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For 20 years I have watched District 86 school boards achieve great things for students by working cohesively with administration and the community, and I have watched utter chaos full of divisive bickering, power grabs and ignoring administrative requests, community input or both. The key factors that seem to lead to one outcome or the other are the board members’ willingness to be totally transparent and inclusive of all relevant parties through the decision-making process, as well as their insistence that proposals and d...
I believe that Mark Pinnow would be a valuable asset to the District 86 Board of Education. He would bring collaboration and an evidence based approach to the board and he is a much needed voice of reason. Mark has a strong business background, and he knows that goals need to be measured against benchmarks to make sure that we reach them. The district is facing a lot of change right now, from getting the back in school to major curriculum changes. We need someone who can work with the administration to come up with...
D86 is at a crossroads. The last 18 months have brought changes and challenges to the district that have negatively impacted the educational delivery and experiences of all the students and the ability of the community to have meaningful engagement with the school board on critical issues. Beyond the impact on our kids, these changes likely will have long-term implications on our property values. Many of us moved to this district for its strong academic excellence. Families who once moved here because it was a lighthouse...
The Hinsdalean offered its endorsements for library and school board candidates in the March 11 and 18 issues. The races for Hinsdale village president and village board and the four-year terms on the Community Consolidated District 181 Board are uncontested. Our recommendations, recapped below, and all election coverage is available on our website at https://www.thehinsdalean.com. Click on the Decision 2021 logo. Hinsdale Public Library Board ✔︎ Mary Bock ✔︎ Amy Glynn ✔︎ Kristin McDaniel ✔︎ Richard Munson Ryan Trombly Di...
I am writing in support of Debbie Levinthal for the District 86 Board of Education. I’m a 17-year Hinsdale resident and parent of two students at Hinsdale Central High School. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Debbie on several school-related projects, and I believe she would be an incredibly valuable addition to the D86 Board. Debbie is committed to high-quality education and student success. Debbie is curious, actively engaged with district initiatives and eager to participate in advancing student learning and saf...
Board of education members are elected officials responsible for carrying out and executing, through policy, the collective demand of the community they represent. The recent Hinsdalean endorsement of the current District 86 BOE president is not aligned with the mindset and expectations of residents from the seven towns that feed into D86. As a flagrant attempt to stifle engagement with the community, BOE President Camden moved public comments, an agenda item mandated by the Illinois Open Meetings Act, from the beginning to...
Concerns over science and math curriculum changes in Hinsdale High School District 86 have become a focal point in the Tuesday, April 6, election for school board members. Three incumbents and seven challengers are running for four open seats on the board. Generally speaking, incumbents support the changes and challengers oppose them. This Q & A presents both detractors’ objections and the district’s positions, as articulated by Chris Covino, assistant superintendent for curriculum. What was the impetus for changing the scien...
Corrections Tamakia “TJ” Edwards’ first name was misspelled in the endorsements for Hinsdale High School District 86 Board on Page 11 of last week’s issue. Michael Martin, an uncontested candidate for the Community Consolidated District 181 Board, went to DePauw University. His alma mater was incorrectly identified on Page 5 of last week’s issue....
16 Hinsdale residents have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week. The DuPage County Health Department reported 174 new cases, and the Cook County Health Department reported four new cases. That brings the total number of reported cases in the village to 1,685, up from 1,507 last week. Amita Hinsdale Hospital had four confirmed COVID-19 patients and three patients awaiting test results on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. Community Consolidated District 181 reported seven new cases from March 17-23, all of which...
The Hinsdale Village Board, Community Consolidated District 181 Board and Hinsdale High School District 86 Board are not scheduled to meet the week of March 29 to April 2....
✔︎ Kevin Camden ✔︎ Tamakia “TJ” Edwards ✔︎ Debbie Levinthal ✔︎ Jeff Waters Justin Baron Peggy James Mark Pinnow Karen Shannon Marty Turek Terri Walker Voters will elect four individuals to serve on the Hinsdale High School District 86 Board on Tuesday, April 6. The past year has been a difficult one for school districts, and D86 is no exception. The district’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, science and math curriculum changes and communication are three subjects on which the current board has been criticized. Dissatisfact...
For the first time in more than a year, Hinsdale High School District 86 is poised to welcome students back to regular five-day in-person instruction on April 5, the day after spring break. At the March 11 board meeting, Superintendent Tammy Prentiss reported that the Illinois State Board of Education and Illinois Department of Public Health last week revised social distancing parameters to 3 to 6 feet in classrooms when everyone is masked and the teacher is fully vaccinated....
I hope you will join me in supporting Terri Walker in her candidacy for the District 86 Board of Education. Terri is very invested in our schools as she has two children within their walls. She will listen to both sides of the argument then make a sound judgment for our children. Our sons are in school together and I have witnessed her behavior firsthand. She is level headed and seeks out information before making an opinion of the situation. There are at times hot topics that push people to the extreme level. Terri will...
As the son of a long-time District 86 educator, a District 86 alum, current D86 parent and former Illinois state senator, I have a profound respect for the importance of local elections, and perhaps none is more underrated in its impact for an entire community than a school board election. On April 6, District 86 voters have an opportunity to significantly impact our community. A critical issue of this election concerns the current board’s passage of what I believe are radical changes to our historically excellent science, t...
One hundred and fifty-four Hinsdale residents have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week. The DuPage County Health Department reported 150 new cases, and the Cook County Health Department reported four new cases. That brings the total number of reported cases in the village to 1,507, up from 1,353 last week. Amita Hinsdale Hospital had four confirmed COVID-19 patients and no patients awaiting test results on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. Community Consolidated District 181 reported 13 new cases from March 10-16,...
Hinsdale High School District 86 Board 6 p.m. Thursday, March 25 Hinsdale South High School 7401 S. Clarendon Hills Road, Darien https://d86.hinsdale86.org...
Hinsdale High School District 86 Among other business March 11, board members: • listened to a presentation from members of the strategic plan team examining student growth and achievement on developing a common grading scale in the district. Among the items advanced was eliminating “zeros” out of concerns that they promote inaccuracies and misconceptions about student understanding. Students would instead be assessed a failing grade for not doing work, but encouraged to persist with coursework after an assignment is misse...
✔︎ Margaret Kleber Christine Dannhausen-Brun Incumbent Margie Kleber and challenger Christine Dannhausen-Brun are vying for the two-year seat on the Community Consolidated District 181 Board. We endorse Kleber to complete the term of Bill Merchantz, who resigned in February 2020. Dannhausen-Brun is a strong candidate and we have no doubt she would be a constructive board member. Her voluminous resume of service activities demonstrates a deep appreciation for the community and a heart to give back. She clearly follows dev...
✔︎ Margaret Kleber Christine Dannhausen-Brun Incumbent Margie Kleber and challenger Christine Dannhausen-Brun are vying for the two-year seat on the Community Consolidated District 181 Board. We endorse Kleber to complete the term of Bill Merchantz, who resigned in February 2020. Dannhausen-Brun is a strong candidate and we have no doubt she would be a constructive board member. Her voluminous resume of service activities demonstrates a deep appreciation for the community and a heart to give back. She clearly follows dev...
I am writing to express my enthusiastic support of Debbie Levinthal for the District 86 Board of Education. I’ve known Debbie for 10 years. The first time I heard Debbie speak was at a parent meeting for our children’s preschool. I remember being blown away by her articulate advocacy about food allergy precautions in the classroom. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Debbie on school-related committees. I’ve also sought her opinion on various education topics. Debbie has served as a guide for me as I navig...
I strongly support Jeff Waters and Peggy James for the Hinsdale High School District 86 Board. Jeff and Peggy will bring much needed good governance to the school board. Our high school is the gem of our community. It is widely regarded as one of the best high schools in Illinois, and we need to ensure that remains the case. School board decisions not only affect the quality of our children’s education, they also affect home values, which are directly tied to the quality of our schools. A top quality high school must have a...
I am writing to share my enthusiastic support for Debbie Levinthal for the District 86 Board of Education this April. Debbie is a dear family friend, respected neighbor and an amazingly caring mother to four wonderful children, two of whom currently attend Hinsdale Central. When first meeting Debbie years ago, it was a comical turn of events when my husband recognized her as his algebra II and trigonometry teacher from New Trier High School. From my husband’s personal experience, I quickly learned that Debbie was an e...
I am extremely pleased to support Debbie Levinthal, candidate for the District 86 Board, and in my view, one of the original advocates for maintaining academic excellence in our district. She has been “part of the conversation” since 2019 when the first of the high school curriculum changes was proposed for the science program. Months later, when a new math curriculum was presented, Debbie did extensive research on the proposal and proactively reached out to district administrators to advocate against this curriculum cha...
