Laurie Parman: Candidate For District 300 School Board

ALGONQUIN, IL — Eight candidates are vying for four open seats on the Community Unit School District 300 board this election.

Incumbents seeking reelection include Stephen J. Fiorentino, who will be seeking his third term as a school board member, and Nancy Zettler, the board's vice president who will vie for a second term.

Newcomers who plan to vie for open seats include: Olutola "Tola" Makinde, Randi Gauthier, Laurie Parman, Robert Reining, Connie Cain and Kristina Konstanty, according to the clerk's office.

Patch.com reached out to D300 candidates to get their responses to candidate questionnaires. Here are the responses we got from Parman:

Name: Laurie Parman

Age (as of election day):68

Town/city of residence: Sleepy Hollow

School district: 300

Family. Names, ages and any pertinent details you wish to share:

Husband Greg Parman, 5 living children, Jill Rockford 40, Grant Parman 36, Nathan Parman 34, Holly Jaffrie 32. Ten grandchildren.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you're running for.

No

Education:

I have a Bachelor's Degree fro Western Illinois University, I have a Master's Degree from Concordia University in Educational Leadership, I have a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Argosy University

Occupation. Please include years of experience.

I retired from teaching after 30 years. The last 22 years were in District 300.

Campaign website:

https://electdrlaurieparman.wi...

Previous or current elected or appointed office: None

The most pressing issues facing our (board, district, etc.) are _______, and this is what I intend to do about them.

The most pressing issue facing Community Unit School District 300 is the failure to prioritize the academic mission of the district, which is to teach children to read, write, and compute at grade level. Before COVID lockdowns District 300 scores were shocking. Only 38% of students could read and write at grade level, and only 36% could compute at grade level. After the COVID Lockdowns we have no words for our academic performance since we have already used the word shocking. In 2022, only 27% of district students could read and write and only 26% could do math at grade level. This is absolutely unacceptable, and should be the most pressing issue, but these scores are tied to two other issues, so I must mention them.

In the absence of academic success, there is a constant effort to push various ideological k-12 initiatives into the curriculum, such as social emotional learning, comprehensive K-12 sex education, and Critical Race Theory. To this I say, "When district scores reach 90% in reading, writing and math, come back and talk to me about adding something to the curriculum." Until then, we simply do not have the luxury of the conversation.

If we tie my top two problems in the district together, we come up with the third. The teachers in this district are using sick days at an alarming rate. Before COVID, 30% of teachers used 10 or more sick days per year. In 2022 50% of teachers used 10 or more sick days per year. This is an alarming increase given the already critical teacher shortage and substitute shortage. Upon conversations with teachers whom I know personally, I discovered that many of my friends are using their sick days before they leave the profession.

It would seem as though my district has no idea about what is about to happen. My recommendations are to hire a firm to conduct a series of mixed methods studies. Study one: Follow test results of a consistent group of students in each school pre-K to Fifth, each middle school school and each high school. Mixed methods study number two: Conduct a survey of teacher satisfaction with interviews (the definition of mixed methods study).

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Many candidates are managed by the organizations that support them. I am not backed by an organization, and therefore I have the luxury of being myself, and telling the truth. Many people in politics today are hesitant to tell truth plainly, because they don't want to offend people on one side or the other. As a result we have candidates that are equally unlikeable to both sides. As I tell the truth to groups, my positive feedback from both sides seems to increase. This is an illogical strategy. Let's find out together how it works. I don't know if it does work, but I can only be who I am.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community or district?

I think the current board has the public persona of being unfriendly to people who do not support their ideas. As such, we see many, many 7-0 decisions. Uniformity of thought is never what we should have. We should have debate complete with give and take.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform

I believe that this district operates under the faulty premise that parents are NOT teaching their children these five character qualities at home: (Also known as the 5 CASEL Standards) Self-awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making.
As a teacher for 30 years, I do not see this to be in any way true. It is an insulting premise, but it has been used as the foundation for allowing precious classroom time to be used for something we do not need.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

Aside from my academic accomplishments, I have had many experiences during my time in District 300 that prepare me for this job on the board.

Among them are: 2 Boundary change committees, committee to vertically align the Common Core Literacy Standards, Administrator of 3 Summer School programs, Interim Assistant Principal, Department Lead for 15 fifth grade literacy teachers.

Why should voters trust you?

Voters should trust me because they have trusted me with their children for 30 years and I have returned them to their parents successfully literate, and well respected and loved.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office a success?

My first accomplishment will be gaining the respect and friendship of my fellow board members by studying all materials I am given on which I will be voting, and engaging in polite, astute debate. I will be voting my values, respecting the fact that I may be the only one with that conclusion.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the handling of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

I will be very interested to dig into the finances of this district and will be a learner of why we are where we are. I believe that we have a duty to the public to spend money in the most strategic ways to achieve literacy in all areas first.

We need to be sure that we take care of our buildings, grounds, equipment and other assets, in order to protect them from expensive repairs or replacement.

We need to make sure that the safety of students and personnel is a high priority. We need both personnel and systems in place to insure that.

What are your thoughts on how the district handled the COVID-19 pandemic?

The district was tied to government funds during COVID that dictated whether or not the schools should let students back into school. This decision could have been a simple matter of research, but it was a matter of obligation to those who had given them emergency funds with strings.
Closing schools the last quarter of 2020 was understandable, since no one know exactly what we were dealing with. However, by October of 2020 there was enough information on the CDC website to know that only 157 children age 1-18 had contracted COVID and died from it in our nation. How do I know that? I personally went to the CDC website and aggregated the Pre-K to age 12 numbers and 12-18 and got 157 COVID deaths. If I could do that so could everyone else.

Why did I go there to do that? I did this because I was seeing the devastating effects of teaching students on zoom. I could give you example after example, but teachers know it because they lived it. Students know for the same reason and parents know it because it ripped their world apart.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some school boards saw extremely heated disagreements during public meetings. If elected, what changes, if any, need to be made to ensure meetings are run efficiently while still allowing open discussions?

I believe that school boards serve at the request of the voting public. As the people who elected the school board, the school board owes more to the public than the other way around. I believe there should be guiding principles for the School Board beyond Robert's Rules of Order. We owe it to the public to create order. I believe that when the people's voice is taken away, the people will find a way to speak. If we want the public to speak responsibly to the politicians, we must make very certain that we have not removed their voice. Let's try that first and see how it goes.

How do you feel about sex education being taught in school? Should an LGBTQ component be included, and why or why not?

Because we have not fulfilled our academic mission to the students we do not have the luxury and certainly not the right to bring ideological subjects into our schools to crowd out our primary mission. Families are leaving public schools in great numbers because they don't want their children exposed to these ideologies. We as a district better figure some things out while we still have students to teach.

What are your views on critical race theory and whether it should be taught in the district?

Critical Race Theory has it's roots in Marxism. In Ibram X. Kendi's book, "How to Be an Anti- Racist", three quarters of the way through the book he finally gets to the heart of things; revealing his Marxist ideas. Since we are not a Marxist nation, I do not believe we should be playing with these ideas in our classroom. Many teachers do not understand these ideas well enough to be communicating them in the classroom. I think that we should not teach the theories lightly and without expertise that have been the downfall of nations.

Do you think the current board has done enough to support racial equality, and if not, what specifically should be done to do so?

I notice that the terms racial equality and racial equity are used interchangeably, when they are not the same thing. I believe that so doing is a cover for when people want to stop you from talking about this important issue.

During the war to address the struggle for states rights, slavery, and secession, a weary Abraham Lincoln stepped to a Gettysburg platform to address a crowd with just 272 words.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Mr. Lincoln takes a pause from his quotation of the Declaration of Independence but I continue on, as it states that all men are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We need to do a better job of teaching these sacred truths of our history, but during the 20-21 school year, School District 300 was working on removing the teaching of both World War 2 and the Civil War, the very context of this liberating truth. So if they are so concerned about the concept of race why investigate it's removal? I am not certain if the teaching of the Civil War got the axe, but In August 2022, World War 2 was removed.

Racial equity is not equality. Equity is trying desperately to make an un equal world equal. It is not possible to make all things equal. It is a fool's errand. It is the mother on Christmas Eve who, while wrapping the presents for her children, realizes she has 6 presents for one and only five for the other. Grabbing her coat and purse she runs for the door, wiping sweat from her face. Several hours later she arrives back at home with 9 more gifts believing she has equalized the problem. The next morning the two children are both playing with the box the bean bag chair came in. From my conversations with students, they just want to be left alone together to be friends. They don't want to be told they are either victims or oppressors.

When it comes to student achievement, what are schools within this district doing well and what needs to be improved? How can those improvements be made?

I believe the special education teachers in District 300 are doing a magnificent job and much can be learned from them in the pursuit of success of the rest of the district.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

None at all.

The best advice ever shared with me was ____________

Not everything that goes wrong in your life comes to harm you.