WEBVTT
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Jonak, Cook shared different views for future of Kane Roe. This
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article is being read by an automated voice, brought to you by
00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:21.800
Everlet. The two candidates for superintendent of the Kane County regional office
00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:27.070
of Education in the November 3rd general election are both teachers. Incumbent
00:00:27.070 --> 00:00:32.030
Republican John Jonick, a former history teacher and Challenger Democrat Jerry Cook,
00:00:32.190 --> 00:00:36.030
a former civics teacher, presented their views for the regional office at
00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:40.350
a September 23 candidate forum at Batavia City Hall, sponsored by the
00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:44.640
League of Women Voters of Central Kane County. Most people have never
00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:49.040
really heard of this office before, Jonick said. It licenses and background
00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:53.600
checks thousands of educators a year. It inspects every public school building
00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:58.880
in the county. It serves public and non-public schools through professional learning.
00:00:59.140 --> 00:01:03.780
The office also runs the Juvenile Justice Center School along with alternative
00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:07.620
programs. It also has outreach workers who seek children who have stopped
00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:12.190
coming to school, Jonick said. It's an operational office in service of
00:01:12.190 --> 00:01:16.590
our communities, and it is not a politician, one, Jonak said. Fifteen
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months ago the Kane County Board appointed me unanimously to lead. Jonic
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said the office put all nine of the county school districts in
00:01:25.030 --> 00:01:31.230
reunification training. I'm an educator, not a politician, Jonak said. Cook, a
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former principal at Elgin High School in District U forty six, Wheeling
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Township High School in District 14, and most recently of East Aurora
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District 131, said. He takes his civic responsibility seriously. That's why
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when I saw this position was running unopposed after primary uh as
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it has for more than a decade, I decided to throw my
00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.960
what into the ring, Cook said Democracy depends upon people having a
00:01:56.960 --> 00:01:59.760
choice in elections, and I want to give the citizens of Kane
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County that opportunity. To a question about what the office should be
00:02:04.270 --> 00:02:08.590
doing and what it should stop doing, Jonathan there is confusion about
00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:13.360
what the Regional Office does. We have over one hundred seven thousand
00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:17.520
students, we have nine thousand six hundred plus educators, and we have
00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:23.080
our non public schools, Jonak said. Licensing educators and running background checks
00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:27.940
are tied to safety, Jonix said. I believe right now the Kane
00:02:27.940 --> 00:02:31.620
County Regional Office of Education is doing more than any other regional
00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:36.750
office of education, Jonax said. Cook agreed that most people don't know
00:02:36.750 --> 00:02:41.260
the position exists. When I even approached the political party to get
00:02:41.260 --> 00:02:43.980
on They slate, I had a lot of people ask me, like,
00:02:44.140 --> 00:02:47.790
what do you do? Cook said. So in terms of what do
00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:51.070
we need to do better as a regional office of education, it
00:02:51.070 --> 00:02:51.790
is really To
00:02:51.790 --> 00:02:55.310
be more visible and let people know all of the services we
00:02:55.310 --> 00:02:59.390
provide, Cook said I have to give kudos to the current superintendent.
00:02:59.550 --> 00:03:03.250
The put out an excellent newsletter and website. But Cook
00:03:03.250 --> 00:03:07.550
said. The newsletter is targeted toward educators. We need to be a
00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:12.030
better service to the entire community, because we do benefit private businesses,
00:03:12.190 --> 00:03:17.610
homeowners, taxpayers, Cook said. To a question about what they biggest causes
00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:20.090
of chronic absenteeism are and what they
00:03:20.090 --> 00:03:24.810
could do to improve attendance. Cook that, as he was principal of
00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:28.250
high schools at the northern and southern portions of the county, he
00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:32.950
saw school that struggled with attendance. Truancy was our number one issue,
00:03:33.190 --> 00:03:37.270
Cook said. Most of the causes in my experience related really to
00:03:37.270 --> 00:03:41.190
Mental Health and economic factors. A lot of kids were missing school
00:03:41.190 --> 00:03:44.390
because they had to stay home with little brothers or sisters, or
00:03:44.390 --> 00:03:48.680
they had to take people to the hospital to doctors appointments. One
00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:51.640
thing the could do better as a community, Cook said, is to
00:03:51.640 --> 00:03:57.650
provide wraparound services to address larger systemic issues. For Jonak the
00:03:57.650 --> 00:04:01.330
office has gone to local school board meetings and met with community
00:04:01.330 --> 00:04:05.090
leaders in the last few months. I felt very strongly about being
00:04:05.090 --> 00:04:08.530
able to speak at the Youth Voices Mental Health Forum, Jonick said.
00:04:08.770 --> 00:04:12.530
Students were telling us about the anxiety and stresses that the feel
00:04:12.530 --> 00:04:16.050
in the current community. We have one in four Illinois students that
00:04:16.050 --> 00:04:20.450
are chronically absent every day. We have attendance that is the earliest
00:04:20.450 --> 00:04:25.080
sign that our kids need something else. The office has outreach workers
00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:29.720
that meet with parents and students, Jonex said. We are also partnering
00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:34.730
to build certain resilience and make school more engaging, Jonuck said. To
00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:39.610
a question about how the office would measure the success of Alternative
00:04:39.610 --> 00:04:43.210
and the Regional Safe Schools Program in getting students back on track,
00:04:43.450 --> 00:04:48.410
Jonak said the professional learning and truancy department work with the districts
00:04:48.410 --> 00:04:53.020
and liaisons to determine whether these programs are working. One of the
00:04:53.020 --> 00:04:56.540
things that we're finding is that there's more and more students going
00:04:56.540 --> 00:05:02.780
into ALUPS, Alternative Learning Opportunities Programs environment, Jonak said. Quite
00:05:02.780 --> 00:05:06.380
frankly, if they are succeeding and they are in an alternative learning
00:05:06.380 --> 00:05:07.340
environment, the
00:05:07.340 --> 00:05:12.880
keep continuing. Cook said his first administrative role was as an assistant
00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:17.200
principal at an alternative school in U forty six. While there he
00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:21.120
realized that students, regardless of how challenging the may be in a
00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:26.300
classroom, are all motivated and all very intelligent. It made me realize
00:05:26.300 --> 00:05:31.260
that our schools are a one-size-fits-all approach to education. That doesn't meet
00:05:31.260 --> 00:05:34.460
the needs for all students, Cook said. How I would measure the
00:05:34.460 --> 00:05:39.660
effectiveness of our alternative programs is not only your traditional metrics, graduation,
00:05:39.820 --> 00:05:45.580
attendance, graduation, matriculation, etc, but also perhaps the decline of that need.
00:05:46.020 --> 00:05:49.700
As the ROE, Cook said he would work with school districts to
00:05:49.700 --> 00:05:52.660
rethink how we do schools so that we can meet the diverse
00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:56.660
needs of all of our learners. The full recording of the candidate
00:05:56.660 --> 00:05:59.620
forum is available online at luvixeal.com.
00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:12.450
Jonak, Cook shared different views for future of Kane Roe. This
00:00:12.450 --> 00:00:15.810
article is being read by an automated voice, brought to you by
00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:21.800
Everlet. The two candidates for superintendent of the Kane County regional office
00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:27.070
of Education in the November 3rd general election are both teachers. Incumbent
00:00:27.070 --> 00:00:32.030
Republican John Jonick, a former history teacher and Challenger Democrat Jerry Cook,
00:00:32.190 --> 00:00:36.030
a former civics teacher, presented their views for the regional office at
00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:40.350
a September 23 candidate forum at Batavia City Hall, sponsored by the
00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:44.640
League of Women Voters of Central Kane County. Most people have never
00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:49.040
really heard of this office before, Jonick said. It licenses and background
00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:53.600
checks thousands of educators a year. It inspects every public school building
00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:58.880
in the county. It serves public and non-public schools through professional learning.
00:00:59.140 --> 00:01:03.780
The office also runs the Juvenile Justice Center School along with alternative
00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:07.620
programs. It also has outreach workers who seek children who have stopped
00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:12.190
coming to school, Jonick said. It's an operational office in service of
00:01:12.190 --> 00:01:16.590
our communities, and it is not a politician, one, Jonak said. Fifteen
00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:21.910
months ago the Kane County Board appointed me unanimously to lead. Jonic
00:01:21.910 --> 00:01:25.030
said the office put all nine of the county school districts in
00:01:25.030 --> 00:01:31.230
reunification training. I'm an educator, not a politician, Jonak said. Cook, a
00:01:31.230 --> 00:01:35.150
former principal at Elgin High School in District U forty six, Wheeling
00:01:35.150 --> 00:01:39.070
Township High School in District 14, and most recently of East Aurora
00:01:39.070 --> 00:01:45.200
District 131, said. He takes his civic responsibility seriously. That's why
00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:50.080
when I saw this position was running unopposed after primary uh as
00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:53.040
it has for more than a decade, I decided to throw my
00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.960
what into the ring, Cook said Democracy depends upon people having a
00:01:56.960 --> 00:01:59.760
choice in elections, and I want to give the citizens of Kane
00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:04.270
County that opportunity. To a question about what the office should be
00:02:04.270 --> 00:02:08.590
doing and what it should stop doing, Jonathan there is confusion about
00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:13.360
what the Regional Office does. We have over one hundred seven thousand
00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:17.520
students, we have nine thousand six hundred plus educators, and we have
00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:23.080
our non public schools, Jonak said. Licensing educators and running background checks
00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:27.940
are tied to safety, Jonix said. I believe right now the Kane
00:02:27.940 --> 00:02:31.620
County Regional Office of Education is doing more than any other regional
00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:36.750
office of education, Jonax said. Cook agreed that most people don't know
00:02:36.750 --> 00:02:41.260
the position exists. When I even approached the political party to get
00:02:41.260 --> 00:02:43.980
on They slate, I had a lot of people ask me, like,
00:02:44.140 --> 00:02:47.790
what do you do? Cook said. So in terms of what do
00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:51.070
we need to do better as a regional office of education, it
00:02:51.070 --> 00:02:51.790
is really To
00:02:51.790 --> 00:02:55.310
be more visible and let people know all of the services we
00:02:55.310 --> 00:02:59.390
provide, Cook said I have to give kudos to the current superintendent.
00:02:59.550 --> 00:03:03.250
The put out an excellent newsletter and website. But Cook
00:03:03.250 --> 00:03:07.550
said. The newsletter is targeted toward educators. We need to be a
00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:12.030
better service to the entire community, because we do benefit private businesses,
00:03:12.190 --> 00:03:17.610
homeowners, taxpayers, Cook said. To a question about what they biggest causes
00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:20.090
of chronic absenteeism are and what they
00:03:20.090 --> 00:03:24.810
could do to improve attendance. Cook that, as he was principal of
00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:28.250
high schools at the northern and southern portions of the county, he
00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:32.950
saw school that struggled with attendance. Truancy was our number one issue,
00:03:33.190 --> 00:03:37.270
Cook said. Most of the causes in my experience related really to
00:03:37.270 --> 00:03:41.190
Mental Health and economic factors. A lot of kids were missing school
00:03:41.190 --> 00:03:44.390
because they had to stay home with little brothers or sisters, or
00:03:44.390 --> 00:03:48.680
they had to take people to the hospital to doctors appointments. One
00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:51.640
thing the could do better as a community, Cook said, is to
00:03:51.640 --> 00:03:57.650
provide wraparound services to address larger systemic issues. For Jonak the
00:03:57.650 --> 00:04:01.330
office has gone to local school board meetings and met with community
00:04:01.330 --> 00:04:05.090
leaders in the last few months. I felt very strongly about being
00:04:05.090 --> 00:04:08.530
able to speak at the Youth Voices Mental Health Forum, Jonick said.
00:04:08.770 --> 00:04:12.530
Students were telling us about the anxiety and stresses that the feel
00:04:12.530 --> 00:04:16.050
in the current community. We have one in four Illinois students that
00:04:16.050 --> 00:04:20.450
are chronically absent every day. We have attendance that is the earliest
00:04:20.450 --> 00:04:25.080
sign that our kids need something else. The office has outreach workers
00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:29.720
that meet with parents and students, Jonex said. We are also partnering
00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:34.730
to build certain resilience and make school more engaging, Jonuck said. To
00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:39.610
a question about how the office would measure the success of Alternative
00:04:39.610 --> 00:04:43.210
and the Regional Safe Schools Program in getting students back on track,
00:04:43.450 --> 00:04:48.410
Jonak said the professional learning and truancy department work with the districts
00:04:48.410 --> 00:04:53.020
and liaisons to determine whether these programs are working. One of the
00:04:53.020 --> 00:04:56.540
things that we're finding is that there's more and more students going
00:04:56.540 --> 00:05:02.780
into ALUPS, Alternative Learning Opportunities Programs environment, Jonak said. Quite
00:05:02.780 --> 00:05:06.380
frankly, if they are succeeding and they are in an alternative learning
00:05:06.380 --> 00:05:07.340
environment, the
00:05:07.340 --> 00:05:12.880
keep continuing. Cook said his first administrative role was as an assistant
00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:17.200
principal at an alternative school in U forty six. While there he
00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:21.120
realized that students, regardless of how challenging the may be in a
00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:26.300
classroom, are all motivated and all very intelligent. It made me realize
00:05:26.300 --> 00:05:31.260
that our schools are a one-size-fits-all approach to education. That doesn't meet
00:05:31.260 --> 00:05:34.460
the needs for all students, Cook said. How I would measure the
00:05:34.460 --> 00:05:39.660
effectiveness of our alternative programs is not only your traditional metrics, graduation,
00:05:39.820 --> 00:05:45.580
attendance, graduation, matriculation, etc, but also perhaps the decline of that need.
00:05:46.020 --> 00:05:49.700
As the ROE, Cook said he would work with school districts to
00:05:49.700 --> 00:05:52.660
rethink how we do schools so that we can meet the diverse
00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:56.660
needs of all of our learners. The full recording of the candidate
00:05:56.660 --> 00:05:59.620
forum is available online at luvixeal.com.
