Kankakee school board candidates debate views

KANKAKEE – Seven of the candidates running for election to the Kankakee School District 111 Board explored topics ranging from the teacher shortage to low student achievement during a Tuesday evening debate.

The two-hour debate was hosted by the Kankakee County Branch of the NAACP at Kankakee Community College in advance of the April 1 election.

Vying for four available four-year terms on the District 111 board are incumbents Jess Gathing Jr., Tracy Verrett and Darrell Williams, as well as challengers Reginald Bell, Dajon Casiel and Susan Lopez.

Cynthia Veronda and Kathy Yancy Smith are vying to fill an unexpired two-year term.

Veronda, who is currently serving a three-month appointment after the death of board member Deb Johnston, is running as a write-in candidate.

Smith’s name will appear on the ballot. However, Smith did not attend the debate.

When contacted by the Daily Journal, Smith said she could not attend because of work.

Below is a sample of questions and answers from the debate.

Check the weekend edition of the Daily Journal for part two of this story with additional candidate responses.

Questions and answers

Question: District 111 recently hired 26 visiting international teachers to fill gaps for certified teachers. Is this an avenue the district should continue to pursue to fill more openings? What else can be done to address the teacher shortage?

Jess Gathing Jr.: “First and foremost, it was just a start, hiring the 26 teachers. We are going to get rid of our substitute teachers, and we want certified teachers. It doesn’t matter where that certified teacher comes from. If she’s certified, that’s what we want in our classrooms teaching our kids.”

Susan Lopez: “I think that the hiring of the international teachers is the first step in a multipronged process to filling all of the vacancies that are in the district. So, I think that’s a short-term solution, but I think [we also need] a longer-term plan. What are you going to do to continue to have a sense of urgency around recruiting certified teachers? And also retaining the teachers you do have?”

Cynthia Veronda: “I am happy that we have knowledgeable teachers that are willing to come to America to teach our students. They all have 12-plus years of experience. They’re certified. I’m hearing wonderful things about them. ... It is a partial solution to a real teacher shortage.

“We have available funds from a teacher vacancy grant that the state of Illinois provides for us to help recruit and retain our teachers, and some districts have been extremely creative in how they do that with sign-on bonuses, providing housing or some money during the student-teaching experience.”

Tracy Verrett: “This was just a start to a huge problem that we have. We’ve been asked several times as board members, ‘What are we going to do about the teacher shortage?’ And so, this is one of the things that administration came up with. We’re thankful that they were creative enough to go outside the box and try to find people who are certified to work with our students.

“But again, we need to do whatever we can in recruitment efforts to make sure we have people, even in our own communities, that can be certified. I do agree also that if you have people that are in a program to attain their certifications, then that’s great as well. We can keep them on board.”

Darrell Williams: “I think the pilot that we did bringing the teachers over, I think it’s going well, but we are not going to really know until the end of the school year how it’s going, just to be fair. I think the long-term answer is recruitment [of] teachers coming out of college.

“You can’t just rely on people coming over here. ... We don’t know how long they want to stay, or if they want to stay. So I think our focus should be on our teachers that are here – recruiting those teachers and keeping them in the school district.”

Reginald Bell: “Certified teachers is a must. It’s needed. But I still think about, some teachers we have are not certified, but maybe they work in that field and they have a longevity of experience to teach. Maybe help them, push them along to get their certification.

“You’ve got … a biologist, and they come here to teach biology, I mean, that’s a great teacher I believe. Especially if they can work with the kids or get them more interested because they’re more qualified in that subject.”

Dajon Casiel: “Within teaching, we also have to look at the connection piece, the positive connection between our teachers and our students.

“I’m not saying that our students will not be able to connect with our teachers we had come over from across the way, but what I’m saying is that’s an important piece we have to look at. Like Ms. Verrett said, [we need] to give the opportunity to people in our community as well to get properly licensed and able to teach our students.”

Question: On the latest Illinois School Report Card, all but one District 111 school was designated as performing in the bottom 5% of all school districts in the state, in one area or multiple areas. What do you think district leadership should do to increase growth and achievement for all students?

Susan Lopez: “I think that we would start with establishing clear learning goals and make sure the teachers are receiving their guidance and the support that they need in order to be successful.

“I believe that the district just completed a curriculum audit, and we should be reviewing that as a board and looking at what things we need to put into place there. And then we need to be holding everybody accountable to meeting those standards.

“Along that would include the recruitment and retention of certified teachers, and get the certified teachers back in classrooms, as well as look at [stopping] moving around children to different buildings, because mobility has an impact on learning.”

Cynthia Veronda: “It’s true we need an overhaul. It does make me sad as a graduate. ... As a teacher, I felt I had an effective team to guide students as a principal, but I had a team of people behind me.

“We know that COVID made an effect. We realize that, but we have to get beyond that. But we know the foundational skills – foundational reading, foundational math skills – have really buckled in the last several years. And without certified teachers who intentionally know how to teach those skills, our deficits continue to grow as students get to the higher grade levels."

Tracy Verrett: “For me, it’s training and accountability. We have to ensure that our teachers have training and that they understand the training, that they are being supported in the classrooms and that they have conducive environments to be able to help our students thrive. ...

“You can’t work in an environment you’re not happy in. You just can’t. So we need to make sure that we have an environment for our teachers that they can thrive, and also, we have to be intentional about just basically getting back to the basics and making sure that we have plans in place for our students who are struggling ... whether it be financially or the curriculum, or whatever they need to be successful.”

Darrell Williams: “I think it has to be a curriculum change. It also has to be training, and it also has to be [monitoring]. Principals need to monitor the teachers and make sure they are teaching.

“Teaching reading skills – there are a lot of kids that get to the fifth, sixth grade, and they can’t read. That’s a problem. ...

“If they don’t have a foundation, the kids are going to struggle with everything. … Math and science, when you get to the fifth and sixth grade, they are all word problems. If I can’t read, I’m struggling. So they have to focus more on giving them the foundation in reading before they get to the higher grades.”

Reginald Bell: “If we’ve got one school that’s doing well, look what they are doing overall. ... Maybe take some things that they are doing, implement them into the structure at their school.

“Some more things is maybe some more SEL programs – social-emotional learning programs – where kids, they can get the needs they want, feel more supported and emotionally supported, and they’ll probably do better at school, because they’re probably not getting that at home.”

Dajon Casiel: “I would have to agree with Mr. Williams on the training and the support for our teachers, but most importantly, from leaving the high school, just graduating from the high school in 2024, making sure that our admin are properly monitoring our teachers.

“I believe that as a board, it’s our common goal that we hold the superintendent accountable, and the superintendent needs to hold our administrators accountable that they are monitoring our teachers and making sure they are doing what needs to be done for the better success of our students.”

Jess Gathing Jr.: “What are we doing? [The Illinois State Board of Education] has come in, and we’ve had three meetings so far. Those meetings are two and a half-hour meetings in terms of what we can do to help our situation, where those schools are now.

“It’s going to take teachers, it’s going to take parents, and it’s going to take administrators. ... First of all, it didn’t happen overnight. It’s going to take time to do it, and that’s what the board is doing now. I think we have two more sessions of two and a half or three hours that we will be with ISBE to help our school and change the curriculum for what we need to do for our students.”