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Naperville 203 public commenters urge board not to cut math specialists, warn of equity harm
Summary
At the April 6 board meeting, math specialist Alicia Smith and parent Dan Alamillo urged Naperville CUSD 203 to avoid reducing math-specialist FTE at Title schools, saying past investments produced gains for Black, multilingual learner and low-income students and that cuts would disproportionately harm vulnerable students.
At the Naperville CUSD 203 Board of Education meeting on April 6, Alicia Smith, a math specialist now at River Woods, told trustees the district should not reduce full-time equivalent positions for math specialists at Title schools.
"Adding the additional support was very successful," Smith said, noting that Scott School has earned exemplary designations and strong math growth after gaining a second specialist. She warned that the administration is asking specialists to teach honors math at Mill Street and Scott and asked, "So, you are taking a resource from vulnerable populations in order to support privileged populations?" Smith emphasized that reductions would hit Black, multilingual learner and low-income students hardest.
Parent speaker Dan Alamillo thanked board members for listening and urged a transparent, data-driven budgeting process. Alamillo said equal-percentage cuts across employee groups ignore unequal student impacts and urged the board to explore reducing administrative overhead instead. He provided comparative district figures in his remarks, saying District 203 has "just over 16,000 students and 103 administrators" and that aligning with neighboring districts would require substantially fewer administrators.
The chair closed public comment by reminding speakers that operational questions would be coordinated by the superintendent. Mr. Bridges was assigned to apprise the board and respond to matters raised in public comment.
The public remarks were part of a broader conversation about the district's budget and upcoming staffing decisions; no formal staffing reductions were approved at the April 6 meeting.
