m very pleased that I’ve gotten that endorsement, and I will be very honest with you, the teachers unions did interview me, and at the end, they felt that I wasn’t qualified, and they have a right to endorse whomever they wish, but apparently there are other entities out there that felt that I was qualified to run for the school board, so the bottom line is it’s up to each person to decide if they’ve looked enough into each candidate to figure out whether or not they have the potential to help our school board, and each person has to make whatever vote they feel is in good conscience. … You have to understand that we’re all in this because we do want the kids to do well, and you have to figure, after looking at everybody, who will be the best candidate. … It’s fine if the unions don’t feel that I’m one of the ones that they want to endorse, but apparently, there are others that do, so it’s all a matter of whichever decision you want to make.”
Heidi Fairgrieve
What steps are you taking to inform and familiarize yourself with current issues in public education?
“Well, there are several things that I do. First of all, there are several different news outlets and publications that I try to keep abreast of from a national level and understand what’s happening with our Department of Education and our federal government. In addition to that, I have regular conversations with our superintendent and our administrative team, in terms of what issues and things that we’re facing, in addition to their other board colleagues, as well.”
What are the biggest obstacles facing D303 and what are your plans to combat them?
“I think one of the biggest obstacles that we have, unfortunately, is not unique to D303, and that really relates to our resources and allocation, and specifically from a financial standpoint, so some things that we have done within the last two years to combat that, or at least have more transparency, relates to [how] we now operate within a balanced budget, so we’re not withdrawing from any of our other savings-type account resources, known as fund balance, to make payments or things that are required. We also implemented having a five year projected budget, which I think, again, provides a lot more transparency than we’ve had in the past, and it really has allowed us to take our partnership with the associations to another level, and then finally, within the last year, we implemented a deep dive analysis process where we asked each department to come forward to the board and review and in-line item detail their expenses and then also how funds come in. [There are] still opportunities, I think, to refine that, but we are definitely headed in the right direction.”
What actions would you take to help D303 adapt to a potential shutdown of the Department of Education?
“Fortunately for us, our school district gets very little funding from the Department of Education, so we don’t have as distinctive a financial dependency there. There are some other items, though, related to special education practices and requirements that have generated out of the Department of Education that, really, those types of things would come under a local control-type situation if something happened with the Department of Education. We would, like anything else, [as a school district look] at the items impacted and then we would identify, as administration and as a school board, whether everything is maintained as is, whether there’s some opportunities to improve some of the things today, related to special education, for example, or there’s other things that could be distinct because we’re addressing them somewhere else.”
What values should D303 prioritize when problem-solving and facing difficult decisions?
“Well, I think the first values that we should look to are those that we have outlined as a district, in terms of belonging, perseverance, etc., and then secondly to that, we should be looking at our strategic plan again, matching up the strategic plan to whatever item is before us that needs to be decisioned, and I feel very confident with those two elements in place, we will take care of what should be important in terms of our key stakeholders, so our students, our educators and other resources like that.”
Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
“The only other item that I would outline is I’m finishing up my second term on the school board. I think I have made strong contributions in the last almost eight years. At this point, and I hope, with my prior record and our discussion today, that I earned their vote.”
Jenna Hancock
What steps are you taking to inform and familiarize yourself with current issues in public education?
“I have been a public educator for the last 15 years, so I’m sort of living the life and knowing about what’s happening just from experience, but, along with that, I’m also talking to teachers in our district as well as other parents and community members and engaging in school board meetings to be informed on what’s going on and what’s affecting our district.”
What are the biggest obstacles facing D303 and what are your plans to combat them?
“One of the obstacles that we’re facing is chronic attendance issues, so depending on which school you’re looking at, we have upwards of 30% chronic attendance across the district, so we need to work on getting our students in the building on all attendance days. … I think that engaging families in the importance of attendance and how much material and instruction time is lost when students are missing school is an important thing that I know that the district is working on right now through our family liaison officers, so I fully support that. Another area of obstacle, I think, is that we have some behavior issues that are happening, especially at our elementary level, so there’s quite a bit of work that needs to be done in the way of supporting teachers and students [and] providing the support and resources that they need to self regulate their behavior, and when that doesn’t work, alternative measures that can be taken so that we’re not losing learning time in the classroom.”
What actions would you take to help D303 adapt to a potential shutdown of the Department of Education?
“I think we’re lucky that we live in the state of Illinois because our state level government, including our governor, is a big proponent of public education, and so they will be fighting on our district and districts across the state’s behalf to uphold the Constitution. However, if it is determined that some funding through the Department of Education is cut or reduced, then we will need to take action to find other resources to make up for that loss of income, or I should say revenue, to the district. The unfortunate part of that is those dollars are actually spent on supporting our most vulnerable population of students, and so I would be working very hard to work with state legislators to make sure that the funding that we need to continue providing the resources and support to those students was not interrupted.”
What values should D303 prioritize when problem-solving and facing difficult decisions?
“I think that our strategic plan really does outline the core values of our district and so I think continuing down that pathway of providing an environment where students feel like they belong [and] they are taught to persevere through difficult obstacles, as long as we’re making decisions that promote a culture of dignity and respect for students and staff and anybody that walks through the door, [is] the lens that we need to be looking at all of our decisions through.”
Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
“I have two children in the district, one in fourth grade and one in eighth grade, so I’m deeply committed to programs and opportunities that will serve our district long term. I am deeply invested in this community as a parent, as a community member [and] as a business owner. … I would love to see the district move in the direction of providing more career readiness skills and experiences for students. I think that college readiness is very important, but we need to be looking and celebrating other opportunities besides a four-year university for our graduates to include trades programs, increasing dual credit courses, internship opportunities [and] just making sure that we know that every student has a path that fits their interest needs and goals for the future.”
Thomas Lentz
What steps are you taking to inform and familiarize yourself with current issues in public education?
“Well, I’ve been on the board for a year and a half, and I’m pretty steeped in the dealings of the board and what challenges we have. There are certainly some issues that are out there in the larger public sphere, but many of them haven’t yet got to the point where they’re actionable by the school board, so I try to keep aware of what’s going on. I’m very, very involved in kind of the day-to-day issues facing the board of education right now.”
What are the biggest obstacles facing D303 and what are your plans to combat them?
“We have a couple of challenges. Number one is finances. We have a finite budget and every year we have to figure out what it is important that we spend our money on. The next thing that I’d say is a challenge for us is our program, and how we’re measuring success in those programs. As a board member, one of the things that I’ve tried to do and that we’re doing, and we actually had our first full run through, is push our administration to use what’s called the [academic ROI process] to evaluate the programs themselves, and it’s not just the financial aspect of the program, that’s certainly an important part, but also looking at what academic success means for the program, and we just did that with our multilingual program. The board, or the admin, produced a pretty comprehensive report for the board and so we’ve made some changes based on that.”
What actions would you take to help D303 adapt to a potential shutdown of the Department of Education?
“So the Department of Education, from a funding perspective, there’s not a whole lot that would impact us. Fortunately, I think one of the things that we as a district would need to look at is where we get a lot of our data.”
What values should D303 prioritize when problem-solving and facing difficult decisions?
“One thing that I think D303, at least prior to my joining the board, has been kind of lax on is longer term thinking with a problem. I’ll give you a couple examples. One is Haines, the old middle school. A prior board decided that, and again, this is secondhand, but a prior board decided it wasn’t cost effective [keeping] that building up. … Many, many schools in Chicago and other places that were built around the same time, they had the same challenges. They insulated their buildings. D303 chose to pay money to tear down that building, or parts of the building. …In the next couple years, we [will] have a severe shortage of space available at the middle schools, which is going to be a challenge. Another one is many of our programs, it’s quite the multilingual program, where we didn’t examine what the program’s values were, or what we were achieving with it, and whether or not it was staffed with the right staff or with enough staff and we put children through that, our students through that, and didn’t examine it. Now we have, so I think the big challenge is really that kind of taking a look at a problem and not doing a snap decision or not bowing to pressure when there’s really a better long term solution for everybody.”
Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
“I’d love voters to know that I have an invested interest in D303. I have three young children in the district, and I’ve spent countless hours and a lot of effort trying to help [get] our finances in order. We are now one of the only districts in the entire state that has a five-year budget, and we went through a very transparent process for the public which is really great, so I’m pleased with that, and I hope voters and folks like the longer term look at solving the problems facing our district.”
Recently, a flyer was distributed that said D303 educators endorse you as a candidate for school board, but the teacher’s union actually endorses Bell, Fairgrieve, Rich and Hancock — would you like to comment on this?
“No. I’m always happy to get an endorsement. I wasn’t endorsed by the teachers union because I’m not, as the teachers union president said, I’m not accessible to them … so no comment on it. Happy that people support me out there.”
Elias Palacios
What steps are you taking to inform and familiarize yourself with current issues in public education?
“What I do is [check] different sources. First of all, I do read the board meetings and committee meetings in order for me to have direct knowledge. Also, I’ve met other board members individually, not all, only some of them, because it is difficult to interview everyone or to speak with everyone, and then listen [to those] two to three board members. I also [talk to parents] because they come and ask me or tell me something, that’s another source of information directly, [as well as] some teachers and those are familiarized in order to see what the issues, what the dilemmas [are] and anything that we need to improve.”
What are the biggest obstacles facing D303 and what are your plans to combat them?
“[This is related to my campaign issues]. First of all, a student must be kept safe, meaning safety is the issue and for instance, as I’ve said, we need to reduce the bullying behaviors. … It is already a problem. It was a problem. It is a problem. … I am a clinician by training, and I work as a psychologist for a forensic program, [I work] with crimes, mental illness, substance use disorder, any other disabilities, mental and emotional disabilities and also I designed programs, I reviewed and I worked with children and adolescents for years in the Department of Children and Family Service, Lake County Health Department and the state of Illinois and the other issue is educational. We need to have an excellent education. I was reviewing the report of 2024, and I see that we went down with it, and I think it’s one of the tests, and [it was] 40 or 45 points lower in the 12th grade, and then I was wondering, I didn’t see only the 12th grade, I saw others also and for me, we need to keep up and work harder in order to do a better job for students to be ready when they finish high school, including vocational testing, early vocational testing and screening from middle school, not to wait until high school or maybe college in order for them to be ready and decide before they finish the 12th grade. It will be better than just to be thinking [about] the first two years of college, and the property is very important [and] the taxes. We need to see the location of our money. We need to locate where it’s supposed to be, and where we want to have progress academically, with the children and all the students in D303.”
What actions would you take to help D303 adapt to a potential shutdown of the Department of Education?
“In reality, in D303, we don’t depend on federal funds that much. It’s very minimal. We are blessed that with our taxes, about 70% of all homeowners in D303 [almost cover all]. It’s just a very small amount we receive from the state or the federal money, therefore it’s going to be less. However, it could be later, if there are some students and maybe in poverty, and then maybe we need to cover, and we’ll just design and adapt and see how we can resolve that issue, but at the moment, we don’t depend that much on federal or state money, like substantially.”
What values should D303 prioritize when problem-solving and facing difficult decisions?
“The values have to be, for me, the same as when you’re going to buy a house, as an example. You need to see. They always recommend location, location, location, meaning the location is important. ‘Where are you going to buy a house?’ [In D303] our priority needs to have excellent education, meaning students are the main priority, that’s the reason for the district to exist: We need to meet directly anything that can help the students in general, all levels.”
Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
“I think the important thing is my qualifications and my experience, because I did work for the government for the state of Illinois, and then I was responsible for programs statewide, meaning I was working with the tobacco prevention program, [which] is a statewide position, and then I got to know county by county and then also regarding drug use, addictions is my expertise and I specialize in major mental illness addictions, which is one of the dilemmas that D303 needs to resolve, or at least work hard and get capacity.”
Recently, a flyer was distributed that said D303 educators endorse you as a candidate for school board, but the teacher’s union actually endorses Bell, Fairgrieve, Rich and Hancock — would you like to comment on this?
“I don’t see any confusion, there’s a name for the teacher association, like the teacher’s association of St. Charles or something like that, and then the [flyer] has the ‘teachers of St Charles,’ which is different. It’s not the same.”
Kim Rich
What steps are you taking to inform and familiarize yourself with current issues in public education?
“So, I was actually a teacher here in D303 until last May. … I was working at Norton Creek. At the time, I was a third grade teacher. So, one way that I have informed myself is just by being part of the district. … I also am a parent here in the district [and] I have children at East and Wredling right now…I had children at Norton Creek [now] and previously also. … Since you know, I really started this campaign, and that would probably be in early January, I have been out at events. I have been knocking on people’s doors, I have been talking to parents, to community members and to students. I have been at events like the forum at the St. Charles Public Library and meet and greet at the baker that was about a week ago. I have held some of my own events and then been able to attend events with other candidates here in St. Charles, like people running for city council or people who are a part of the mayoral race. … That has been something that’s been really fun, meeting people who I never would have met had I not run for this position. I think I have some new friends.”
What are the biggest obstacles facing D303 and what are your plans to combat them?
“Some of the things that I would love to see improvement on in D303 are safety of our different facilities and of our buildings, students engaged across all schools and in all classes and academic excellence. … I think when it comes to safety, it’s really doing an analysis of our different buildings, of how they work, … where the strengths are, where the weaknesses are and then looking for solutions to try to make sure that they’re as safe as they possibly can be. … I’ve avoided being too specific because I also don’t want to put out into the world, … [so] that’s a bit of a general answer. … I think just by watching learning and researching different solutions when it comes to academic excellence, I think student engagement … fits right in with that. … My guess is you [have seen] peers who don’t pay as much attention at school and are distracted by, I would say, probably the top distraction: cell phones. Some people are distracted by their Chromebooks and things, … So, I [came up] with ways to help students with that, whether it’s revising our cell phone policies, whether it is rewarding students who are engaged in paying attention or having consequences. I think that will help with our academic performance and with our test scores at the high school level. I think when it gets down to the lower grades like elementary school, … still wanting to work on student engagement and that academic excellence, it’s making sure we have a good balance of rigor for those students, that we’re really challenging them, that we’re meeting them where they’re at so we have differentiation in the classrooms. We’re offering different activities for different students based on what they need at the time, and that we’re keeping a close eye on them and making sure that they’re always getting stronger and smarter.”
What actions would you take to help D303 adapt to a potential shutdown of the Department of Education?
“Well, that’s one of the reasons that I’m running. I think that whether or not there is a shutdown of the Department of Education, that the people here locally are making a lot of really important decisions for our schools, and I think that will continue, whether or not the Department of Education makes changes. It’s going to be the people here at the board level, working with the administration in the district who are going to make sure that things in St. Charles continues on as they always have, hopefully even better than they have before, but it’s going to be our job to make sure that our students still have access to the same materials to learn. It’s going to be our job to make sure that the standards for learning are still high. For me, it’s why this role is super important, because we as a board are able to help create that policy that will direct the superintendent and his team of leaders to do the best things they can here in St. Charles for our students in our schools.”
What values should D303 prioritize when problem-solving and facing difficult decisions?
“Well, I think that we need to prioritize being financially responsible, making sure that the decisions that we’re making are the right decisions for the district, that the money we’re spending is going to impact the greatest number of students possible and that we’re working hard to make sure that we aren’t raising taxes or financial responsibility on the members of our community. I think we want to make sure that all students feel safe and comfortable in school. I do believe that because children, you’re forced to go to school, right, and that’s a law that you’re attending school. We force you to go to certain buildings based on where you live and the boundaries that we’ve designed. … We want to make sure that you’re happy while you’re there and that you are feeling [safe and comfortable] when you’re there, so that you can learn and then we also want to make sure that we’re offering all of our students the strongest possible education, while also making sure that it is interesting and engaging for the students, so that they want to be a part of everything we’re doing throughout the day because that’s what’s going to help ensure that they learn great.”
Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
“Some of the things that I’ve been making sure people know is that I think that my experience is something that’s a real asset…I have worked in education for 23 years [and] I’ve been in school administration or a principal for nine years. I have a doctoral degree in organizational leadership. I have been on a school board before. I have previous experience working on a school board and all of these different things I think come together to help. They help me to be able to come to the table as a school board member, understanding not only schools in general, but understanding D303 because I’ve worked in D303 specifically. And I grew up here. I grew up in St. Charles, … and I love this town, so I want to take all that experience I have and just pour it into this school district that I went to, that my children now go to, and I just beam with pride for for this town and for these schools, and I would just love to be a part of continuing to make sure that they’re an environment that everyone else loves as much as I did. … I love this place … I went to Arizona State, … and then I graduated college, [but] I immediately moved back … [I] was just so excited to be back here [St. Charles.] I just think it is a really, really special place and a really great town, and I want to keep being an active part of my community.”
Aaron White could not be reached for an interview.
