Question 5

Elana Jacobs -

I have extensive experience with negotiating and interviewing in the school system. I have been part of union bargaining teams, hiring administration, and as a teacher I have been on tons of school interviews. As a teacher, I have some ideas of important questions to ask and how to make a candidate feel welcomed through the recruiting and hiring process. I have experience with budgeting and financial management through writing grants, keeping budgets, fundraising and learning the IRS laws of schools and nonprofits. I know that buckets of money from federal and state funding in a school need to be used in a certain way for bilingual education, homeless youth, and special education. As a researcher, I am used to looking through spreadsheets and finding large amounts of data, looking for patterns and telling the story so that the audience can understand. These skills are easily transferred to budget and management. I know that I am 1 of 7 people who are surrounded by skilled finance administrators, who are eager to learn and ask questions to improve finance and budgeting skills.

Ross Sawyers -

As chair of my department, I am responsible for managing a large budget including operations, salaries of full and part time employees and special programming. I currently sit on the presidential budget advisory committee at Columbia College Chicago which makes recommendations to the CFO and President regarding the budget for the entire college. I have sat on the search committee for three full time faculty positions and the provost. I am responsible for interviewing any part time faculty applicants.

Naema Abraham -

Financial management is adequate. However, given we are a public institution and our financial reporting is public information, we need to do a better job of aligning salaries to market and designing a structure that will guide salary offers rather than subjecting the district to salary negotiation and haggling with perspective hires.

Irena Petryk -

I believe that the current board has done an admirable job at the financial management of the district. Specifically, the board has ensured that the district will be debt-free by 2023, saving $17.5 million in interest payments. If elected, I would seek to continue this success.

My experience with budgets and negotiation is primarily centered around non-profits. I have drafted a budget for a year-long fundraising project which ultimately finished under-budget. The Expanding Lives Associate Board has negotiated materials costs and revenue splits with mall administration officials to host the annual gift-wrapping fundraiser. Finally, I have worked under budgets to solve marketing and operations problems during non-profit consulting projects.

Joseph Nowik -

The financial management of the district has been relatively well managed over the last few years. That being said, there is room for continuous improvement.

There have been significant changes in philosophy at D219. The focus has changed from WANT to NEED on projects and programs.

The district has placed METRICS on programs to measure them and to make sure that they are accomplishing the goals they were established for. If they do not, they are replaced or changed.

My immediate concern will be the impact of Covid-19 on both the district’s revenue and expenditures. Close monitoring is essential and I intend to do just that.

Yes, I have many years of budget, financing, negotiation and interviewing experience.

Richard Evonitz -

District finances remain strong, but further work is required on the District’s financial management. I am optimistic that newly installed school business office leadership can complete the transformation of the District’s business office.

I have 12 years of experience in school finance as a school board member. I also served as chairperson of the finance committee at District 73 for eight years. During that time, I helped negotiate that district’s collective bargaining agreement.

In my professional life, I am a corporate transactional attorney who has negotiated thousands of contracts valued in excess of $1 billion.

Kathleen Weiss Boyle -

I have spent 37 years sourcing, negotiating, and interviewing prospects as part of my employment in Materials Management, Operations Manager, and as a real estate broker. I support full disclosure and transparency in all business operations, and am experienced with the practice of requiring multiple bids. I believe that all bids on business in the district should be submitted blindly – that is, the providers of the bids are not known to those reviewing and selecting the winning bid, thus avoiding conflicts of interest. Once the bid is selected but before committing, we must do further vetting to insure our contracts are awarded only to reputable businesses. All school board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the stakeholders of the district, primarily the students, teachers, and staff, but to also be transparent and accountable to the taxpayers, as well. As a small business owner for over 20 years, I have had to create and manage a budget.