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Lisle District 202 School Board Meeting Reflection

Krista Brummet
College of DuPage

Board of Education Meeting

October 19th, 2015
7:30pm-10:30pm

Krista Brummet
Education 1100

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School Board Reflection: Reflect on your overall experience attending the school board
meeting. How does the school operate at the local level? How does the district fit within the
larger community context?
The Lisle District 202 School Board meeting was very intriguing to be a part of and
helped me learn a lot about how the school works. They spoke about and approved of Full-Day
Kindergarten, finances (like municipal bonds), revised their board goals, talked over committee
reports, and more. The meeting was 3 hours long and filled with information that squeezed
within the time limitations. They always had more to talk about and pushed that to their next
board meeting. It was great to see how they gave approval to Full-Day Kindergarten because I
got to see how they vote. They work just like in a court-room. One person says I, another
person agrees, and then all the members names are read off to show that theyre present. The
school operates on the local level by making small decisions like whether or not to remove the
payphone in the Jr. High building. They also have different members attend events to keep
updated with the community. One member is also in the HSO (Home and School Organization)
and shared what theyre doing and how to help. The same thing happened with the Lisle
Education Foundation and more. They constantly are making small decisions to improve the
school district, and hold these board meetings to help discuss new ideas and ways to achieve this.
There are multiple reports ran and discussed like the District Staffing and Recruitment Report,
the 2015 Summer School Program Report, and the Superintendents Report. The district fits
within the larger community context by making big decisions that are like a domino-effect in the
community like Full-Day Kindergarten. This has been growing in the Chicago suburbs recently,
and finally made its way to Lisle. Many of the main reasons its still a question and some
elementary schools arent participating in this would be due to financial problems. Due to little
state funding and additional costs for longer school days, some new way of receiving more

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money became necessary. For some schools, this means a raise in taxes, tuition, etc. As for Lisle,
they had a man come in and give a powerpoint presentation on bonds and borrowing money. He
showed what other schools are going through his company and how well it has worked. He
explained what municipal bonds were and recommended them as a better borrowing option. Its
a great way to get more money in a non-referendum way (without raising taxes). He then
explained how to get these bonds and how it would require a BINA (Bond Issue Notification
Act) hearing open to the public. With great past examples on how well these bonds have worked,
the committee all agreed to start borrowing. This was a great way to fit into the community and
the growing Full-Day Kindergarten implementation.