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The Examiner U-46 News Feed

U-46 board candidates speak at CAC forum


By Seth Hancock
  The five candidates vying for three seats in the April 4 election for the School District U-46 Board of Education took the stage for the first time at a candidate forum hosted by the Citizens’ Advisory Council on Thursday, March 9.
  Who do the candidates want to represent? On one side were incumbent Cody Holt (Elgin) and Enoch Essendrop (Elgin) who said they want to represent those that fund the district while on the other side incumbents Veronica Noland (Elgin) and Donna Smith (Hanover Park) along with challenger Melissa Owens (Bartlett) who said they want to represent those that work for the district.
  In opening and closing remarks, Holt said there’s a need for more “open, accessible, transparent and accountable” government in U-46 and “we should spend money on what our district needs and not what it wants,” and Essendrop laid out his guiding principles of “academic freedom, transparency, diversity of thought, fiscal responsibility, critical thinking, making a return on investment a taxpayer priority and protecting the privacy and wellbeing of all students.” Holt said the board’s current majority’s direction has been “tried for the past 30 years and it continues to lead to increased property taxes, stagnant/declining academic achievement and $450 million in debt.”
  Noland, Owens and Smith all said they want to stay the current course as Noland said public education is being threatened and said that union-backed issues like collective bargaining and prevailing wage are “the fabric of our public education.” Owens said that “it is no small thing to say that everyone that works in public education is doing it to build up the next generation of our community.”
  When asked if they would vote to increase property taxes Essendrop said “never” and Holt, who said that’s the top issue he hears from residents, said he wouldn’t and advocated “for a hard property tax freeze for district residents.”
  Smith and Owens both echoed each other as Smith said she “can’t say yes or no because it depends on the circumstances” and Owens that “if we are talking about cutting staff or cutting programs just to make sure that we don’t raise a tax rate” she would vote raise taxes, and Noland said that “a different funding formula” from the state is needed. Smith, who is the longest serving current member of the board, has voted for every property tax increase since taking her seat in 2001.
  On whether they support a change in the state’s funding formula, Smith said she does but “how you fix it, I don’t know … it’s their job” and Owens said its unfair that some districts spend more than others while using a talking point that the U-46 administration has used saying the state spends 81 cents to every dollar on low-income students. According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s annual report card, U-46 actually receives three to four times as much funding per student from the state than most “wealthier” districts.
  Noland supported that because U-46 is the second largest district in the state it should get what it wants. She said: “We are the second largest school district in the state, and we are not wielding our leverage like we should.”
  Holt and Essendrop, on the other hand, noted the poor fiscal health, and Essendrop noted something that has seemingly eluded the proponents of “equitable funding” that regardless of whether its property taxes or from the state, that money “still comes from us.” Holt advocated reforms on unfunded mandates such as collective bargaining and prevailing wage which he said “could have saved U-46 taxpayers over $40 million in the past five years.”
  “I think it is insane to expect more money coming from the state of Illinois,” Holt said. “Not only are they behind in paying us $26 million currently, but they are in debt up to their eyeballs.”
  Essendrop said: “We need to be more focused on spending the money that we do have properly than fighting for more money that we could mismanage.”
  Although advocating for more promised money from the state, Noland, Owens and Smith all recognized that the state is currently behind on payments.
  On the district’s relationship with its unions, the union-backed slate of Noland, Owens and Smith said they want there to be a cozy relationship with Noland saying “they are members of our community.”
  “I would like to say that we are their friends and neighbors too. They cannot keep negotiating contracts at our expense,” Essendrop responded while saying sustainable contracts are needed.
  Holt said that sustainable contracts are needed and that “many of them do exceptional work, but the reason I’m here on the U-46 school board is to really have kind of a view of transparency, accountability for our administrators but also respect the pocketbooks of our taxpayers.”
  Asked about if they would support any cuts, Essendrop said: “I find the conversation talking about cuts a little more comforting than talking about raising property taxes because it seems that we always raise property taxes, and it seems we need to revisit some of the wants versus needs.”
  Holt and Noland both said they would leave it to staff to determine cuts, but Noland said “I do not want to cut any program” while Holt said “we owe it as board members to the taxpayers” to seek efficiencies. Smith said “we do run efficiently” and Owens that she would look for cuts operationally before anything else.
  On questions ranging from their top priorities to curriculum resources and transgender bathroom/locker room practices Noland, Owens and Smith all claimed the board should rubber stamp the administration’s decisions.
  On her top priority, Noland said “actually we need to continue doing some of the great work that we’re doing already and to support that work,” and Smith said on curriculum that “it’s been through a process” and she trusts all the staff’s decisions. On transgender practices, Owens said “I trust the administration.”
  Noland gave a contradictory message through the night claiming she understands “how important civil decision making is” while also personally attacking a current colleague on the board as “actually quite racist in their thinking” and accused that member as leading “down the road to book burning.”
  That came in regards to a recent resource adoption, that received a 5-2 vote, that included a statement that “White Americans have been historically reluctant to yield to nonwhite Americans a full and equal place in the social, economic, and political life of this nation. Over time, the principal targets of that ethnic prejudice have been African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans. The white-male-dominated power structure has also been slow to recognize the claims of women to an equal place in American society.”
  Essendrop said: “I can’t believe that we find ourselves in the 21st Century still judging people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character. I would like to see that reversed. We are 100 percent American. That’s what we are. We need to embrace that.”
  Essendrop, in response to questions on bullying and the transgender issue, said the district needs to live up to its line of “all means all” and that he doesn’t like the divisiveness promoted by the majority as he said: “I’m proud to say that every week I’ve had the opportunity to interact with hundreds of these students and try to teach them the Gospel of peace, how to love your neighbor and love each other as God teaches us.”
  On curriculum, Holt said he “would like to see a curriculum that presents both sides of any issue that way students can come to their own conclusions, and it’s not biased in one direction or another.” He also said all of these issues, such as curriculum and practices, can be solved through school choice which he called “the greatest civil rights issue of the 21st century.”
  On expansion of the district’s dual language program, Noland and Smith both called it a “win-win” and Owens that it closes the achievement gap. Holt said there needs to be a “measurable return on investment” and Essendrop said he’d like to see the district take education “back to the basics.”

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