Naperville board tables ‘Innovative School Experience’ after extended debate over timing and outreach

The Naperville Community Unit School District 203 Board of Education on April 21 voted unanimously to table action on Item 10.06, the district’s proposed Innovative School Experience (ISE), after more than five hours of presentation, public comment and board discussion.

The proposal presented by district staff would revise learning structures across all grade levels, recommend a process for revisiting school start and end times and defer implementation to the 2026–27 school year. Superintendent Bridges and district staff described the plan as driven by the district’s strategic blueprint and by two years of level-design work intended to increase instructional time for math and interventions, expand exploratory offerings, and create weekly “anchor” days for collaborative planning.

Board members and members of the public praised the scope of the design work but disagreed on whether the district has done sufficient two-way outreach and whether the board should take an action now or wait for further community input. Several board members urged more time for formal stakeholder engagement and clearer information about operational impacts, while others argued the board needed to move forward now to give staff and families certainty and to begin planning professional learning.

“Voting on an issue of this magnitude before those members can participate seems to send a troubling message,” board member Melissa Kelly Black said, arguing the vote should wait for members elected in the recent school-board election. “I will be voting no… because the process itself has been flawed and rushed.”

Board member Charles Kush also said he would vote no, citing a need for more formal feedback and for clearer cost/impact information. Several other board members, including Amanda McMillan and Kristen Fitzgerald, expressed support for the proposal’s goals but asked that the district collect more representative data from families and staff before final approval.

District staff responded that the ISE recommendations were the result of multi-year work by level design teams, including in-district site visits, staff focus groups and student advisory input, and that many follow-up focus groups and surveys would be part of implementation planning. The administration proposed creating a start/end-times committee with third-party facilitation, a public online engagement hub and implementation work groups to refine details and plan training. The administration also reiterated that some elements of a changed school day would be subject to collective-bargaining processes.

After extended discussion and an attempted compromise to affirm an intent to move toward the ISE targets while committing to additional stakeholder work, the board voted to table Item 10.06. The roll call in favor of tabling read: Amanda McMillan — aye; Joe Kosminski — aye; Kristen Fitzgerald — aye; Charles Kush — aye; Christine Gerke — aye; Melissa Kelly Black — aye; Donna Wankie — aye. The motion to table passed and the item will return later after additional work is completed.

What’s next: district staff said they will continue focused engagement with staff, parents, students and unions, and the administration has anticipated returning revised recommendations after the stakeholder work is completed. The board’s decision to table preserves the district’s multi-year ISE planning while formally pausing any final implementation vote.

Ending note: Public commenters and several board members asked the administration to ensure any follow-up outreach includes representative, statistically meaningful sampling and clear information about schedule impacts, transportation and supports for families.