The school board held their second board meeting of the month last Monday evening. With schools being back in person, the meeting was able to be held at the Crouse Education Center with regular attendees compared to last year when meetings were held through Zoom. The meeting overviewed current news happening in and around District 204, such as the Metea Valley girls volleyball winning state as well as student representative Liza Nadtochiy from Neuqua Valley giving a few words about upcoming finals and the rise of mental health issues in high school students. A 60 second time slot was left open for public comment in which community members spoke on the new boundary plans including the foreseen closure of Clow Elementary school. 

“Do any of us really believe the only option this district has is closing schools or the feeder system,” community member Christopher Bond said. 

One big topic of discussion was the mental health of students and lack of mental health resources in schools. With finals coming up, high school students’ stress levels tend to rise during this time due to the pressure of doing well on final exams and taking finals again in person after a year of online tests.

Students from Neuqua stepped forward to speak out about their opinions on the lack of mental health resources present in the District 204 schools. Solutions were presented by the students such as motivational posters in the hallways, or training the counselors more in the area of mental health support. 

The first step in the annual property tax expansion levy was discussed. It is an annual process that must happen by the end of December. It essentially levies a tax on the real property within the district to support its public schools. With that comes the discussion of the high property taxes in Illinois, board member Mark Rising said that the reason Illinois property taxes are so high is because Illinois funds education 50th in the United States which in turn pushes that burden on to IL tax payers. 

The meeting ended on the discussion of the overview of the 2021 summer learning opportunities.Deputy Superintendent Doug Eccarius spoke on the positive feedback they received from families with students involved in the programs.