I endorse Art Kessler for District 113 School Board

I, Jill Kirshenbaum, mother of 2 incredible children, Indian Trail and Elm Place PTO member, and advocate of the future of Highland Park schools, whole heartedly endorse Art Kessler for the District 112 School Board.

In my opinion, it is not what Art has done in his history, serving as a leader on non-profits, owning a business, earning a Kellogg MBA, or growing up and attending Highland Park schools, as much as it is what Art Kessler has committed to, for our kids, our schools, our families.

No one begged Art to pour through enormous boxes and boxes of District financial information, data, surveys, articles, and educational issues. No one coaxed him to serve as a leader on the 2.0 committee. Art has taken it all upon himself to do right by our families, to uphold his own integrity, to collaborate and develop new ideas in a completely professional way.

Our ‘house’ is a little shaky. There is mistrust, there is doubt, there is a history that we cannot erase, yet we need to move towards a solution, and a new focus to deliver a world-class education for our students.

We are losing families, in our district, as they are looking to gain access to educational opportunities where we have fallen behind, compared to our surrounding districts. The developments of curriculum to promote conceptual learning instead of old fact based learning, full-day kindergarten, world languages in the elementary schools and STEM in the elementary schools, are a large and critical part of Art’s mission, and align with my vision as a parent. We have to be competitive in order to attract new families in our neighborhoods, and in order to drive the culture of trust in our communities once again.

Every board meeting counts. We need to be able to trust the board, and the board needs to deliver in a professional way, without a personal agenda from any one member, in order to gain that trust. It is not lost on Art that the next board is going to be dealing with far more than just configurations. We will have to hire a superintendent and assistant superintendent, negotiate a union contract, and focus on furthering enhancements to our curriculum. Art and his counterparts on the board will need to deliver on much of what the community has been trying to work towards. Art shares in the belief that we should not close more buildings than is necessary, and that he will work closely with the community to get the right balance of school improvements, number of schools to close, and property tax increases.

Art Kessler fits in the role of a Board Member for our District, as an advocate for our families, and as a friend to the community.