The article was written with collaboration from the Urbana Schools Action Coalition.
It’s been over 5 years since a significantly low point for Urbana School District #116 (USD116). The resignations and removals of those in top district positions reflected an overwhelming erosion of trust between the District’s Central Office (CO), Board of Education (BOE), and the community they aimed to serve. At that time, Urbana was hopeful to move forward with a new paradigm for community engagement and transparency, rooted in a common desire to improve outcomes for all of Urbana’s students, and to do so as a team.
Dr. Jennifer Ivory-Tatum, who took over in Summer 2019, entered promising “repairing relationships [as] a top priority,” and some early steps seemed aimed at that end. After all, Dr. Ivory-Tatum was a former Urbana Assistant Superintendent and unwitting victim to the previous administration before returning as superintendent. There were a lot of high hopes.
It was in the gradual return to physical classrooms after COVID that things took a frustrating turn. During the 22-23 school year an alarmingly quick succession of changes began:
- In the fall of 2022, CO suggested combining the two Spanish Dual Language (SpDL) programs together into one program at Leal. That idea was abandoned due to insufficient planning.
- Instead, BOE later voted in January 2024 to combine the programs without choosing which building would house it.
- Meanwhile, the BOE voted to close Wiley Elementary due to “asbestos abatement,” but later admitted it had been a financial decision. With no plan in place, Wiley was shuttered.
- Over the summer 2023 a committee made up largely of 6th grade educators and CO administrators voted to turn Wiley into a 6th grade center, despite protests from its co-chairs that it was a biased process to recommend the option that was already the plan.
- In late 2023, Urbana started a redistricting process, which included deciding where SpDL would move.
- Without any input from either school, they narrowed it down to two options: Thomas Paine and Yankee Ridge. Both of these schools house many students who have already been displaced from Wiley.
With the choice of either of these schools, USD116 will be eliminating two of six community elementary schools in two years.
Taken in a vacuum, all of these decisions might have made sense. And yet, while each one of these has been presented as a single choice to address a single problem, anyone with an objective view of the district over the past few years knows that these are complex, interrelated issues that require a similarly complex, strategic plan.
“Strategic plan.”
It’s the sort of thing leaders put forward to give a roadmap of progress, of intention, of outcomes, and of accountability. If anyone wonders why the Urbana community is so frustrated with the Board and Central Office, it comes down to this: USD116 leadership does NOT have a strategic plan. When we ask the Board why they are not demanding a strategic plan and refusing to approve changes without one, we are told that it’s because the Board has not yet drafted guiding principles. If we ask the Central Office why they do not have a strategic plan that they can point to when they make these vast systemic changes, we are told that it’s coming.
This is not new — we requested a strategic plan over a year ago, and yet there has been no progress. If the Board has failed in its responsibilities, it’s time for them to own up to it, but not to give Central Office whatever it demands as a consequence. CO, meanwhile, should not have proposed such drastic changes absent a strategic plan.
The community is now calling out, demanding a pause in these drastic changes and proposals. Right now the Board is considering a redistricting plan from a third-party consulting group, operating on the assumption that all of these changes are done deals. This is NOT in a strategic plan, the changes were not considered in their totality as to what benefit they provide and how success would be measured, and the community does not agree with the approach, the lack of transparency, and the rapidity by which the changes have been made.
It is time for a pause.
We know that the best way forward is hand-in-hand. We are willing to participate, to offer suggestions, share concerns, and develop a unified strategic plan if given the opportunity. The community is made up of intelligent, passionate, strategic-minded individuals. We want Dr. Ivory-Tatum, Central Office, the Board, our students, and their superhero educators to succeed, and we know that this will not happen if things are allowed to move forward as planned. There is a need for intentionality, to bring every voice together, and to consider all of the issues and concerns this community faces to build a truly comprehensive plan. I don’t think that is too much to ask, despite knowing that it will take time, commitment, and a re-dedication from the top to honesty, transparency, student and staff support, and unity.
Let’s do this together.
The Urbana Schools Action Coalition will hold a rally at 5 p.m. today, Thursday, February 29th, at Blair Park (Vine and Florida, Urbana) to ask the Board of Education to pause their decisions.