Nine years is generally a long time to have served on a board of education.
But when you add two-year stints as secretary, vice president and most recently president for River Forest District 90, as Stacey Williams did, those nine years might seem a lot longer.
But she loved them all, and now that she’s stepping away from the board presidency, she’s had time to think.
“It felt like nine years was long enough, and I think the board needs fresh thinking,” she said. “Our community benefits from fresh thinking over time. We’re lucky because we’re in a community where people are engaged.”
Katie Avalos is replacing Williams as board president. Newly elected board members are Katie Bevan, Josh Ehart and Beth Vlerick.
All three schools in the district – Lincoln Elementary, Willard Elementary and Roosevelt Middle School – were designated Exemplary in the annual Illinois Report Card 2023-24 made public last October.
Exemplary schools are those that rank in the top 10% of the state, while Commendable schools rank in the next 67%.
“Our schools are among the top in the state, and as a board member, I can’t take credit for that,” she said. “That is teachers and administrators in collaboration with the board.
“I think I’ve tried really hard to maintain a high-functioning board, so our meetings are productive and doing our job of governance of District 90. I think that is the role of the board president.”
Williams and her husband, Mark, had two children attend District 90 schools. The oldest, Mark, who graduated from Roosevelt in 2018, is a junior at Santa Clara University in California studying engineering. Their daughter, Gabrielle, Roosevelt class of 2020, is a freshman at Yale.
When the youngsters were in first grade, she had schedule flexibility to be able to participate in Lincoln’s Center Time, a volunteer role that helps teachers. From there, she served on the PTO, the superintendent’s Inclusiveness Advisory Board, and then the district’s strategic planning committee.
In 2016, a board member departed and that opened up a new opportunity for Williams.
“When they were interviewing I decided to give it a try and I was fortunately selected, and I enjoyed it,” she said.
Soon, her children would graduate and head on to St. Ignatius for high school.
Shortly after that, in March 2020, came the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I guess it was surreal,” she said of those days. “It was unlike anything we had experienced before. Early reports about the virus, understanding what was happening, keeping an eye on it. ‘We’ll just have an extended spring break,’ but it didn’t happen that way.”
The board had recently passed a resolution regarding an e-learning plan, so “pivoting was a little bit easier,” she said. “We weren’t entirely off guard.”
The next year, 2021, was a board election year, which presented a new challenge, from the standpoint that everything was virtual – election events, candidate forums, meet and greets. But she still won.
These days, the pandemic feels like a long time ago, and Williams would rather focus on the now. She’s planning on serving on other nonprofit boards, for one, but her long history with the District 90 board means she’ll have an eye on what’s going on.
What are the biggest issues Avalos and the new board will face?
“Over time, obviously, finances,” Williams said. “A significant portion of money comes from property taxes, and the bulk of our spending is on teachers and staff, which gives you little flexibility in what you can do.
“I think that will be one of the biggest challenges for the board. You want to give your kids everything, but you can’t give them everything. You have to make choices. Politically, that’s every school board across America.”
As for the newly elected board members, Williams implored them to focus on learning.
“I think once you sit around the table, it’s different,” she said. “You’re governing the entire school district. Everyone in the district are our constituents. There is a lot of learning to be done in the beginning.”