School District 300 Board Members Recognized

Volunteers for Community Unit School District 300 turned the tables on school board members Monday night by formally honoring them for their service to the community.

The short recognition ceremony surprised board members who are typically accustomed to recognizing students, teachers and parents during CUD 300 board meetings.

The Illinois Association of School Boards designated Nov. 15 as School Board Members Day as a way to salute the nearly 6,000 school board members in the state, according to the IASB website.

"We didn't want November 15th to come and go without publicly recognizing each of you," said Bob Schwab, chairman of the district's finance committee, during the Monday CUSD300 meeting.

"School board members are charged with a unique job," Schwab said. "They must guard two of our community's most precious resources – our children, and our tax dollars – while they create the best educational environment possible with the money available, which these days seems to be less and less."

Superintendent Ken Arndt said few people understand the commitment school board members make.

The school board post is a volunteer job for which candidates work and spend their own money to campaign for. In addition to attending closed session and regular school board meetings, school board members also spend countless hours serving on multiple sub-committees.

"School board members do this job form the goodness of their heart, and also make our community better," Arndt said.

Schwab, along with Chuck Chorba, chairman of the District 300 building committee, and Leslie Russo, member of the education committee, presented each of the seven board members with recognition certificates, similar to those the board usually presents to students and staff.

CUD Board members include Anne Miller, Karen Roeckner, Chris Stanton, Monica Clark, Dave Alessio, Karen Plaza, and Board President Joe Stevens.