Illinois School Board Journal March/April 2021

March/April 2021 July/August 2019 Vol. 89 87 No. 2 3

The New, Next Normal

School Facilities

What are the Changes That Will Stick?

25-Year Facilities Planning

Schools, Communities, and Catastrophes

Front Page

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A mandatory “mask break” takes place each quarter at a high school basketball game, and between games the athletic trainer sprays the bench area, looking more like (and performing the work of) an exterminator. It’s not really a bench anymore — chairs for the team members are spread out in zig-zag rows. The stands are mostly empty. A few fans are allowed in person, and others, notably doting, beloved, sports-loving grandparents, watch via livestream. It’s the first game of the season — in mid-February — and everyone in the gym feels lucky to be playing at all.

Who could have imagined this a year ago? These are the things we are doing to keep kids safe, balancing that with giving them a semblance of normal.

We hear a lot these days about the “new normal,” the “post-pandemic normal,” and the “next normal.”

Suffice to say things are different than they were a year ago, in all facets of lives. Everyone is adapting, with the education community often leading the way.

As this issue of the Illinois School Board Journal illustrates, school facilities are, by necessity, at the forefront of adaptations, no matter what the prompt.

James Fritts, a frequent and welcome collaborator with IASB, brings a list of ideas stemming from a class on budget and finance, with an “ideas that stick” prompt. His students discussed “innovations in building operation and maintenance, transportation, food services, technology and other areas that improved the health of the school’s occupants, opened up space to better support instruction, enhanced learning technology in the school and in students’ homes.” These ideas are shared here in “When the ‘New Normal’ Arrives: Applying the Lessons of the Pandemic,” starting on page 10.

In the before times, and certainly again in the future, natural disasters beyond viruses would and will impact schools in Illinois and across the nation.

School infrastructures build, re-build, and improve as storms, fires, and floods cause damage — sometimes

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local, sometimes widespread — to school facilities.

The [Re]Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC) is a non-partisan coalition of civic, government, and industry organizations who support federal funding to help underserved public school districts modernize their facilities. BASIC believes that all children should attend healthy, safe, and educationally appropriate school facilities. Beyond that, schools are fixtures in their communities, and BASIC notes that often, community recovery depends on schools. We share some of the organization’s work, “Schools Fulfill Vital Role in Community Recovery,” starting on page 15.

As each article points out, and school board members come to know, financial responsibility goes along with the multitude of practical and safety factors in school facilities planning. Also in this Journal, we hear from a team from THSD 203 on long-term planning, and gain insight on equity and resource management and budgeting, from Sara R. Shaw of ISBE and Carrie B. Stewart of Afton Partners. We thank all of the contributors to this issue. As Shaw and Stewart introduce their work, they note, “We are in a time of incredible uncertainty and exacerbated instructional inequities. As school board members, your governance is more important than ever…”

There’s another new and next normal on the horizon. Many boards of education will soon welcome new members, and IASB is preparing the next Journal, and dozens of other resources, to welcome them and introduce them to the journey they are taking. If veteran board members and other readers would like to share words of experience and wisdom with new board members, please send them to the email address below. We look forward to hearing from you, and seeing you again soon.  Theresa Kelly Gegen is Editor of the Illinois School Board Journal and can be reached at tgegen@iasb.com.

Table of Contents FEATURE ARTICLE Coming Budget Season is an Opportunity 8 This Unlike Any Other for School Boards

By Sara R. Shaw and Carrie B. Stewart

Now is the time to leverage school spending data strategically.

COVER STORIES the ‘New Normal’ Arrives: 10 When Applying the Lessons of the Pandemic Compiled by James Fritts

Teams of students in a principal preparation program identify “changes that stick,” innovations in response to COVID-19 that offer benefits for the “new normal.”

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25 Years: Creating a Long-Term Project Plan for Your District

By John Connolly, Bob Hughes, and John Lavelle

With a long-term plan, districts can achieve goals and be flexible in meeting priorities in realistic timeframes.

REGULAR FEATURES 2 Front Page 4 Leadership Letter

Global Pandemic Shines the Light on the Digital Divide

5 From the Field

Onboarding New Members: Experienced Board Members Can Help

24 Practical PR

COMMENTARY Fulfill Vital Role 15 Schools in Community Recovery Advice for Federal Funding 18 BASIC of School Infrastructure

District 303 Partners with Stakeholders to Create Comprehensive Facility Master Plan

30 Milestones

By the Re-Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition

July/August 2019 Vol. 87 No. 3

Kara Kienzler, Associate Executive Director Theresa Kelly Gegen, Editor Britni Beck, Advertising Manager Jennifer Nelson, Copy Editor Katie Grant, Design and Production

ILLINOIS SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL (ISSN- 0 019-221X ) is published ever y other month by the Illinois Association of Sc hool B oa rd s, 2921 Ba ker Dr ive, Springfield, Illinois 62703-5929 (217) 5289688. The IASB regional office is located at One Imperial Place, 1 East 22nd Street, Lombard, Illinois 60148-6120 (630) 629-3776.

The JOURNAL is supported by the dues of school boards holding active membership in the Illinois Association of School Boards. Copies are mailed to all school board members and the superintendent in each IASB member school district.

Non-member subscription rate: Domestic $18 per year. Foreign (including Canada and Mexico) $21 per year.

PUBLICATION POLICY IASB believes that the domestic process functions best through frank and open discussion. Material published in the JOURNAL, therefore, often presents divergent and controversial points of view which do not necessarily represent the views or policies of IASB. Copyright © 2021 by the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB), the JOURNAL is published six times a year and is distributed to its members and subscribers. Copyright in this publication, including all articles and editorial information contained in it is exclusively owned by IASB, and IASB reserves all rights to such information. IASB is a tax-exempt corporation organized in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

March/April 2021 • 3

Leadership Letter

Global Pandemic Shines the Light on the Digital Divide

By Tom Bertrand

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The sudden disruption of in-person learning last March forced districts to quickly transition to remote learning. As I look back nearly a year later, the work of school districts to adapt to this massive change has been nothing short of remarkable. Yet, the transition to hybrid and fully remote learning clearly underscored the myriad of challenges districts faced in serving students and families.

None loomed as large as the lack of access to the devices and infrastructure necessary to provide and support equal access to educational opportunities in the remote learning environment.

The Illinois Broadband Advisory Committee Council examined the critical issues related to broadband access and affordability.

The findings reflected the digital divide in Illinois. A 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) revealed that over 285,000 Illinois households with school-aged children lack at-home wireline

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broadband service. The same survey results indicated that over 1.1 million Illinois households lacked at-home access to a desktop or laptop computer.

More recent data shows some progress toward closing the digital divide in Illinois. In a March 2020 ISBE survey, 598 responding districts indicated that they had sufficient devices to provide 51% of students with an instructional device for at-home use. In a similar survey in the fall of 2020, 686 districts reported providing 88% of students with a device. An influx of federal funding from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund allowed districts to acquire thousands of devices and to address home connectivity issues.

Despite these gains, the same fall survey underscored the ongoing challenges facing school districts. Almost all, 97%, of districts

reported one or more barriers to home connectivity for the students they serve. The biggest obstacle to ensuring home connectivity for students involves the ongoing cost of monthly internet service.

Limitations of bandwidth and the availability of broadband internet service also remain significant challenges to districts.

The 2019 launch of Connect Illinois, a statewide initiative to expand broadband access across the entire state, represented a substantial investment in the effort to close the digital divide. Given the ongoing pandemic and the reality of a continued reliance upon some form of remote learning, closing this divide is essential if we intend to provide equal access to educational opportunities and high-quality instruction for every child in Illinois.  Thomas E. Bertrand, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Illinois Association of School Boards.

From the Field

Onboarding New Members: Experienced Board Members Can Help

By Laura Martinez

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If your district subscribes to PRESS, IASB’s Policy Reference Education Subscription Service, you may be familiar with Section 2, which is all about board members. 2:120, Board member development, contains some language about new board member orientation.

“Huh,” you might say. That’s the superintendent’s job, right? And the board president’s?

Yes and no. Both of those people are involved in new board member orientation, but in order to really make a new board member or members feel welcome, all board members should do their part.

School board elections are in April, and many boards in Illinois will experience turnover.

You are all going to be working together as a team, and part of team-building is getting to know each other. Ask the new board members questions about themselves, and share some information about yourself. Be open to answering their questions. Volunteer to be a mentor to a new board member. Remember how many questions YOU had when you were a brand new board member? Be the board member you wish you had as a mentor when you were new. Volunteer to have a phone call with a new board member. Have them write their questions down and be ready to answer them. Take the time to make that connection.

Does your board have board protocols? That is, does your board have a shared understanding, possibly in writing, of how you do the work?

If you do, make sure to share that information with new board members. If your protocols are in writing, make sure your new members have a copy. Knowing the answers to questions such March/April 2021 • 5

as whom to contact, what the expectations are of behavior during board meetings, and how to handle concerns from the community are helpful for new board members.

The best time for new board members to learn your board culture is during board meetings. One way to help them get acclimated is by taking the time to explain things in more detail than you usually would.

Explain what your committees do and why they exist. Talk about your district’s mission and vision. What are the district’s values? Another way to share your board culture is by having a discussion, or even a disagreement. How do board members disagree with each other? How does every board member get heard? A lot can be learned by observing how people interact with each other.

Finally, introduce new board members to their new association, IASB, and encourage them to go to the IASB website (iasb. com) and see all the resources there. Share with them your board culture around professional development. Will you travel together to Division Meetings?

Tell them about the Joint Annual Conference. Tell them who their Field Services Director is, and tell them we are all here to help them learn to be effective board members.  Laura Martinez is Field Services Director with the Illinois Association of School Boards for the Kishwaukee, Northwest, and Lake Divisions.

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FOR NEW BOARD MEMBERS:

A Roadmap to Success The Illinois Association of School Boards is prepared to assist new board members as they move forward in their new role and as a member of the team.

MAP YOUR JOURNEY

Key new board member activities include: “IASB Welcomes You to the Board” Livestream to introduce new board members to IASB and set them on the road to success.

CHART YOUR COURSE

• April 15, 6:30 p.m.

• April 16, Noon

• April 19, 6:30 p.m.

• April 23, Noon

A New Board Member Training Bundle with online courses for new board members to complete statemandated training requirements for OMA, PDLT, and PERA, plus The Basics of Governance training.

Special new board member pricing for the three-course bundle!

ATTEND WAYPOINT WEBINARS

CONNECT WITH FELLOW TRAVELERS

TOUR THE MAIN EVENT

Open Meetings Act

+

PDLT/ PERA

+

The Basics of Governance

A series of webinars designed to accelerate the learning for new board members over the first six months.

Additional opportunities for new board members to continue to learn and grow by attending IASB Division Meetings and the IASB/IASA/IASBO Joint Annual Conference.

Follow and share the New Board Member Roadmap at www.iasb.com/newmember

Feature Story

This Coming Budget Season is an Opportunity Unlike Any Other for School Boards

By Sara R. Shaw and Carrie B. Stewart

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More than ever before, your board can — and should — ensure equity and resource alignment in your district, to support students.

We are in a time of incredible uncertainty and exacerbated instructional inequities. As school board members, your governance is more important than ever — and yet there is so much you cannot control, especially public health.

One thing your board can control, especially as you think about next year’s budget, is your planning process and use of data to support students. In particular, per-pupil spending data for every school in your district have been available on the Illinois Report Card since 2019 as part of the state’s implementation of the site-based expenditure reporting required by the Every Student Succeeds Act. These schoolby-school spending data provide important insight for budgetary planning and decision-making.

Now is the time to leverage school spending data strategically, as the 2021-22 school year budget process is underway. School boards taking this step will uphold their fiduciary responsibility to their

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communities and strengthen their districts’ systems for taking care of children at the exact moment when these systems are most needed.

Why Use These Data?

The variation of per-pupil spending across the schools in a district is a reflection of the board’s resource allocation decisions. Equitable resource allocation continues to be a top priority for the education field and public, as the Illinois State Board of Education affirmed during its recent stakeholder engagement process to inform its Strategic Plan, which features “resource allocation” as a key priority area.

Typically, districts and school boards are accustomed to looking “vertically” at resource allocation, comparing how resources are spent on personnel and non-personnel items. Looking “horizontally” across the district instead, by examining per-pupil spending levels at each school allows the board to consider how its spending allocation to each school aligns to the district’s school performance goals, student demographics, and student needs and opportunities at each school. The

board’s sense of what each school needs may be especially refined during the pandemic, as students and families experience disruptions in learning and life in different ways.

Why Use School Per-Pupil Data Now?

Your district’s school-by-school spending data are historical: They reflect last year and the prior year’s actual expenditures. These data are not solely for backward-looking reflection purposes, however. Right now, at the outset of planning for the next school year, every school board has the opportunity to use these data impactfully. By studying a district’s past spending during its budgeting process, a board can make intentional decisions on where its future resources will go and align them with the board’s goals and priorities.

How Can These Data Be Used in Your Board’s Budget Process?

First, each local school board can set the expectation with the district leadership team that board members would like to see any drafts of the district budget in a school-by-school per-pupil format.

Second, both board members and district leadership can discuss the concept that equal funding is not equitable funding: Student needs and opportunities differ at each school, and funding allocations across schools should reflect these differences while also acknowledging district priorities and programs being offered. Consider what other data sources tell you about how students and families are experiencing the pandemic, and how school spending data can inform the board’s decisions about how to support them.

The article “Coming Soon: Transparent School-by-School Spending,” by Marguerite Roza and Carrie Stewart, published in School

Administrator magazine by The School Superintendents Association (AASA), encourages school districts to consider these five questions when reviewing their school spending reports: Do some schools stand out as getting less or more money than others? If so, why?

1. Are district allocations for specific student groups boosting spending at highneed schools? If not, why not?

2. Are salary patterns driving uneven spending in ways that concern the district or the community?

3. Is centralized spending lean and of high value? What share of dollars are centrally managed? Are leaders

prepared to help the public understand what chunk of those dollars go to centraloffice functions versus services to schools?

4. What student outcomes is the district getting at each school in return for its share of public dollars? Are some schools able to leverage dollars to do more for students than others with the same share?

These questions are appropriate to ask in any year, but especially in a year where needs are great, learning recovery is necessary, and inequities are exacerbated.

The bottom line is that every school board will have many considerations in the upcoming budget process, from critical investments in targeted learning recovery efforts, to personal protective equipment and technology requests, to longer-term strategies addressing pre-COVID-19 inequities. Facing these challenges, your board can use the data already available to you, such as school per-pupil spending amounts, to ensure that next year’s budget allocates resources in ways that address inequities, reflect the board’s best sense of where the dollars must go to support students, and align with the district’s priorities.  Sara R. Shaw is Senior Manager, Fiscal and Academic Solvency at the Illinois State Board of Education. Carrie B. Stewart is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Afton Partners. Resources associated with this article can be found on the Journal’s resources page, bit.ly/MA21Jres.

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Cover Story

When the ‘New Normal’ Arrives Applying the Lessons of the Pandemic Compiled by James Fritts

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A mission of the school is to teach skills to students in such a way that they can apply these skills successfully to future situations, even those that neither they nor their teachers can envision. One technique is to show how lessons learned in the past influenced society in future eras. School board members, administrators, and employees have applied what they learned as students and in their recent school roles to meet the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-2021 to instruct their students while

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protecting the health of students and staff. In the process of meeting these challenges, new ways of meeting schools’ goals were developed and tested.

Some approaches have proven ineffective or too expensive to adopt once the emergency has passed. Others have opened the eyes of school leaders, teachers, and families to means of improving learning and the operation of the schools.

As part of the coursework in a Finance and Budgeting class, teams of students in a principal

preparation program were asked to identify innovations in building operation and maintenance, transportation, food services, technology, and other areas that improved the health of the school’s occupants, opened up space to better support instruction, enhanced learning technology in the school and in students’ homes, moved students and instructional resources between home and school, and contributed to improved nutrition of school families.

Ideas flowed liberally, and sharing them had immediate

benefit to the work. The assignment went beyond “current events” and asked teams to identify innovations that have delivered benefits to the point that they should be considered for adoption as part of the “new post-pandemic normal.” Because it was a course in Finance and Budgeting, the assignment concluded with the challenge to find ways to fund the innovations, whether by trading off other expenses, finding alternative funding sources including intergovernmental agreements and local fundraising, and financing the investments by one of the many borrowing alternatives available to schools. The ideas were developed into a presentation to a mock board of education. The assignment focused on non-instructional operations but many ideas on means of delivering instruction were also shared.

Below, organized by support service area, are some of these thoughts. It is hoped that the readers will use them to develop their own schools’ lists with input from their stakeholders. Some of the ideas were introduced by the instructor and a guest architect and facilities consultant; most were brought to the discussion by the students.

Cleaning and Maintenance

• Revise cleaning standards and time allotments for high-traffic areas. Some rooms will be upgraded from “Level 2 or 3 cleaning” that is typical of normal cleaning to “Level 1” used for bathrooms, kitchens, health offices, and rooms for

students with special needs.

Reexamine and revise the building map that specifies the level of cleaning for each room.

• Consider team cleaning, whereby one custodian handles the dusting, cleaning, and wipe-down of hightouch surfaces, including doors, switches, tables, counters, desks, chairs, and plumbing fixtures, following which a second person applies an electrostatic disinfectant spray, posts the room as cleaned for the day and locks the room.

• Redefine procedures and schedules for operation and periodic maintenance of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, including fresh air settings, filter cleaning or replacement, and duct cleaning of central systems.

Train members of the custodial and maintenance staff to inspect HVAC systems and perform necessary maintenance. Provide a room HVAC report to staff members who work in it.

• If building cleaning and maintenance are outsourced, assure that the contractor understands the standards and procedures and have the work inspected by a district employee.

• Install hand sanitizer dispensers in each classroom and office, by doors, and around common areas.

• Provide extra cleaning supplies for classrooms and

offices to use in the case of spills or emergencies.

• Provide disinfecting wipes, gloves, and masks for staff.

• Schedule heavy cleaning and sanitizing on days when rooms are not used due to remote instruction, professional development days, holidays, and vacations.

• Provide sufficient staff or overtime authorization so that basic cleaning of the building continues at a high level when outdoor tasks, including landscape and snow removal, intrude on time required for indoor work. Consider contracting such outdoor work to free staff time for indoor care.

Facility Design and Layout

• Provide health and safety directions in all languages spoken at the school.

• Designate entrances for staff members and students based on classroom location.

• Continue a form of staff screening or self-screening of students before they enter school at times when influenza or other contagious diseases reach a specified level.

• Provide care rooms outside the nurse’s office for students and staff who exhibit symptoms, and provide more than one such room in larger schools.

• Minimize personal furniture in classrooms and do not allow couches, March/April 2021 • 11

blankets, pillows, rugs, etc. that cannot be easily disinfected.

• In planning for new or remodeled facilities, widen hallways and provide for larger rooms and appropriate furniture and the ability to establish screened areas within the room.

• Fit classrooms with at least some windows that open in such a way that security is maintained.

Transportation

• Purchase, lease, or contract for vehicles of different sizes, but large enough to provide two-per-seat for all runs and one-per-seat for runs with medically fragile children.

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• Use vans or buses designed for student activities for transporting food, technology, instructional supplies, and other purposes other than to-and-from school trips. This might include providing “hot spots” for areas where internet service is not available, out of operation, or not affordable to families.

• Sanitize bus railings and seats regularly according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and keep cleaning materials in a secure place on the bus.

• Provide hand sanitizer on buses.

• Open some windows unless the bus is air-conditioned.

• Imagine all the ways that vehicles can be used other than to transport students to and from school. Even when no crisis occurs, these expensive vehicles can extend the school to students’ homes.

• Route buses and publicize stop schedules to minimize students’ waiting times in inclement weather.

• Work with parents nearby school areas to identify alternative walking or biking routes or parent carpools to reduce the number of students relying on busing. In doing so, provide sufficient bus capacity for winter and inclement days.

Food Services

• Take advantage of expanded and liberalized food service regulations to expand menus and serve students and families who otherwise would not have sufficient healthy meals.

• Consider “community designation” whereby all students qualify for reimbursed free breakfast and lunch without the need to complete individual, intrusive applications.

Qualifying requirements are found on the Illinois State Board of Education School Nutrition site.

• Coordinate food distribution to needy families with local food pantries and businesses.

• Reschedule and reconfigure meals and facilities in school to provide more food lines, hand-cleaning stations before entering and leaving the cafeteria, and offering bagged breakfast and lunch in classrooms for a recess supervisor to distribute. Students can be rotated every few weeks to have lunch in the cafeteria and their classroom.

Technology

• Provide one-to-one equipment as opposed to shared laboratories.

• Add classes in computer uses for students and corresponding professional development for staff using online platforms.

• Provide school equipment to students at home due to extended absences.

• Instruct students in reliable health-screening and maintenance technology.

• Use meeting and webinar technology for student and parent meetings including college and career presentations, principals’ presentations, translations, IEP/504 conferences, homebound instruction, and short-term absence instructions.

• Publicize the instructions for attending school board and other meetings of interest to parents and students.

• Teach students age-appropriate and safe uses of meeting technology.

• Develop or purchase software to monitor health and safety procedures required in the buildings and other locations.

• Use Google Voice and similar district-provided technology to facilitate teacher communications to students and parents while remaining within policies which prohibit staff/student contacts on personal phones or e-mails. The load on school telephones is also lessened.

• Go paper-free for sign-ups and other paperwork, expediting communications while saving money for creating and handling paper documents.

• Use Google Classroom and Google Suite for creating and transmitting assignments and classroom schedules and calendars.

• Hold parent-teacher conferences online at mutually convenient times and places.

• Work with community internet providers to secure free or discounted access for low-income families.

Developing the Budget and Funding Sources

Federal, state, and local funding are each playing a role in enabling schools to fulfill their mission during the pandemic emergency and will continue to do so as they transition to new — and sometimes more costly — means of delivering services. The district’s business officials and department heads are charged with identifying both means of funding and cost trade-offs where possible. Government programs are expected to play a larger and longer role in enabling the necessary changes than many thought necessary and possible a year ago.

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Knowledge of a community’s governmental and non-governmental resources and their potential to help is equally important.

A partnership of district finance and operations leadership with principals, faculty, support staff, parents, and older students can be developed to compare needs and identify sources of funding that will enable more items on the “wish list” to come to be. Some will be donations, some sharing of services, some will be funded by reductions in other budget areas and some will be financed. Ultimately, the community may be asked to raise taxes. A partnership approach will demonstrate that the schools are capable of filtering and prioritizing

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possibilities and securing outside funding where possible.

“Three houses”

Last fall, I showed my class a webinar featuring two superintendents on how they were addressing the process of planning for the “new normal.” One commented that the district was

“building three houses,” a remote one, a hybrid one, and a new kind of in-school house — and that one would be torn down. The last few months have shown that all three houses might have to be maintained for a while as changing metrics translate into shifts in instructional plans. If that comes to be, a plan for instruction and support services — that is flexible when events require it — will best serve children, parents, staff, and community.  James Fritts, Ph.D., is the author of IASB’s publication, Essentials of Illinois School Finance, and Senior Editor of Good School Maintenance.

Resources associated with this article are available via the Journal resources link at bit.ly.MA21Jres.

Commentary

Schools Fulfill Vital Role in Community Recovery By the Re-Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition

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Before there was COVID-19, and sure to be after, school districts face natural disasters and other emergencies that directly and indirectly impact their facilities.

Since 2005 (Hurricane Katrina) the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has spent billions of dollars restoring K-12 school facilities. According to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report a total of $5.7 billion has been allocated to rebuild K-12 educational institutions between FY2005 and FY2017.

Close to $4 billion alone was spent to help schools impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Unfortunately, school facilities are still in harm’s way.

There have been hundreds of presidential disaster declarations since Katrina. In 2018, Hurricanes Florence and Michael devastated the Carolinas and the Florida Panhandle. Wildfires in California, Colorado, and other states had a direct impact on thousands of students, teachers, administrators,

students, and school facilities. In the Northeast, school officials learned from Hurricane Sandy that they must be much more prepared for future natural disasters. The Camp Fire in Paradise, California destroyed eight of the nine school buildings in the town, and almost 90% of the students, teachers, and administrators lost their homes as well. According to the Calmatters newsletter, the intensity of both fires created air quality so hazardous that 180 school districts were forced to close. More than one in six students in the state were affected by the closures.

Severe weather conditions and natural disasters are increasingly a fact of life for public school officials. On the West Coast, earthquakes and the possibilities of a tsunami are a concern from Washington State to California. In the South, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and the Carolinas regularly contend with hurricanes and flooding, as does Puerto Rico. In the Midwest, hundreds of school districts

are part of what is collectively known as Tornado Alley, which averages 1,000 tornadoes a year, 20 considered violent and one extreme, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In Illinois, communities from Hononegah and Plainfield, Coal City and Bartonville, to Dongola and Murphysboro have experienced storm damage to school facilities, including a November 2013 tornado outbreak that damaged schools in a large area of central Illinois. In the past decade, statewide flooding caused closures and millions of dollars in damages to West Virginia and Louisiana schools. In Illinois, smaller-scale floods damaged school buildings in Round Lake and East Peoria.

With 100,000 public schools, in multiple buildings, spread across multi-acre sites, it is not surprising that America’s public schools find themselves in the path of natural disasters. Our public schools need to keep our children safe, but public school facilities also play a major role March/April 2021 • 15

in saving the lives of others during disasters and in helping communities recover afterward. Improving existing public school facilities to withstand severe weather conditions and designing new resilient facilities needs to be a key part of the nation’s and the federal government’s infrastructure policy going forward.

According to a 2017 FEMA School Natural Hazard Safety report, “older school facilities are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and in most cases school administrators do not have the financial resources to address these vulnerabilities” even though they have “a moral, and in many cases, legal responsibility to make these schools more resilient to disaster.”

The average American school is 44 years old and most were

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designed to meet outdated building codes and standards. Older schools are more vulnerable to natural disasters, and their students are more likely to experience adverse effects, such as dislocation and prolonged school closures.

K–12 school buildings and grounds have an impact on our children’s educational success, the health and economic vitality of our communities, and the environment.

Local school districts and many states have been working hard to support the ongoing maintenance, operations, new construction, and capital improvements of public school facilities. Without a standards framework to inform spending levels, however, communities cannot plan or advocate for what their schools need. And communities

with the least wealth are often the ones least able to meet the need.

In Illinois, data reported in 2013 demonstrate that Illinois school districts spent 9.8% of their total operating funds on maintenance and operations in the preceding decades. According to BASIC, the state’s annual average in maintenance and operations spending per student was slightly more, at $1,056 than the national average of $1,039.

In numbers for capital spending, Illinois’ annual average per student was $1,008, again near, but below, the national average. In BASIC’s gap analysis, past spending is 83% of funds it would take to bring schools up to “modern standards” which would require spending an additional $875 million statewide, or about $423 per student.

[Re]Building America’s School Infrastructure to Be Resilient

Schools are often central to community emergency/ incident management systems, serving as emergency shelters, command and control centers, and centers for aid distribution. They need to be designed and built to be fully functional during and in the aftermath of a disaster to fulfill these major responsibilities.

Going forward, new school facilities designated as emergency shelters and disaster recovery centers should be specifically designed for greater resiliency to function during and after natural disasters. A 2017 report, Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: Interim Report 2017 recommends building to exceed the 2015 International Building Code (ITSC).

For existing schools, facility experts recommend: 1. Assess vulnerabilities of the facility; 2. Incorporate best practices; and 3. Develop community and school emergency operations plans.

Post-disaster studies recommend reopening schools as quickly as possible to provide stability for students, allowing parents to either help with disaster relief or go back to work.

This suggests that schools should be given a high priority as communities seek to rebuild. Specific recommendations include • Tornadoes: Use FEMA mitigation funds to develop community safe rooms in public schools. Since a tornado destroyed one-third of buildings and homes in

Joplin, Missouri in 2011, the city of 52,000 has built 14 community safe rooms that can hold hundreds of people, many of them located in public schools.

• Flooding: Site selection is key to mitigate against flooding.

Floodplains should be avoided in construction, if at all possible. Alternatively, use FEMA mitigation funds to floodproof buildings in order to dry out quickly. Mitigation funds can also be used to protect or move core equipment like generators and air conditioning.

The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) has an extensive database, offering a wide assortment of issue briefs and reports on preparing schools for natural disasters designing resilient schools to withstand natural disasters. The Natural Hazard Mitigation report states that every $1 spent on mitigation at the front end saves $6 in federal disaster relief after a disaster, and every $1 spent on exceeding the existing building code saves $4.30.

But between 2005 and 2014, the federal government spent less than $600 million on the FEMA pre-disaster mitigation program and $277.6 billion on disaster assistance.

Public school facilities need to be in any federal infrastructure funding plan. Existing schools should be retrofitted for greater resiliency. New schools should be designed so that they serve communities in times of natural disaster.

The Department of Homeland Security should designate schools as the 17th area of critical

infrastructure. FEMA should help school districts and states take advantage of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, to make their school facilities more resilient before natural disasters.

The scale of the problem is huge.

Schools are in every community across America and their design and construction is a first step in preparing for future natural disasters. Schools must be constructed to withstand severe weather conditions — both to keep children out of harm’s way when disasters strike and to serve as emergency disaster and recovery centers.  Reprinted and adapted with permission. The [Re]Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC) is a non-partisan coalition of civic, government, and industry organizations who support federal funding to help underserved public school districts modernize their facilities. BASIC is fighting to secure significant Congressional support to prioritize public school infrastructure into the nation’s larger infrastructure agenda and invest $100 billion to modernize our public school facilities over 10 years — creating an estimated 1.8 million American jobs. Original publication and references are available via the Journal’s resource page at bit.ly/MA21Jres.

March/April 2021 • 17

Commentary

BASIC Advice for Federal Funding of School Infrastructure By the Re-Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition

I

In December 2020, The [Re]Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC) — a diverse cohort of education, labor, civic, and industry groups presented the following information to the then-incoming Biden Administration on the re-opening of schools as the coronavirus pandemic continued: The scale of the PK-12 public education infrastructure — Nearly 20% of all Americans are [usually] in about 100,000 public schools every day, and over the last 20 years, states and local districts have spent on average $50 billion annually in school capital construction and an additional $50 billion annually in building operations and maintenance. The federal government has contributed less than 1% to these capital expenses, states have contributed on average 18%, leaving local municipalities to bear the responsibility irrespective of their capacity, according to Mary Filardo in State of Our Schools. At the end of FY 2018, local districts held nearly $450 billion in capital debt, according to GAO data.

There is a gap between what schools need and what local districts can provide and good stewardship of our schools requires $145 billion annually for capital and operating.

Districts need an additional $37

18 • Illinois School Board Journal

billion per year in capital investment to avoid misspending limited maintenance and operations resources on systems that have far exceeded their useful life. To maintain schools in good repair, the gap is only an additional $8 billion annually when districts have the needed capital funds, according to State of Our Schools.

On July 1, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 2, a $1.5 trillion comprehensive infrastructure package. For the first time ever, public schools were included in an infrastructure bill. This infrastructure bill would authorize $100 billion in grants to states over five years to modernize and build new schools in high-need low-wealth districts and provide $30 billion in subsidized interest for bonds for school construction. The passage of HR 2 in the House of Representatives is an enormous milestone, but it is not yet a victory. Until these policies are also passed by the Senate and enacted into law by the president there will not be a relief for children, youth, school staff, or communities.

Barriers to Reopening Public Schools

The challenges to schools safely reopening to in-person education are formidable. Well before the

politicization of reopening schools, districts and communities were working to figure out the logistics of following public health guidance in schools. The key barriers are • The complicated nature of COVID-19 and how little research has been conducted on the efficacy of mitigation measures in schools.

• A lack of comprehensive, transparent, and consistent requirements for precautionary public health behavior for operating schools during the pandemic creates mistrust and confusion by staff, parents, and guardians regarding the risks, costs, and benefits of in-person schooling.

• Limited resources of local health departments and school districts prevent them from following the current health guidance and from coordinating operations among medical, public health, and school operations professionals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the basic inadequacies and strong inequities of our nation’s

public-school facilities infrastructure described above. The deficiencies in air quality, cluttered and crowded classrooms, and lavatories in poor condition are examples of persistent problems caused by capital disinvestment that impair adherence to public health measures for safe reopening and operation of our public schools during the pandemic.

With over 30 years of experience researching and managing public sector school facilities issues, BASIC offers the new administration advice, accurate data, and estimates on the costs associated with reopening. Working extensively with our national network of state, district, and industry school facilities experts, we have identified a number of ways that federal leadership can help reduce barriers to school reopening onsite for all schools.

These proposals can also begin to address the structural inequities that have made the pandemic more economically and educationally devastating for low-income and minority communities.

Proposals for federal leadership to address safe school re-opening and school facility infrastructure inequities include: • Establish a task force focused on operating schools during this pandemic that includes direct stakeholders and those with specific experience and knowledge about school conditions, reducing barriers to on-site education, and creating trust among stakeholders.

• Establish an office within the U.S. Department of Education (ED) of School Preparedness and Facilities Infrastructure,

which will work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and relevant agencies on reopening and monitoring schools and districts and take a leadership role in implementing the Rebuild America’s Schools Act (RASA) should it become law next year. The pandemic has shown how school facilities are increasingly becoming part of the nation’s rapid response to emergency and natural disasters and will increasingly play a greater role in years ahead.

• Update CDC guidelines as they pertain to operating schools during this pandemic including providing metrics for local health conditions and local public health capabilities that should be in place for schools to open for in-person education; specifying public engagement processes to establish trust among stakeholders; defining requirements for in-school mitigation measures to prevent the spread of the virus; and establishing transparent standardized measures and processes for assessing the efficacy of the mitigation.

• Provide technical assistance funding to states enabling public, private non-profit, university, and industry entities to assist local public health and school districts build their capacity to implement mitigation measures consistent with updated CDC guidelines, and requirements, and to engage stakeholders in the planning and implementation of these measures.

• Support a public service campaign on updated CDC and ED information, guidelines, and requirements.

• Conduct research in schools around the country and around the world to track what school districts are doing to keep the virus out of schools and to limit its spread to better understand what works and what does not work.

• Secure $10 billion in emergency federal funding within a relief package for local public health and school districts to cover mitigation efforts, and make emergency repairs to the buildings and grounds to ensure the safety of students and staff upon reopening— targeted to 25,000 schools, about $400,000 per school.

• Pass and fully fund RASA, which would authorize $130 billion in grants to states over five years to modernize and build new schools in high-need low-wealth districts and fully integrate school facilities into our nation’s infrastructure policy. We greatly appreciate your attention to school facilities as they affect the health of staff, students, and our economy during this pandemic, and look forward to working with you on school reopening and the critical investments needed in our public school buildings and grounds.  Adapted and reprinted with permission. The full letter and references are available via the Journal’s resource page at bit.ly/MA21Jres.

March/April 2021 • 19

Cover Story

25 Years

Creating a Long-Term Project Plan for Your District

By John Connolly, Bob Hughes, and John Lavelle

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The biggest challenges school districts face related to large projects are communicating clearly, getting projects done within the allotted time frame, and handling shifting priorities. Some districts have developed an annual work session with their boards to determine the priorities of the district, while others have monthly subcommittee meetings that include board members, leadership, and community representatives. These meetings are great opportunities to avoid the common misconception of poor planning by communicating effectively.

Delays can cost money and cause problems if acquisitions or

20 • Illinois School Board Journal

construction are not complete before the start of school and the best-laid plans can be disrupted as new priorities arise. Getting back on track by revisiting what was previously decided can be challenging, which is why having a long-range plan can assist when it comes to the communication, timing, and funding of projects while providing focus during changes in leadership and the emergence of new priorities.

Keep the Board on Board

CHSD 230, based in Orland Park, has an annual meeting involving the school board, community, and district leadership.

The purpose of this meeting is to have a broad discussion about priorities. They call this the Successful Students Successful Schools or S4 plan, which establishes broad goals and action steps. Along with goals related to student learning and curriculum strategies, we discuss others related to providing the appropriate resources to meet the needs of students. As part of this process, District 230 developed the idea of long-range planning based on the realization that the usual three-to-five-year plan was not enough.

To avoid surprises that could disrupt plans related to other goals, we took a look at the life

expectancy of major assets such as roofs and HVAC equipment over an extended period. We settled on a timeframe of 25 years and planning began to take shape.

After looking at our district’s major cost centers, the district decided that technology should be included with buildings and grounds expenditures. As this plan has been shared and discussed at various meetings, we have found it to be a great means of communicating and aligning the district’s spending with the overall district planning. While everyone understands work needs to be done within the district, it can come as a shock when the price tag is high.

Having this long-range plan that takes into account price escalation helps with accepting the need to

move forward and complete large, costly projects.

Create Your Financial Plan

It’s not enough to know what needs to be done. Two other big questions are, “Do we have enough money?” and “When will we have time to get this done?”

Many Illinois districts have a Debt Service Extension Base (DSEB). When preparing to issue debt, it is often necessary to update your district’s credit rating. Besides understanding your district’s major sources of revenue and the condition of the local economy, rating agencies are also interested in financial planning. The long-range plan helps in reviewing a plan and issuing debt to coincide with the projects.

It is easy to put off much-needed upkeep and continue deferring maintenance until the only way to complete these projects is with the passing of a referendum. The public is not tolerant of poor and short-sighted planning, especially when you have had the capacity to borrow without referendum. This dedicated source of funding makes it easy to work backward from the summer dates you want the project completed by, to when you need to go to bid. Even if you do not have a DSEB, it is possible to use a small consistent annual surplus to provide the funds needed to extend debt.

Depending on the project it might also be possible, through future cost avoidance and increased energy efficiency, to

March/April 2021 • 21

justify getting the work done.

These types of projects may also be eligible for grant funding and it is helpful to have identified and planned for this “shovel ready” work as new funding opportunities become available. Including conservative cost estimates with an escalation rate can serve to show the cost of deferring work.

With this long term plan in place, it is easy to see if work comes in under budget it might be possible to pull future work into an earlier year.

Prepare to be Flexible

When large expenditures are put off, and the life expectancy of assets is not known, unexpected repairs can affect the district’s ability to carry out important initiatives related to student learning. More disruption can occur when the failure impacts the building’s temperature during months of student attendance. It can always be argued, “Why fix it if it’s not broke?” but when the impact of a breakdown disrupts your primary mission it can end up costing more and impacting learning. This is not to say that flexibility cannot be built into the plan, but regular maintenance and care of equipment are still necessary to prolong the life expectancy of major equipment.

All major building equipment should have a preventative maintenance program. When items are well-maintained they are more likely to exceed their anticipated life cycle, which gives you more flexibility in your long-term plan.

School districts have major expenses coming from the area of 22 • Illinois School Board Journal

technology, which is why District 230 chose to include these in our long-term planning. While most major technology has a five-year refresh cycle, some systems, such as phone or intercom systems, are typically on a 10-year cycle.

Knowing when a refresh should occur can help a district determine the best year to replace or extend equipment based on the need for other large expenditures.

Technology also carries with it the issue of the total cost of ownership. It is critical that these are considered before adding major technology initiatives.

Having a 25-year plan demonstrates you have done prudent planning as it relates to major expenses. Less than a year after District 230 developed a 25-year plan, new and pressing priorities were identified that pushed everything forward one year.

With these types of occurrences in mind, a long-range plan needs to be a living document that can adjust to a changing landscape.

For example, with the increased violence at schools, new goals have emerged related to security.

The coronavirus pandemic, of course, changed the landscape for many school districts. Other examples of unanticipated circumstances that might change the order things are completed are: • New funding opportunities • State mandates • An enrollment surge due to the closing of an area private school Again, these changes in priority only support the practice of the long-range plan. Without

this document, any change in priorities can cause the original work to fall off the radar and be forgotten.

A Mechanism for Continuous Improvement

Unexpected costs can make goals impossible to meet. Having a 25-year budget eliminates surprises. By having a plan that is a living document and is reviewed multiple times per year, we can meet goals and be flexible in meeting shifting priorities while also being realistic about timeframes. Leveraging the ability to borrow to meet long-term goals by using small surpluses, or DSEB, can allow a district to have the funds available to meet the most pressing goals while meeting board and district goals for continuous improvement.

Cooperation between the departments of Finance, Facilities, and Technology is a major part of the success of long-range planning.

This documentation exercise serves as a great communication strategy and provides a constant backbone of organization as boards and leadership turn over.  John Connolly is Chief Technology Officer, and John Lavelle is Assistant Superintendent for Business Services for CHSD 230 in Orland Park. Bob Hughes was Director of Facilities there at the time of publication and is now Senior Project Manager.

Reprinted from Update Fall 2018, the magazine of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, with permission from the authors and Illinois ASBO.

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Practical PR

District 303 Partners with Stakeholders to Create Comprehensive Facility Master Plan

By Carol L. Smith

T

The St. Charles CUSD 303 school board believes that strong partnerships with all stakeholders ensure that students have access to rigorous curriculum, innovative learning experiences, and opportunities for academic, social, and emotional growth.

In 2019, as part of the district’s strategic commitment to engage our families and the community, the school board established a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) to help promote ongoing two-way conversations. More than 60 people applied to be part of the committee. The school board committee co-chairs interviewed prospective members and chose a group of 24 individuals, made up of parents, community members, and students. Six of the members also serve in a leadership capacity on the executive team.

When the CAC was formed, the school board planned for the group to learn about, discuss, and make recommendations on several initiatives. In the fall of 2020, the group, along with staff members from all grade levels, began the process of developing a comprehensive, longrange Educational Facilities Master Plan.

24 • Illinois School Board Journal

School Board President Nicholas Manheim said that community involvement is imperative to this process. “When the school board implemented the CAC, we knew their input would be vital in creating a sustainable long-range facility playbook that will serve students and support programs over the next decade without asking the community to approve a referendum.”

Located in Kane County, District 303 serves approximately 12,000 students in 17 Pre-K through high school buildings spread across 54 square miles.

The district is one of the largest employers in the county, with over 2,400 staff members. The age of buildings in the district ranges from 20 to 90 years old, which often poses challenges related to space, accessibility, maintenance, and infrastructure.

Columns are submitted by members of the Illinois Chapter of the National School Public Relations Association

The operations and maintenance staff works tirelessly to care for the over 2 million square feet that make up our schools and administrative buildings.

While the sheer magnitude of creating a comprehensive long-range facility master plan in a district this size might seem daunting, the committed volunteers rolled up their sleeves and quickly got to work. District administrators including the chief financial officer, chief academic officer, and assistant superintendent for operations spent time with committee members educating them about the complex issues around district finances, current and future innovative programming, and the facilities themselves.

Even before the committee was formed, building-level teams worked with the architectural firm to create a comprehensive Educational Alignment Assessment for each school, to analyze how well the buildings meet the needs of students, staff, administrators, and community members. The Assessment has provided committee members

with an invaluable baseline document from which they can compare “best practice” planning for standards of size, capacity, and missing components needed to support educational and instructional goals.

The comprehensive planning included three focus group interest areas — learning spaces, community spaces, and physical conditions. Committee members had the opportunity to participate fully in one of these groups. They met several times over the course of three months to examine the Educational Alignment Assessment, tour facilities, and develop needs statements that provide criteria for exploring solutions presented to the school board.

During their time in our district, many community and staff members have only spent time in the schools their children attend, or where they work. Touring five elementary schools, one middle school and both high schools provided the members with perspective and brought the elements they read on paper to life. In addition, the high school students who are part of the committee added insights and viewpoints from those who navigate those spaces daily.

CAC Executive Team member Pat Stacey felt the tours added value to the process, “Allowing our members to physically see and walk the spaces we had been discussing, made the building concerns and needs so much more understandable. The tour also gave us the opportunity to do some comparisons giving us a better understanding about what a more functioning space might look like.”

In January, the team presented key findings and preliminary needs statements to the school board’s business services committee. The feedback received as part of that conversation will be used by the committee to further develop and finalize recommendations that will be presented to the school board in the spring.

School districts cannot do it alone. “District facilities go beyond buildings that house our students, staff, and programs. Our schools reflect the core values of our district and broader community, bridging multiple generations. It’s important to engage the voices and perspectives across the district to shape our investment in the future,”

according to District 303 Superintendent Jason Pearson, Ed.D. It is only through partnerships with our parents, staff, and community members that we can truly succeed in our mission. We are confident that the collective experiences, knowledge, and commitment of this group of individuals will create a meaningful blueprint the school board and district can use to support the students, staff members, community, and programs of District 303.  Carol L. Smith is Director of Communications and Community Relations for St. Charles CUSD 303 and 2020-21 President of INSPRA, the Illinois chapter of the National School Public Relations Association.

March/April 2021 • 25

Milestones

In Memoriam Continued from page 30

George McCarty, 68, died January 24, 2021. At the time of his passing, he was the school board president for Freeport SD 145. He annually on Veterans Day spoke to the fourth-grade class at Center School about his experiences in the U.S. Air Force. He also volunteered in Freeport schools, helping students with their reading and math skills.

Benny R. “Lefty” Morey, 87, died January 11, 2021. He was a past member of the Annawan CUSD 226 Board of Education.

Stephen Morse, 88, died January 20, 2021. He was a past member of the school board for Orion CUSD 223.

Wayne Niewold, 92, died January 22, 2021. He was a past member of the Paxton school board in Ford County.

Robert Nootbaar, 93, died January 14, 2021. He was a past member of the Downers Grove GSD 58 school board.

John “David” O’Neall, 80, died January 23, 2021. He served on the Octavia school board in McLean County.

Wilbur Reid, 95, died December 22, 2020. He was a member of the Argyle school board in Boone and Winnebago counties.

Jack N. Ryen, 84, died December 12, 2020. He served on the Waterman school board in DeKalb County.

26 • Illinois School Board Journal

Lyle Schrader, 91, died January 11, 2021. He served on the school board for Walnut High School in Boone County.

Loren D. Schuler, 88, died December 6, 2020. He was a past member of the Octavia school board in McLean County.

Kora Searcy, 74, died December 5, 2020. She was a former staff member with IASB, working in meetings management.

Dave Seiffert, 58, died November 28, 2020. He served on the Palatine CCSD 15 school board from 2011 to 2017, after previously volunteering as chairman of the district’s Educational Foundation.

Robert “Popeye” Smith, 89, died December 17, 2020. He was a past member of the school board for Grayslake CHSD 127.

Cathy Sue Stouffer, 50, died December 12, 2020. She was a past member of the Lena Winslow CUSD 202 Board of Education.

Theresa Marie Swanson died December 26, 2020. She served on the Logan school board in Princeton.

Joyce Swartz, 37, died December 23, 2020. At the time of her passing, she was a member of the Saunemin CCSD 438 Board of Education.

Mary Ellen Thornton, 94, died December 4, 2020. She served on the school board for Lincoln CHSD 404 for 20 years.

Robert F. Turner, 82, died December 11, 2020. He was a member of the school board for Channahon SD 17.

Pete R . Va l losio, 97, d ied December 13, 2020. A veteran, he served as a bombardier in the European Theater of Operations in 1944, flying in B-24s. A longtime teacher, he was also a school board member for Robein SD 85.

Leon “Cap” Vonderheide, 79, died January 2, 2021. He was a board member at Stewardson-Strasburg CUSD 5A; he also graduated from there without missing a day of school.

T homa s Wa lton, 89, d ied December 18, 2020. He was a member and past president of the Creve Coeur SD 72 Board of Education.

Andrew J. Wiesbrook, 52, died December 25, 2020. He was a member of the school board for Annawan CUSD 226.

Malcolm Winkler, 93, died December 26, 2020. He served on the school board for Delavan CUSD 703 for nine years and as president for five years.  The Illinois Association of School Boards welcomes contributions to the Milestones section of the IASB Journal. Please send Milestone information to communications@iasb.com.

March/April 2021 • 27

28 • Illinois School Board Journal

March/April 2021 • 29

Milestones

In Memoriam David Ahlemeyer, 80, died January 17, 2021. He was a past member of the Fairbury-Cropsey school board in Livingston and McLean counties.

Ju l iu s A renberg , 97, d ied December 12, 2020. He was a past member of the board of education for Lombard SD 44, including serving as president.

Phillip Edward Bartmann, 77, died December 3, 2020. He was a past member of the McHenry CHSD 156 school board.

A rden L . Bollin, 89, died December 11, 2020. A lifelong farmer in the Nauvoo and Hamilton areas, he served on the school board for Hamilton CCSD 328.

J. William “Bill” Braithwaite, 92, died December 6, 2020. He was a past member of the Barrington CUSD 220 Board of Education. A longtime municipal attorney, among his civic awards, was being named “Man of the Year” from Youth and Family Services of the Barrington Area.

Edward Sawyer Burtis, 90, died December 28, 2020. He was a past member of the school boards for Glen Ellyn District 41 and Glenbard THSD 87.

Althea Carls, 85, died January 11, 2021. From rural Arenzville, she was a past board member of Triopia CUSD 27 in Concord.

Robert “Bob” Cook, 83, died January 17, 2021. He was a past member of the school board of Rockford SD 205 and was the CEO of Rocvale Children’s Home.

Linda Kay Davis, 76, died January 4, 2021. An elementary school 30 • Illinois School Board Journal

teacher for 37 years, she also served on the school board for Moline-Coal Valley SD 40.

Simon J. Doyle, 76, died December 19, 2020, He was a member of the Henry-Senachwine CUSD 5 Board of Education.

A lvin H. Eckhoff, 82, died December 30, 2020. He was a previous member of the Flanagan school board in Livingston County.

Ann Elbert, 87, died December 26, 2020. She served two terms on the Shelbyville CUSD 4 Board of Education.

Donald F. Ellingson, 96, died December 8, 2020. He was a member of the Poplar Grove school board in Boone County.

Jerome H. Elwell, 85, died December 16, 2020. He was a past member of the school board for Illinois Valley Central USD 321 in Chillicothe.

Berneice Espe, 97, died January 26, 2021. She was a past member, and first female board member, for Indian Creek SD 425.

Wesley Fanson, 87, died December 14, 2020. He had served on the school board for Catlin CUSD 5.

John Edward Favero, 89, died January 5, 2021. He was a past member of the Laraway CCSD 70C school board from 1972 to 1981.

Joseph C. “Charlie” Frank Jr., 85, died January 1, 2021. He was a past member of the Northwestern CUSD 2 school board in Palmyra.

Delbert Harris, 92, died January 27, 2021. A lifelong leader in the medical community in Lebanon, he was also a past member of the school board for Lebanon CUSD 9.

Marjorie M. Johnson, 96, died December 4, 2020. She was a member of the Roanoke-Benson CUSD 60 school board. She was a journalist and also worked for the Future Farmers of America, and invented the ice cream parlor “levelator” which brings an ice cream carton up to the level of a person scooping it.

Carin Kahle, 90, died January 28, 2021. She was a past member of the Lexington CUSD 7 Board of Education.

Robert Karl Kof ler, 67, died December 17, 2020. He served on the board for Warren THSD 121 and was a real estate developer and home builder in the Lake County area.

Wa rren B. “Cork y ” Lathrop, 90, died December 2, 2020.

He served on the school board for Annawan CUSD 226.

Winafred “Winnie” Lovgren, 90, died January 27, 2021. She was an elementary school teacher for over 50 years and a board member for Ohio CHSD 505 for 30 years.

Richard Lucie, 85, died December 21, 2020. He was a past member of the school board for Warsaw CUSD 316.

Gerald L. Martoglio, 81, died December 29, 2020. He was a member of the board for McLean Co. CUSD 5 and president of the Illinois Bass Federation.

Mearl Maynard, 94, died January 14, 2021. He was a 12-year member of the Central CUSD 301 school board.

Continued on page 26 and 31

In Memoriam

Don Choate, a longtime member of the Jonesboro CCSD 43 Board of Education, has died.

He served on the Jonesboro school board from 1967 until his passing on February 9, 2021.

With over 53 years, he was the longest-serving board of education member in Illinois.

“It has been my honor and privilege to make a contribution to our schools for so long,” Choate said in 2017, when he was recognized at the Delegate Assembly of the Joint Annual Conference for 50 years of service. Over the decades, Choate was a frequent attendee and familiar face at Shawnee Division Meetings, the Joint Annual Conference, and the National School Boards Association annual conference.

He served 24 years as board president and also spent terms as vice president and board secretary.

Choate also served the Shawnee Division as Resolutions Chair and was a member of the governing panel of the Workers’ Compensation Self Insurance Trust, a pooled insurance program for school districts that is sponsored by the Association.

“With his experience, Don Choate was a great board member for so many years,” said Jonesboro

Superintendent Kevin Westall, in his second year with the district. “He was a wealth of knowledge for many of us.” Westall said the district had hoped to honor Choate for his service in May, when his decades of board service would have come to a close, Choate did not run for re-election in April 2021.

With his passing, the district will honor Choate’s memory at a later date.

Choate’s advice to new or prospective board members included, “Attend every meeting provided, local, state, and national; and surround yourself with good people, board, staff, and administrators; and stay within the chain of command.”

Choate grew up in Jonesboro, graduating from Anna Jonesboro Community High School with the class of 1952. He attended Southern Illinois University and had a professional career in marketing and management, including 43 years at Blankenship Auto Parts in Anna. Active in the community beyond the schools, he coached summer league baseball for 21 years and was the official scorekeeper for Anna-Jonesboro High School basketball for 16 years.

Don Choate was also known as a dedicated family man. He and his wife Sue were married for over 58 years; she preceded him in death in 2017. The family includes four sons, Jeffrey, Wesley, Gregory, and Roger; 16 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. 

March/April 2021 • 31

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