avik kumar das
New trier township high school district 203
personal statement
Please tell us something about yourself and what would make you an asset to the D203 Board.
My wife and I both grew up in Glenview, but we met each other in college at Northwestern University. We have a daughter who is a Freshman at New Trier and another daughter who is a fourth grader at Avoca West.
I believe that successful childhoods lead to successful neighborhoods. Serving on the school board would allow me to contribute to the success of our schools, and ultimately our youth and communities.
To this work I bring many years of being an active parent volunteer in various school and civic activities. I also bring over twenty years of public service experience, serving the youth and communities of Chicago and Cook County as a Juvenile Probation Officer. Over the past six years, I have served as the head of the probation department, with over 300 employees and over a $40 million public budget. I am eager to bring to the board my experiences in a large public system, being accountable to the public taxpayer, crafting responsible solutions to challenging problems. I am also a licensed attorney, a trained restorative justice circle keeper, a University of Chicago Civic Leadership Academy Fellow, and thus bring both academic and practical perspective to this work.
With your support I will work hard to ensure our schools remain springboards of excellence for our children and wellsprings of fellowship for our community.
My wife and I both grew up in Glenview, but we met each other in college at Northwestern University. We have a daughter who is a Freshman at New Trier and another daughter who is a fourth grader at Avoca West.
I believe that successful childhoods lead to successful neighborhoods. Serving on the school board would allow me to contribute to the success of our schools, and ultimately our youth and communities.
To this work I bring many years of being an active parent volunteer in various school and civic activities. I also bring over twenty years of public service experience, serving the youth and communities of Chicago and Cook County as a Juvenile Probation Officer. Over the past six years, I have served as the head of the probation department, with over 300 employees and over a $40 million public budget. I am eager to bring to the board my experiences in a large public system, being accountable to the public taxpayer, crafting responsible solutions to challenging problems. I am also a licensed attorney, a trained restorative justice circle keeper, a University of Chicago Civic Leadership Academy Fellow, and thus bring both academic and practical perspective to this work.
With your support I will work hard to ensure our schools remain springboards of excellence for our children and wellsprings of fellowship for our community.
responses to voter guide questions
1. What do you hope to accomplish as a D203 Board member? Please explain why these goals are priorities for you.
2. What are your financial priorities for D203 and how will you ensure they are implemented?
As an administrator of a large public service agency in Cook County with over 300 employees and a public budget over $40 million, I have a demonstrated commitment to being efficient and sufficient with public resources, in a manner that taxpayers can rely upon as being transparent and responsible. I would carry this experience stewarding public resources onto the D203 board, calling upon the administration and relevant stakeholders to map what financial ground, if any, has been lost to the pandemic.
Utilizing the board’s pre-existing governance structure for reviewing financial matters, I would focus our analysis on how framework #6 of the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan (Finance, Facilities, and Human Resources) and the 15-year Facilities Plan can remain intact or be subject to revision based upon our current fiscal outlook. I anticipate that the board will continue to face difficult decisions concerning investments in both infrastructure (physical and virtual) and personnel. In the face of such challenges, I would work with my fellow board members to thoughtfully craft responsible fiscal solutions that ensure the best experiences for our students and faculty.
3. Identify successes and/or failures you have seen in D203’s COVID-19 response, as well as any changes you would like to see while the pandemic continues.
I commend the many D203 stakeholders, including current board members, for their good faith efforts to craft and implement a pandemic response. It is clear to me that these efforts are akin to “building the plane while flying it;” recognizing that what is needed to succeed day-to-day may change depending on current conditions. Taking time-sensitive actions is often unavoidable, even with incomplete information to guide critical decisions. I can relate to this challenge as I face it daily in my role as the head of a large public service agency that serves justice-involved youth and families within our court system. Ultimately, I would hold D203’s pandemic to the standards I have held myself: our response should be purpose-based, human-centered, highly flexible, highly productive, and highly accountable.
4. What are your priorities for D203 annual strategic planning during your term?
Pandemic conditions demand board vigilance on the annual progress, or lack thereof, within each of the 6 frameworks of the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan. However, with that overall focus, I would prioritize making progress in areas of community engagement (framework #5) and student personal growth, engagement and well being (framework #2). I believe these two frameworks are not only interrelated but also very timely in the current, and at least the next two academic years insofar as the impact of the pandemic will require significant input and feedback from our students, faculty, and community.
5. How will you work to align D203’s practices with the NT2030 Culture, Climate and Equity framework, and how broadly should these efforts reach?
I support coordinated school and community efforts to inspire and cultivate in our young people the courage and capacity to recognize and respect individual differences in opinion and identity, while safeguarding the humanity and dignity of every person. Therefore, I support the aspirations reflected in this framework as a catalyst to make the communities of New Trier Township, both in and out of our schools, a model for the nation for welcoming, and inclusion.
- Post Pandemic Healing and Recovery: The various constituencies of D203 identified in framework #5 of the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan (Community Engagement, Partnerships, and Governance) continue to navigate unprecedented, pandemic-related challenges. I believe board members play a critical role in providing space and voice for these constituencies to constructively exchange common and unique experiences had during this prolonged period of crisis and uncertainty. These exchanges would be grounded in honoring individual and collective experiences of trauma and resilience with an eye towards crafting a shared narrative of wisdom that would inform how D203 would move forward together in the pandemic’s aftermath, in a manner that remains consistent with the 6 frameworks of the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan
- Virtual Learning Infrastructure: Although the use of online/remote learning techniques and technology in D203 and across the country predates the current pandemic, the current academic year has tested the scope and limitations of virtual learning beyond the physical footprint of our school campuses. The D203 Board and Administration must understand how today’s online learning dynamic may evolve into a long-term part of our “facilities” in ways that align with all 6 frameworks of the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan. While in-person learning environments and strategies to ensure in-person education experiences remain paramount and optimal for myriad reasons; virtual/remote learning strategies are not only proving to be necessary in emergencies, but also serving as a useful supplementary tool to on-site learning that keeps diverse students engaged with coursework.
- Accountability to and Connection with Feeder Districts and Empty Nesters: At any given time, most D203 households/taxpayers have no students active in the high school. Moreover, D203 is somewhat unique in that the high school serves students/households that come from 6 different feeder districts, and other private school systems. Understanding the value and expectations these households have in a NT high school experience is necessary to ensure our high school is responsive to current and prospective students and families. Accountability to feeder district households, includes for example, alignment between the experiences of older siblings in high school with younger siblings in elementary and middle school; ensuring experiences across grades are not in conflict, but rather reflect a coherent K thru 12 experience as much as possible. Households of NT alums or with no students in feeder districts or NT-area private schools, provide an additional layer of accountability for the D203 Board and Administration. These taxpayers can speak to their expectations or level of satisfaction with NTHS. Indeed, they serve as invaluable ambassadors to the NT community, providing critical context and guidance to incoming NTHS families. Thus, the D203 Board will be well served in advancing the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan by ensuring broad stakeholder engagement when helping our administration craft the experience of our current and future high school students.
2. What are your financial priorities for D203 and how will you ensure they are implemented?
As an administrator of a large public service agency in Cook County with over 300 employees and a public budget over $40 million, I have a demonstrated commitment to being efficient and sufficient with public resources, in a manner that taxpayers can rely upon as being transparent and responsible. I would carry this experience stewarding public resources onto the D203 board, calling upon the administration and relevant stakeholders to map what financial ground, if any, has been lost to the pandemic.
Utilizing the board’s pre-existing governance structure for reviewing financial matters, I would focus our analysis on how framework #6 of the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan (Finance, Facilities, and Human Resources) and the 15-year Facilities Plan can remain intact or be subject to revision based upon our current fiscal outlook. I anticipate that the board will continue to face difficult decisions concerning investments in both infrastructure (physical and virtual) and personnel. In the face of such challenges, I would work with my fellow board members to thoughtfully craft responsible fiscal solutions that ensure the best experiences for our students and faculty.
3. Identify successes and/or failures you have seen in D203’s COVID-19 response, as well as any changes you would like to see while the pandemic continues.
I commend the many D203 stakeholders, including current board members, for their good faith efforts to craft and implement a pandemic response. It is clear to me that these efforts are akin to “building the plane while flying it;” recognizing that what is needed to succeed day-to-day may change depending on current conditions. Taking time-sensitive actions is often unavoidable, even with incomplete information to guide critical decisions. I can relate to this challenge as I face it daily in my role as the head of a large public service agency that serves justice-involved youth and families within our court system. Ultimately, I would hold D203’s pandemic to the standards I have held myself: our response should be purpose-based, human-centered, highly flexible, highly productive, and highly accountable.
4. What are your priorities for D203 annual strategic planning during your term?
Pandemic conditions demand board vigilance on the annual progress, or lack thereof, within each of the 6 frameworks of the New Trier 2030 Strategic Plan. However, with that overall focus, I would prioritize making progress in areas of community engagement (framework #5) and student personal growth, engagement and well being (framework #2). I believe these two frameworks are not only interrelated but also very timely in the current, and at least the next two academic years insofar as the impact of the pandemic will require significant input and feedback from our students, faculty, and community.
5. How will you work to align D203’s practices with the NT2030 Culture, Climate and Equity framework, and how broadly should these efforts reach?
I support coordinated school and community efforts to inspire and cultivate in our young people the courage and capacity to recognize and respect individual differences in opinion and identity, while safeguarding the humanity and dignity of every person. Therefore, I support the aspirations reflected in this framework as a catalyst to make the communities of New Trier Township, both in and out of our schools, a model for the nation for welcoming, and inclusion.