kimberly alcantara
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.
I have lived in Wilmette for nearly 20 years and am the mother of two NTHS graduates and one NTHS freshman. Each of my sons has had very different interests, strengths and challenges at New Trier which informs and underscores my commitment to giving back to District 203.
I am deeply committed to community volunteerism and public service. I served for two terms as an elected School Board member for Wilmette District 39, and served as the Facilities Committee Chair for six of those years. Having been a Wilmette School Board member, I understand the importance of financial management, transparency, and listening to constituents, fellow Board Members, and administrators. I have also held board positions with the League of Women Voters of Wilmette and several other community organizations.
Professionally, I am an attorney specializing in marketing, sports/entertainment, and intellectual property law. The bulk of my work involves negotiating, drafting and closing complex transactions. The skills I use in my role as an attorney lend themselves to serving on a Board. In my legal practice, I communicate professionally and civilly, manage differences of opinion, find middle ground without compromising key objectives, identify creative solutions to roadblocks, work within a budget, and pay close attention to detail.
I look forward to the opportunity to help ensure the excellence in education and responsible financial stewardship that our taxpayers, students and parents expect and deserve.
I have lived in Wilmette for nearly 20 years and am the mother of two NTHS graduates and one NTHS freshman. Each of my sons has had very different interests, strengths and challenges at New Trier which informs and underscores my commitment to giving back to District 203.
I am deeply committed to community volunteerism and public service. I served for two terms as an elected School Board member for Wilmette District 39, and served as the Facilities Committee Chair for six of those years. Having been a Wilmette School Board member, I understand the importance of financial management, transparency, and listening to constituents, fellow Board Members, and administrators. I have also held board positions with the League of Women Voters of Wilmette and several other community organizations.
Professionally, I am an attorney specializing in marketing, sports/entertainment, and intellectual property law. The bulk of my work involves negotiating, drafting and closing complex transactions. The skills I use in my role as an attorney lend themselves to serving on a Board. In my legal practice, I communicate professionally and civilly, manage differences of opinion, find middle ground without compromising key objectives, identify creative solutions to roadblocks, work within a budget, and pay close attention to detail.
I look forward to the opportunity to help ensure the excellence in education and responsible financial stewardship that our taxpayers, students and parents expect and deserve.
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?
New Trier’s various Funds are operating within budget with no referendum (capital or educational) in the foreseeable future, while maintaining a AAA bond rating. Likewise, New Trier’s Funds balances and reserve levels are at reasonable and responsible levels. That said, budget decisions must be made and/or adjusted in light of revenue variables, enrollment projections, staffing plans and needs, program evaluations and needs, technology, and building maintenance. As a Board Member, I would scrutinize the budget with great care, in consultation with fellow Board Members and Administrators, while pushing to keep spending in line given anticipated financial pressures and challenges. Such challenges and pressures include CPI rising at a lower rate than expenses, possible reductions in State funding, underfunded pension plans and a potential cost shift to local School Districts, and facilities maintenance.
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.
In the last few months of the 2020 school year, schools throughout the U.S. (including New Trier) did not have the resources or preparation to deliver effective remote instruction at scale for an extended period. By fall, New Trier’s remote instruction was vastly improved with respect to teacher preparation, technology, and administrative planning. As the parent of a freshman, I see no notable improvements that would make remote instruction and learning better for students. That said, and despite impressive remote instruction capabilities, many (if not most) students need to be in-school to perform at their best and succeed academically, socially, emotionally and mentally.
Presently, New Trier is operating with 50% student/hybrid attendance, while also continuing 100% remote learning available. As of the date of this writing, my understanding is that the State’s mandates on density within buildings render increased student attendance not viable. Within these parameters, New Trier has implemented safety measures including masks, distancing, ventilation improvements, saliva screening for students/staff/teachers, and mandatory questionnaires for parents each day that their students are on-campus. I believe the combination of these layers of safety measures best ensure the health and safety of those in-school at New Trier. I also believe the academic steps that New Trier has implemented -- with respect to grading accommodations for students that may otherwise earn failing grades -- are appropriate. New Trier’s safety measures and grading accommodations should continue until the pandemic is more comfortably behind us. In the meantime, I would like to see New Trier planning for and providing resources to address the social, emotional and mental toll that the pandemic has taken on students.
4. What are your priorities for D203 annual strategic planning during your term? [Alt: What are your priorities for D203 annual strategic planning during your term?
Current and future New Trier School Board members are fortunate to have a well-researched strategic plan to take us through 2030. I support the 2030 Strategic Plan, including goals related to: (1) intellectual growth; (2) student wellness; (3) a welcoming and inclusive school culture; (4) leadership opportunities throughout New Trier; (5) community engagement; and (6) facilities maintenance and improvement, while ensuring strong financial stewardship that demonstrates and promotes the value of a New Trier education.
Each of the core values, or “pillars”, in New Trier’s 2030 Strategic Plan is important. I am particularly interested in students’ intellectual engagement and growth. Key goals that I would like to see achieved include ensuring students’ exposure to a broad, comprehensive and inter-disciplinary curriculum to develop critical thinking skills that prepare them for future challenges and opportunities. In doing so, students will learn to connect concepts and innovative ways of thinking across disciplines, and will be prepared to engage in an impactful, meaningful, and compassionate life.
I also have a keen interest in maintaining and improving facilities in a fiscally responsible manner. Placing expensive and short-term band-aids on aging, unsafe and deteriorating facilities is not cost-efficient or responsible in the long run. My guide in connection with facilities would be New Trier’s 15-Year Facilities Framework.
Once goals are met within New Trier’s Strategic Plan, I believe results need to be measured, analyzed, improved and continuously monitored.
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 (e.g., curriculum, special programming, hiring)?
Per New Trier’s Strategic Plan, I am aligned with the goal of establishing a welcoming culture of diversity and inclusion at New Trier. All students should feel comfortable and welcomed at school, in an atmosphere that fosters civility, curiosity and respect. To accomplish this, New Trier students must learn to consider and appreciate different opinions and perspectives. In implementing the climate, culture, diversity and inclusion goals in the Strategic Plan, students will be exposed to and comfortable learning about experiences and viewpoints that are not familiar. These efforts will facilitate New Trier students becoming productive, analytical and empathetic members of society.
My understanding is that New Trier has taken steps toward achieving climate, culture, diversity and inclusion goals, including with respect to staff recruitment and retention, restorative justice efforts, encouragement of affinity groups, and curriculum that reflects both a mirror of New Trier students and a window into different world experiences. That said, I believe New Trier has more to do in order to create an environment in which each student’s needs are met and in which every student feels they belong. I look forward to participating in New Trier’s efforts to achieve its stated goals in this regard.
- Adopt a fiscally-responsible budget that takes into consideration potential future pension obligations, and manage taxpayer funds in a judicious, scrutinizing and thoughtful manner. Acting as a responsible financial steward is a baseline priority and commitment to taxpayers;
- Implementing NT’s 2030 Strategic Plan, focused on: (1) critical thinking; (2) intellectual growth and well-being; (3) diverse experiences and perspectives; (4) leadership; and (5) community engagement, service and interpersonal connections;
- Maintain and improve facilities, including modernization of classrooms, improvement of athletic spaces, maintenance of mechanical and infrastructure systems, and facility-related safety and security measures, all of which to be balanced with effective and fiscally-responsible use of revenue sources;
- Improve communications with all constituents in New Trier Township; and
- Respond to unexpected issues and crises in a measured and effective manner.
2. What are your financial priorities for D203 and how will you ensure they are implemented?
New Trier’s various Funds are operating within budget with no referendum (capital or educational) in the foreseeable future, while maintaining a AAA bond rating. Likewise, New Trier’s Funds balances and reserve levels are at reasonable and responsible levels. That said, budget decisions must be made and/or adjusted in light of revenue variables, enrollment projections, staffing plans and needs, program evaluations and needs, technology, and building maintenance. As a Board Member, I would scrutinize the budget with great care, in consultation with fellow Board Members and Administrators, while pushing to keep spending in line given anticipated financial pressures and challenges. Such challenges and pressures include CPI rising at a lower rate than expenses, possible reductions in State funding, underfunded pension plans and a potential cost shift to local School Districts, and facilities maintenance.
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.
In the last few months of the 2020 school year, schools throughout the U.S. (including New Trier) did not have the resources or preparation to deliver effective remote instruction at scale for an extended period. By fall, New Trier’s remote instruction was vastly improved with respect to teacher preparation, technology, and administrative planning. As the parent of a freshman, I see no notable improvements that would make remote instruction and learning better for students. That said, and despite impressive remote instruction capabilities, many (if not most) students need to be in-school to perform at their best and succeed academically, socially, emotionally and mentally.
Presently, New Trier is operating with 50% student/hybrid attendance, while also continuing 100% remote learning available. As of the date of this writing, my understanding is that the State’s mandates on density within buildings render increased student attendance not viable. Within these parameters, New Trier has implemented safety measures including masks, distancing, ventilation improvements, saliva screening for students/staff/teachers, and mandatory questionnaires for parents each day that their students are on-campus. I believe the combination of these layers of safety measures best ensure the health and safety of those in-school at New Trier. I also believe the academic steps that New Trier has implemented -- with respect to grading accommodations for students that may otherwise earn failing grades -- are appropriate. New Trier’s safety measures and grading accommodations should continue until the pandemic is more comfortably behind us. In the meantime, I would like to see New Trier planning for and providing resources to address the social, emotional and mental toll that the pandemic has taken on students.
4. What are your priorities for D203 annual strategic planning during your term? [Alt: What are your priorities for D203 annual strategic planning during your term?
Current and future New Trier School Board members are fortunate to have a well-researched strategic plan to take us through 2030. I support the 2030 Strategic Plan, including goals related to: (1) intellectual growth; (2) student wellness; (3) a welcoming and inclusive school culture; (4) leadership opportunities throughout New Trier; (5) community engagement; and (6) facilities maintenance and improvement, while ensuring strong financial stewardship that demonstrates and promotes the value of a New Trier education.
Each of the core values, or “pillars”, in New Trier’s 2030 Strategic Plan is important. I am particularly interested in students’ intellectual engagement and growth. Key goals that I would like to see achieved include ensuring students’ exposure to a broad, comprehensive and inter-disciplinary curriculum to develop critical thinking skills that prepare them for future challenges and opportunities. In doing so, students will learn to connect concepts and innovative ways of thinking across disciplines, and will be prepared to engage in an impactful, meaningful, and compassionate life.
I also have a keen interest in maintaining and improving facilities in a fiscally responsible manner. Placing expensive and short-term band-aids on aging, unsafe and deteriorating facilities is not cost-efficient or responsible in the long run. My guide in connection with facilities would be New Trier’s 15-Year Facilities Framework.
Once goals are met within New Trier’s Strategic Plan, I believe results need to be measured, analyzed, improved and continuously monitored.
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 (e.g., curriculum, special programming, hiring)?
Per New Trier’s Strategic Plan, I am aligned with the goal of establishing a welcoming culture of diversity and inclusion at New Trier. All students should feel comfortable and welcomed at school, in an atmosphere that fosters civility, curiosity and respect. To accomplish this, New Trier students must learn to consider and appreciate different opinions and perspectives. In implementing the climate, culture, diversity and inclusion goals in the Strategic Plan, students will be exposed to and comfortable learning about experiences and viewpoints that are not familiar. These efforts will facilitate New Trier students becoming productive, analytical and empathetic members of society.
My understanding is that New Trier has taken steps toward achieving climate, culture, diversity and inclusion goals, including with respect to staff recruitment and retention, restorative justice efforts, encouragement of affinity groups, and curriculum that reflects both a mirror of New Trier students and a window into different world experiences. That said, I believe New Trier has more to do in order to create an environment in which each student’s needs are met and in which every student feels they belong. I look forward to participating in New Trier’s efforts to achieve its stated goals in this regard.