NANCY ROSS DRIBIN

candidate for 2025 OAK PARK District 97 School Board

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills do you bring to the office? What sets you apart from other candidates? What does success look like for you after four years in the position?

My family and I have lived in Oak Park for over twelve years, and I have been involved in District 97 as a volunteer for over eight. I was elected to the school board in 2021, and I am seeking reelection. Friends have asked why I would run again when my children are at Julian and almost out of the district. The answer is easy: It was never about my children. It was always about supporting all of our children. It was about reaching the lofty but attainable goals outlined in the board’s equity policy to meet our students’ needs, and we still have work to do to reach those goals. One of my areas of expertise matches a critical component required to move forward: Fostering mutual respect and collaboration between the adults who support our students. I bring four years of board relationship-building and decades of experience working to bring key staff and stakeholders together and into mutually agreed-upon alignment. I have a history of actively listening to key stakeholders and incorporating key concerns and ideas from all parties to benefit our students. I want the opportunity to continue that work and to further our vision for excellence.

2. What do you see as the three biggest challenges or opportunities facing the Village in and what role do you see the Board playing to address them over the next four years? 

Mental health, finding an overall sense of belonging, and continuing work to address the opportunity gap are the biggest hurdles currently facing District 97 students. While our teachers and families rallied around students to keep learning loss to a minimum, Oak Park could not overcome challenges to our students’ mental well-being and loss of grounding in the school community. Additionally, with the district’s equity policy passing just before the pandemic, the district’s focus shifted to keeping everyone afloat rather than tackling the persistent opportunity gap. Today, the board must continue to challenge the district to develop and implement programs that reconnect and re-engage our students while supporting mental health support on-site and in collaboration with offsite resources. There is always more that can be done to improve our academic offerings, but I see our staff working hard to meet those challenges and expect them to continue. When your students are acting out or require more support to function in a healthy mental space, no academic improvements will overcome that. I am committed to taking a proactive approach to these challenges, ensuring that our students' academic support needs are met and their well-being is prioritized.

3. What is your decision making process? What are steps the Board can take to ensure transparency, clear communication, and robust community engagement to ensure that it is hearing from the broad spectrum of families about their experiences of the schools, and the full range of District 97’s constituents? 

During my tenure on the board, I have actively sought to improve transparency and community engagement. We added a Board Updates newsletter and an online archive for board meetings where presentation materials are archived for later access. As someone who formerly resorted to taking screenshots of materials to review at a later date, I actively asked for and supported these improvements as a means to facilitate broader community reflection on shared data. Additionally, we ramped up participation in local community events. This past year, I attended Barrie Fest, A Day in Our Village, Juneteenth, PTO meetings, educator meetings at schools, and Multilingual Family Art Day, just to name a few. I also made myself available to listen to community members over coffee and at the Oak Park Public Library. Concerns raised in these discussions inform my work at the board table. In my decision-making process, students are always at the core of any decision I make related to the district. Listening to families, community members, students, and teachers is a means to incorporate a broader viewpoint and serve as a reminder that these decisions have a tangible impact on real people and cannot be made without careful consideration.

4. Please share your thoughts about District 97’s current financial picture. What is your understanding of the Board’s role in the budgeting process and the allocation of resources? Do you have organizational finance experience?

We will likely see federal funding cuts, though we don’t know how drastic or when they will be implemented. We are not as reliant as many districts in Illinois on federal funding, but it would still be felt. Students will always be the center of my priorities. No matter the changes, we cannot abandon our commitment to meeting their educational and support needs. To address any significant budget losses, we will need to work with the community (within the district, via our Finance Oversight and Review Committee, and with the larger Oak Park community) and other municipal agencies to determine where we can cut without damaging student experience. When I was the director of media at the Adler Planetarium, and over the course of my work at nonprofits, I managed many tight budgets. I learned to make the most of collaboration and community resources to accomplish as much as possible within the funds available. I did this by matching budgets with the goals and priorities of the museum and my department and looking for ways to combine efforts across departments to share costs. This skill has been helpful in the district and will be more so in the coming years.

5. What would you say to voters who are worried about Oak Park’s overall tax burden? 

A budget, as is often rightly noted, is a moral document. It shows what the people who developed it prioritize more clearly than any other document. What is frequently overlooked is that it is a moral document in relation to incoming and outgoing funds.  As did so many other families, we chose to move to Oak Park because we wanted to live in a community of diversity, including economic diversity. In an ideal world, I would love to see Illinois revise how schools are funded as a whole — the reliance on property taxes has many flaws. However, aside from lobbying in Springfield, the board does not have jurisdiction over that aspect. The only control the board and district have is to do their best to keep the budget within the means of residents. To that end, I believe it is essential to start with the core priorities of the district — a positive learning environment for all students that is equitable, inclusive, and focused on the whole child — and review budget items stringently within that lens.

6. How will you work to ensure that District 97 provides an excellent educational experience for each student? What will success look like? Please share your thoughts about equity.

I have observed that the term “equity” is often used with various definitions, as it suits the person defining it, which is problematic. I define equity as providing resources and support with the recognition that we don’t all start from the same place or face the same barriers. In the United States, it is critical to continue by acknowledging that historical and ongoing systemic racism, in particular, is behind many of those barriers. The district has correctly defined equity in the school setting as “the systematic fair treatment and full inclusion of all students, especially those who have historically been underserved in public education settings.” The second part of that definition is critical: To achieve equity will require addressing the historical, systemic, and structural inequities with intention, not as an afterthought. I strongly support the continued implementation of the District 97 Equity Policy. Successful implementation will not only be reflected in student academic data; it will also include ensuring proper academic support, maintaining a welcoming environment, fostering a sense of belonging, providing a learning space where students see themselves reflected in the staff and resources, and giving respect to each student as an individual with the potential to excel.

7. Special education is required by federal law. How can District 97 better work to provide an excellent education for students in need of special education?

During my time on the board, I have continued to hear frustration, particularly around initial access and inconsistent implementation, which is concerning. This has varied widely with the type of accommodations needed. That said, I have also heard good feedback about the expanded team-taught early elementary blended classrooms, which have been set up to support specific special needs within a regular classroom environment. This is an issue where the district needs to increase key stakeholder conversations and invest more time and resources.  With approximately 17.1% of district students needing special education support, it is essential to ensure regular, open dialogue rather than relying solely on individual meetings and feedback, which can be isolating. The bi-monthly meetings alternating between general discussion and navigating policy over the 2024-25 school year are a start. I would advocate for more.

8. How should the District assess its policies and progress with respect to the racial disparities in its learning outcomes? What contributions will you make to the Board’s discussions on this issue?

Academic outcomes are fundamental to education, but they are not the only component that needs to be reviewed and assessed when correcting racial disparities in the district. If we are to address the larger issue, we need to evaluate the provision of academic support, maintaining a welcoming environment for students and their families, fostering a sense of belonging for students and their families, and providing a learning space where students see themselves reflected in the staff and resources. Some of these areas are more involved to assess than others, which is why the default tends to limit to test scores. However, all those other components are critical to achieving and maintaining solid academic outcomes. The use of panorama data, qualitative questionnaires, proactive review and assessment of key resources, and hiring and retention data are areas we need to regularly review to ensure that we are moving forward in a sustainable and meaningful way. As a board member, I can ensure that these areas are presented publicly to us and the community. I can follow up with community conversations — including teachers and families — to further inform my questions, proposed guidance to the superintendent, and votes.

9. Do you see a role for the Board in ensuring that District 97 schools are welcoming and safe for students in minority populations, whether immigrant, LGBTQ+, racial, religious identity, etc.? Please explain and describe specific actions or policies you would propose. Have recent discussions in the larger community or at the national level informed or changed your thinking?

The board must be proactive in establishing and maintaining a welcoming climate. It is important to be out in the community; this extends to being present at events and meetings organized by minority populations. It is vital to listen, to be available to answer questions, and to build the trust needed for questions to be asked. It is equally important to make sure that the policies set by the board are thoughtful and responsive to what we hear. I firmly believe that the board's role is to actively condemn hostility towards members of our community and reassure our students and families that we support them. Over the time that we have lived in Oak Park, we have seen swastikas and derogatory anti-LGBTQ language defacing public property, a brick with racist language thrown at a local business, and inflammatory language used by a public official towards a Muslim member of our community. While these are thankfully outliers here, they exist and can’t be brushed under the carpet, especially with the national rise in efforts to minimize such acts. To do so is hurtful and makes us complicit. I state unequivocally that all such acts are not welcome in our community.

10. How should District 97 handle the question around the removal of books from library and classroom shelves, curriculum and other instructional tools if community members deem the content to be inappropriate, too controversial or objectionable?

The board recently updated our policy to include the American Library Association (ALA) Library Bill of Rights, which centers on not removing or proscribing information based on partisan or doctrinal disapproval. This covers the three examples included in the question. Further, I believe strongly in the skills of our school librarians and educators to vet materials for age- and educational-appropriateness. While we do have a process to file an objection to library materials through the Uniform Grievance Procedure, and I support the right to do so, I feel that the bar would be so high for removal that I cannot imagine a book selected by our highly qualified staff would ever cross it. Additionally, my current information studies coursework includes information policy, which covers topics related to freedom of information, and it has strengthened my position against book bans in any form.

11. What is your vision for a safe school environment?  Please address cell phone use, physical altercations, and bullying. What specific policies or actions do you believe the Board should promote?

Several significant behavioral policy changes were made at the state level and in the district just before the pandemic. When students and staff returned to in-school learning, in addition to the general mental shift of returning, these policies were in place with no training and no discussion around implementation. Working across middle schools, administrators, teachers, students, and families have now had the time to come together and begin implementing components like restorative justice in practice, not just in concept. Supporting these efforts and following requests by the board to provide a better transition for students as they move from elementary to middle school, we have also seen improvements in connecting students to peers and adults in the building with our incoming sixth graders. These connections make a significant difference in safety and the sense of community. There is room for improvement, but I appreciate the amount of progress this year. In terms of mobile use, technology is a tool. For a few of our students, they support necessary accommodations and access is critical to their success. However, phone apps are, for the most part, designed to grab attention and to keep it. With few exceptions, I support putting phones away.

12. Researchers continue to report that significant numbers of students experience poor mental health. Many students seriously consider attempting suicide and a subset of these students attempt suicide. What can D200 do to address this trend? 

When it comes to mental health, it truly takes a Village. One of the ways the district can address this issue is to ensure that our staff members are connecting with our students and can bridge a connection with internal social-emotional experts as needed. Those experts can connect families and students to community-wide services to support ongoing mental health care. Trusted adults take many forms — classroom teachers, education support staff, administrative staff, health care staff, and more — so it is crucial for each to know signs of distress and be trained to connect students and families with our internal support structure. We can and should strengthen this structure, and the board can support this by prioritizing mental health and ensuring that the key stakeholders on our staff and in our community come together to identify strengths and areas for improvement.

13. Morale amongst teachers, administrators, and paraprofessional staff, frequent turnover and changes in curriculum, and increases in student needs have challenged schools across the nation and in District 97. What’s the Board’s role in helping to address these issues?

Teacher retention in the district has continued to improve in the post-pandemic years. We are now back up above the average retention rate in the state and at the highest rate we’ve achieved in eight years. The board’s role to continue growth in retention is threefold: compensation, respect, and inclusion. With the first, the board works with compensation data from comparable districts to make sure we are competitive. The second and third areas are linked and equally important: We show respect and appreciation to our teachers in many ways, but it is critical to ensure that they are included in important decision-making processes related to our students and resources. For example, as we test a new curriculum, we involve our teachers in the process rather than making a top-down decision with no input. Additionally, District 97 includes a significant number of paid teacher leader roles to recognize the work our educators do to further the district’s academic goals. The board’s role is to make sure our talented team of education professionals has the space to work together to meet our students’ needs.

14. What approach should District 97 take towards local intergovernmental cooperation initiatives such as the Collaboration for Early Childhood? Are there other specific initiatives that you would like to implement or expand upon with other local and or regional governing bodies, and nonprofits?

In my second term, one of my goals is to bring more government bodies together in meaningful conversations and collaboration. I am very supportive of the Collaboration for Early Childhood. The years before entering formal schooling with District 97 are critical. We know this; research has demonstrated its importance again and again. With its highly effective support of families with young children, the Collaboration demonstrates brilliantly why and how intergovernmental cooperation can be a powerful force for good. Education also doesn’t stop at the end of the school day or after 8th grade. To foster truly exceptional education in Oak Park, the district and the board need to coordinate and collaborate with all governmental agencies providing services to students and their families as well as with their future home for learning, District 200. Aside from looking for crossover and savings in budgets, I would love to see collaboration in programming and expansion of crossover programming. For example, Oak Park Public Libraries ensure that each child gets a library card in partnership with the elementary schools, and the park district provides places for students to hold special activities. I strongly support the district’s work to expand and purposefully coordinate these efforts.

15. The School Board’s primary responsibility is oversight of the Superintendent.  What criteria do you believe the Board should use to evaluate the performance of the Superintendent?

There are several data points we use to evaluate our superintendent’s performance. As noted earlier, academic outcomes are fundamental to education and, as such, are a component of evaluation, but they are not the only piece. We currently have four top-level goal areas we use to organize the evaluation: district culture and professional growth, meeting the learning needs of all students, resource alignment, and expansion of learning opportunities. These areas cover key components crucial to student success, including direct support and outcomes and creating a positive, collaborative environment centered on our students. One area I would propose to add more directly at a top level is supporting effective communication across community stakeholders, as it is so crucial to the success of each of the other four areas. It is included as a split subtopic, and I think it is critical enough to merit a top-level review.

16. Last November, Oak Park voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that proposed that voters be able to approve ordinances and policies though a direct vote. At this point the vote on the ballot initiative was advisory or non-binding. The next step is for the Village or any other taxing body in Oak Park (as reported by the Wednesday Journal, November 7, 2024) to decide whether or not to place the issue on the ballot as a binding referendum. Please share your views on this initiative. 

I am open to discussion but also cautious of unintended consequences. While our community has several means to learn more about candidates, there are fewer when it comes to referendums. It is, therefore, easier for a referendum to become a question of who has the largest budget to promote their cause. On the other hand, I favor more direct involvement of community members in policies and direction. While this particular means hasn’t come up as a question for the District 97 Board until this questionnaire, it is one that is worth reviewing.

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