kimberley alcantara
new trier high school Board
candidate video
responses to voter guide questions
Introduction:
Please tell us about yourself, your qualifications, and what prompted you to run for School Board?
My husband and I moved to New Trier Township over 20 years ago. I am a strong supporter of public education, and all three our children graduated from New Trier High School (Classes of 2016, 2018 and 2024). Each of our children took advantage of very different courses and extracurricular activities at NTHS, and had varied interests and challenges while at NTHS. I attribute a great deal of their post-high school successes to their experiences at New Trier. Currently, I am a New Trier School Board member (elected in 2021), which I see as a way of giving back to the students, families, and residents of District 203.
I am deeply committed to volunteerism, having served in various capacities on PTA/PTO boards, local community boards, and for two terms as an elected school board member for Wilmette District 39 (2009- 2017). As a New Trier Board Member, I have served on the Community Relations Committee, the Policy Committee, the Facilities Committee, and as the Board Liaison for the NTPA and the New Trier Fine Arts Association (NTFAA). I also served as the Board representative on New Trier’s negotiating team for its collective bargaining agreement with the Physical Plant Services Association.
Professionally, I am an attorney. I have practiced law in law firms and also in corporate in-house positions. My legal practice involves negotiating and finalizing complex commercial transactions in the area of marketing and intellectual property law. My clients are generally large organizations, with my role requiring project oversight and budget responsibilities. With my varied practice and work experience over 30 years, I am skilled in communicating professionally and civilly, managing different opinions, finding middle ground without compromising key objectives, identifying solutions when facing roadblocks, working within a budget, and paying close attention to detail – each of which are skills that contribute to my productivity as a School Board member.
I believe my connections as a parent and resident within New Trier Township, my community volunteerism, and my professional experience contributes to my effective service on the Board of Education for New Trier High School and I look forward to continuing serving as a School Board Member for New Trier Township High School if re-elected on April 1, 2025.
Questions:
1. What do you see as the main priorities and challenges for the incoming school board?A top priority for the School Board and the District is to continue providing high quality education while being fiscally responsible to residents of New Trier Township. I am dedicated to public education with the goal of academic excellence for all students while also fostering a sense of belonging within New Trier High School.
New Trier’s strategic plan embraces the idea that a student’s personal growth is most effective when a student reflects and thinks critically to make choices. For New Trier students to best attain critical thinking skills, I believe a key focus should be on fostering a learning environment centered on civil discourse and respect for a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives. Students need to be able to make logical arguments in which evidence leads to a conclusion, and how to test those arguments for validity, soundness, strength, and weakness.
2. What are your financial goals and concerns for D203 and how would you work to address them?
New Trier has been fiscally responsible, with a AAA bond rating. That said, New Trier’s tax levy is limited to the lesser of CPI or 5%, and CPI is lower than the increasing rate of New Trier’s expenses for line items such as health insurance, facilities maintenance, and construction. Likewise, we must be mindful of underfunded pension plans, the potential for a cost shift to local districts, and very little (and possibly decreasing) financial support from State and/or Federal government. Financial pressures on New Trier’s budget must be top-of-mind at all times, with the intent and purpose of maintaining a balanced budget. As a Board Member, I recognize that achieving the important goals set out in New Trier’s 2030 Strategic Plan depends on a stable budget and using existing resources for implementation. As a financial steward of New Trier High School, I will be vigilant in using taxpayer funds judiciously and thoughtfully with all of these points in mind.
3. What, if any, specific educational goals do you have for D203 and how would you work to achieve them?
Key goals that I would like to see achieved include ensuring students’ exposure to a broad, comprehensive, and inter-disciplinary curriculum to develop skills that prepare them for future challenges and opportunities.
As noted by New Trier’s upcoming superintendent, Peter Tragos, New Trier is and has long been known as a “Lighthouse school … Leading educational change is a part of who we are and what we do.” New Trier’s Future Programming Committee (comprised of faculty, administrators, and Board of Education members) has been charged with examining NT programming to address emerging and future student needs and interests. The Committee has researched trends in education and built an understanding of how changes in the world of education, college, careers, and work are impacting the ways we will learn and prepare students for post-high school success and imagining how New Trier can and should adapt.
While technical skills are swiftly evolving, lifetime skills are also in high demand, such as collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, communication, resilience, fortitude, empathy, and leadership skills. New Trier recognizes the need to develop innovative programing that is both flexible and individualized. By focusing on the intellectual engagement and growth of our New Trier students, 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 am particularly excited by many of the new courses introduced for implementation in 2025-26, which emphasize career-connected learning, experiential learning, and an expansion of semester elective options. Examples include Aerospace Engineering, Fashion Construction and Design, Game Design, Marketing: Sports & Entertainment, Financial Management/Investing & Corporate Finance, Business Leadership, and Web Development & Multimedia.
The outlook of New Trier’s future curriculum is exciting, innovative, and evolving.
4. How would you improve the board’s transparency and community engagement?
Community engagement is a key pillar in New Trier’s Strategic Plan. A surprisingly small percentage of New Trier Township taxpayers have students at NTHS at any given time. An important focus of New Trier and the New Trier School Board must be effective communication with those without students at NTHS. This communication goal can be challenging, in part because NTHS is not a unified K-12 district. We have 6 separate K-8 districts plus private schools that feed into NTHS.
In our communication plan, we need to conceptualize and implement strategies for sender districts, young families, alumni, empty nesters, and seniors to engage with New Trier. Examples:
Please tell us about yourself, your qualifications, and what prompted you to run for School Board?
My husband and I moved to New Trier Township over 20 years ago. I am a strong supporter of public education, and all three our children graduated from New Trier High School (Classes of 2016, 2018 and 2024). Each of our children took advantage of very different courses and extracurricular activities at NTHS, and had varied interests and challenges while at NTHS. I attribute a great deal of their post-high school successes to their experiences at New Trier. Currently, I am a New Trier School Board member (elected in 2021), which I see as a way of giving back to the students, families, and residents of District 203.
I am deeply committed to volunteerism, having served in various capacities on PTA/PTO boards, local community boards, and for two terms as an elected school board member for Wilmette District 39 (2009- 2017). As a New Trier Board Member, I have served on the Community Relations Committee, the Policy Committee, the Facilities Committee, and as the Board Liaison for the NTPA and the New Trier Fine Arts Association (NTFAA). I also served as the Board representative on New Trier’s negotiating team for its collective bargaining agreement with the Physical Plant Services Association.
Professionally, I am an attorney. I have practiced law in law firms and also in corporate in-house positions. My legal practice involves negotiating and finalizing complex commercial transactions in the area of marketing and intellectual property law. My clients are generally large organizations, with my role requiring project oversight and budget responsibilities. With my varied practice and work experience over 30 years, I am skilled in communicating professionally and civilly, managing different opinions, finding middle ground without compromising key objectives, identifying solutions when facing roadblocks, working within a budget, and paying close attention to detail – each of which are skills that contribute to my productivity as a School Board member.
I believe my connections as a parent and resident within New Trier Township, my community volunteerism, and my professional experience contributes to my effective service on the Board of Education for New Trier High School and I look forward to continuing serving as a School Board Member for New Trier Township High School if re-elected on April 1, 2025.
Questions:
1. What do you see as the main priorities and challenges for the incoming school board?A top priority for the School Board and the District is to continue providing high quality education while being fiscally responsible to residents of New Trier Township. I am dedicated to public education with the goal of academic excellence for all students while also fostering a sense of belonging within New Trier High School.
New Trier’s strategic plan embraces the idea that a student’s personal growth is most effective when a student reflects and thinks critically to make choices. For New Trier students to best attain critical thinking skills, I believe a key focus should be on fostering a learning environment centered on civil discourse and respect for a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives. Students need to be able to make logical arguments in which evidence leads to a conclusion, and how to test those arguments for validity, soundness, strength, and weakness.
2. What are your financial goals and concerns for D203 and how would you work to address them?
New Trier has been fiscally responsible, with a AAA bond rating. That said, New Trier’s tax levy is limited to the lesser of CPI or 5%, and CPI is lower than the increasing rate of New Trier’s expenses for line items such as health insurance, facilities maintenance, and construction. Likewise, we must be mindful of underfunded pension plans, the potential for a cost shift to local districts, and very little (and possibly decreasing) financial support from State and/or Federal government. Financial pressures on New Trier’s budget must be top-of-mind at all times, with the intent and purpose of maintaining a balanced budget. As a Board Member, I recognize that achieving the important goals set out in New Trier’s 2030 Strategic Plan depends on a stable budget and using existing resources for implementation. As a financial steward of New Trier High School, I will be vigilant in using taxpayer funds judiciously and thoughtfully with all of these points in mind.
3. What, if any, specific educational goals do you have for D203 and how would you work to achieve them?
Key goals that I would like to see achieved include ensuring students’ exposure to a broad, comprehensive, and inter-disciplinary curriculum to develop skills that prepare them for future challenges and opportunities.
As noted by New Trier’s upcoming superintendent, Peter Tragos, New Trier is and has long been known as a “Lighthouse school … Leading educational change is a part of who we are and what we do.” New Trier’s Future Programming Committee (comprised of faculty, administrators, and Board of Education members) has been charged with examining NT programming to address emerging and future student needs and interests. The Committee has researched trends in education and built an understanding of how changes in the world of education, college, careers, and work are impacting the ways we will learn and prepare students for post-high school success and imagining how New Trier can and should adapt.
While technical skills are swiftly evolving, lifetime skills are also in high demand, such as collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, communication, resilience, fortitude, empathy, and leadership skills. New Trier recognizes the need to develop innovative programing that is both flexible and individualized. By focusing on the intellectual engagement and growth of our New Trier students, 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 am particularly excited by many of the new courses introduced for implementation in 2025-26, which emphasize career-connected learning, experiential learning, and an expansion of semester elective options. Examples include Aerospace Engineering, Fashion Construction and Design, Game Design, Marketing: Sports & Entertainment, Financial Management/Investing & Corporate Finance, Business Leadership, and Web Development & Multimedia.
The outlook of New Trier’s future curriculum is exciting, innovative, and evolving.
4. How would you improve the board’s transparency and community engagement?
Community engagement is a key pillar in New Trier’s Strategic Plan. A surprisingly small percentage of New Trier Township taxpayers have students at NTHS at any given time. An important focus of New Trier and the New Trier School Board must be effective communication with those without students at NTHS. This communication goal can be challenging, in part because NTHS is not a unified K-12 district. We have 6 separate K-8 districts plus private schools that feed into NTHS.
In our communication plan, we need to conceptualize and implement strategies for sender districts, young families, alumni, empty nesters, and seniors to engage with New Trier. Examples:
- Tailor messaging for the different sender schools/districts, which each have their own personalities;
- Find ways to raise awareness of and incentivize families & students in sender districts to attend New Trier events and activities;
- Engage seniors, empty nesters, and residents without students at New Trier via electronic newsletters, social media, and posting notices about and invitations to school events (e.g., music/theatre/dance performances, concerts, sports events);
- Expand and plan innovative programming through NTX/New Trier Extension classes;
- Work to establish young alumni council to encourage graduate/alumni engagement and awareness of New Trier news and current events;
- Encourage New Trier Township residents to attend or watch monthly NT Board of Education meetings and/or read monthly Board Notes summaries.