No matter what happens at the polls on Tuesday, there will be change on the East Aurora School Board.
Nine candidates are running for four open seats and only two are incumbents. The terms last four years.
Board President Raymond Hull, who is seeking re-election, said Tuesday at a candidates forum that the vote “will be a referendum on whether or not we’ll move forward” and who would help the board do so.
“We cannot afford to be the fodder of the city — the talk of the town — for all the wrong reasons,” he said.
The Aurora East Educational Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Central Kane County hosted the event in East Aurora High School’s auditorium. It was the second debate in the last month.
Incumbent Mary Louise “Lou” Peryea, who is completing her two-year term, also is running. Board members Stella Gonzalez and Mary Anne Turza are not seeking re-election.
Alex Arroyo, Kenneth Darby, Julie Garofalo, Mary Garza, Kimberly Hatchett, John Laesch and Anita Lewis are challengers.
Much of what voters have to consider is whether the incumbents have, as they say, helped bring stability and order to the district in the wake of administrative and board leadership changes, or whether, as challengers say, more has to be done to inspire community trust and improve staff morale.
Last April, the board selected Hull as president. He took over for Annette Johnson, who is still on the board. She was questioned during her campaign two years ago for her tendency to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the district. Johnson has said she did so to help the district during a time of weak financial management and repeated turnover in the business office.
Over the last year, Hull said, the school board has governed, instead of managing. Successes, he noted, include the district’s new purchasing rules and the hiring of an assistant superintendent for finance, Christi Tyler, who brought stability to the business office.
Tyler was hired last May. Previously, the district had agreed to pay a consulting firm up to $100,000 to manage district finances after the previous business director went on administrative leave and never returned.
Hull said the district was “shedding the last collateral damage caused by that instability.”
“Things are no longer in chaos and I feel good about where they are and our ability to deal with current issues facing the district,” he said.
Peryea, too, said she had worked to make “order out of chaos.”
Two years ago, she said, she and other board members were confronted with a food services contract that prompted a lawsuit, a report that detailed issues with curriculum, a hasty addition at the high school and a public scolding by Aurora’s mayor of the board and Johnson, then the president.
In a June 2013 letter to the editor, Mayor Tom Weisner wrote in The Beacon-News that he found “the dysfunction and circus atmosphere at the board and upper administrative levels over the past several months very disheartening and destructive of Aurora’s reputation.”
“Through all this chaos, I continually brought board discussion back to written policies and data,” Peryea said. “Over time we let go of all the drama and emotions that had been the basis for decision-making.”
But some challengers questioned recent changes on the school board.
Laesch criticized the board’s decision to stop meeting in committees to review topics such as finance, curriculum and buildings and grounds — the board now hears public presentations on some of these matters once a month before a regular board meeting — and questioned board protocols that encourage members to speak with “one clear voice.”
He also questioned why the board passed a budget last year that wasn’t as detailed as it could have been. District officials have said that budget was done quickly after Tyler was hired and that this coming school year’s budget would be better planned.
Arroyo, too, said the board needed to be more transparent with its spending, especially on vendor contracts. He said he saw a lack of leadership, low staff morale and a lack of communication with parents.
Lewis, a former board member, said the school board and superintendent had done “a lot of damage” and that the board needed to establish community trust.
“We can’t service our children if we can’t get our acts together,” she said.
It’s a challenging time to work in East Aurora, many candidates noted, as budget woes coincide with new state tests, learning standards and teacher evaluations. On top of that, the teachers’ three-year contract is up in June.
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In response to an audience member’s question, candidates discussed staff turnover in the district.
According to state data for last school year, on average about 84 percent of East Aurora full-time teachers returned to work in their school over a three-year period. That’s only a little lower than the state’s average of around 86 percent. But the other five districts with boundaries in Aurora have closer to a 90 percent retention rate.
Arroyo said too often East Aurora is a training ground for teachers who leave after a few years to work at neighboring districts. Employees need to feel valued, he said, perhaps through committees that work with staff to make their jobs better.
Peryea said the district was a challenging place to work with average pay that’s lower than other nearby districts. The average full-time teacher’s salary in East Aurora last year was $51,575, compared with the state’s average of $62,435.
Garza suggested offering more training opportunities and continuing education courses to keep staff.
Hatchett said staff needed a strong curriculum to work with. Getting a handle on the budget and vendor-hiring process also would free up money to invest in teachers and students, she said.
Garofalo said the hard work of teachers often goes unappreciated. Teachers can feel isolated in their classrooms, she said, and they often lack opportunities to express their voice or seek leadership opportunities. Many also have “initiative fatigue,” she said, after years of change.
Darby agreed that East Aurora teachers need to feel valued and morale needs to be re-established.
Lewis said the district needs to better recognize teachers for their individual successes.
“I don’t think teachers feel respected for the amazing work they do,” she said.