Dupage Policy Journal

The District 87 Transparency Group is accusing District 87 school officials of creating new grading policies without consulting or making parents fully aware.

Comprised of area parents committed to monitoring Glenbard High School District 87 and Superintendent David Larson, the group contends the changes have lacked transparency. The group says the district is hiding surveys and Zoom recordings.

 “Under a cloak of secrecy and diversion, the district is ready to make sweeping changes that the public and likely even teachers and board members have limited knowledge about,” the group told the DuPage Policy Journal. “The process and the people responsible for hiding the truth from the public need to be investigated and dealt with appropriately.”

Transparency Group leaders argue “there have been a consistent pattern of lying or misleading/omission of information. If the board refuses to deal with the troubling issues being brought to light, then you will be considered complicit and in violation of your duties as representatives of the community.”

The group estimates roughly half of all school staff members and just over 15 percent of students participated in a recent survey that critics contend was “terribly flawed” in such ways as featuring mostly unrelated and “leading, softball questions.”

Larson recently took to encouraging teachers to “nudge” students to get vaccinated for COVID-19. 

“As you are able, please take the time to encourage, nudge and challenge each eligible student to attend one of these clinics to be vaccinated,” he wrote.

In an official school memo, he said “I believe, given the unpredictability of this pandemic, it will be critical for as many students as possible to be vaccinated by August as we start the next school year.”

Larson noted teachers should target the 5,292 students in the school district who are 16 or older.

Glenbard School District 87 is home to 8,029 students and includes four high schools: Glenbard East, Glenbard North, Glenbard South and Glenbard West.