District 99 Forum: Question 6

Cliff Grammich
One would be to find common expenses that each school district has. District 99 has adopted this, for example, with a common bus contract with District 68 and District 58. Another would be to find what common services that the district could provide that others would be interested in as well as long as they were cost-neutral. I think that is the key above all. District 99’s core service is education and anything it does beyond that isn't cost-neutral, it shouldn't be doing. If it’s something that it can do with, for example, the park districts on making facilities available or with other organizations that want to use our facilities that are cost-neutral, I think would be fine.

Nancy Kupka
I would echo what Candidate Grammich said and I would add two other thoughts. One is tonight we've heard a lot about issues with communications and I think, since this is a concern, that it really merits doing a systematic evaluation with other bodies to see where exactly the problems of communication lie and the common values and interests lie. I think a systematic evaluation is called for rather than relying on anecdotal evidence.

The other thing is I think we can join together in strategic planning. As many of you know, the board just okayed a contract for some busing with 58 and 68 working together that will save all districts a lot of money. I think if we really look forward, if we plan ahead strategically over the course of the next year, five years, 10 years, it will serve us well.

Keith Matune
The bottom line when we’re talking about sharing cooperation with our local boards is the fact that we share the same constituencies.  We all work and partner with our children, parents—we’re all involved and care about this community. The name Community High School District 99 starts with "community," and I think understanding their needs, communicating our needs, and sharing facilities and doing some cooperative crossovers in marketing would be effective.

And I think an ideas that's been floated by Mr. Tully who's running for mayor of Downers Grove, is the idea of a super retreat, to get the boards of village councils, park districts and school boards together to strategically plan and to put on the table  what we do we have in common besides our children and our constituencies. What ways can we work together and partner. 

Mike Davenport
The busing example: great example. Necessity is the mother of invention, isn't it? I look at what we just accomplished it terms of the savings with the busing transportation contract with all three school districts, and I wonder, why weren’t we doing that before? How many more things are there like that available to us.

For instance, you look at what the Village of Downers Grove has done with Washington Park in the collaboration with the park district and the cost savings they've incurred there with storm water management. With our Master Site Plan, a big component and cost involved in that is storm water management. Are there some possibilities to work with the village in that regard and lower our costs, get more done for less? I think there’s plenty of opportunity out there if we start actually seeking that communication with the feeder school districts and the park districts and the towns that are part of our community. 

Allyn Barnett
The collaboration with the feeder districts is something that goes on on a regular basis. There’s always an effort to work with those districts to find common ground and  help them prepare their students to be students at District 99. To the extent that any collaboration with any other governing  body can help those governing bodies save costs, I think that those are good things.

It’s important to remember, though, that not all governing bodies have the same boundaries or serve the same constituents. It is not right for any community to expect that the high school district would serve that community's interests at the cost of any other community's interests. The high school has a role to play, and that is to educate our students. Beyond that they should be good citizens and work with other communities as best they can for common intersests.