Dupage Policy Journal

Glenbard Township High School District 87 Board of Education members are treating the district's students like "crash test dummies," a Glenn Ellyn-area rugby coach said in a social media post early last week.

Coach Kurt Mika in his July 19 Facebook post took issue District 87 Board Vice President Margaret DeLaRosa's comment about the board's adoption of a new grading policy, that it is acceptable to "run the experiment." Mika included in his post video from the school board's July 19 regular meeting in which DeLaRosa can be heard making the comment. Her follow-up comments were drowned out by the rowdy crowd attending.

"These are high school kids, not BOE crash test dummies," Mika said in his July 19 Facebook post.

Mika is a rugby instructor for the Ducks and rookie players in Glen Ellyn.

District 87, the third largest high school district in Illinois, covers about 45 square miles in DuPage County and includes all of Glen Ellyn, Carol Stream, Glendale Heights and Lombard; and portions of Bloomingdale, Hanover Park, Addison, Downers Grove and Wheaton. The district's schools are Glenbard East in Lombard, Glenbard North in Carol Stream, Glenbard South in Glen Ellyn and Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn.

During its regular meeting on July 19, district school board members approved grading policy changes. The changes were part of the meeting's consent agenda.

During comment about the grading policy changes, DeLaRosa, in the video in Mike's Facebook post can be heard saying, “Sometimes you have to run the experiment.”

DeLaRosa appears to make follow-up comments but it is difficult hear what else she said over the jeering, rowdy crowd who only got louder when Board President Judith Weinstock brought down her gavel multiple times and called for "respect."

"It's an insult," one person the crowd shouted.

Experimenting with new grading systems is not new at Glenbard School District 87. In April, District 87 Superintendent David Larson in an emailed memo encouraged teachers to "Leverage this unprecedented time to develop unprecedented solutions."

In particular, Larson asked faculty and staff in his April 23 email to focus on failing grades, according to coverage by DuPage Policy Journal.

“Given your unusual journey this year, it’s critical that we pause our typical grading framework and think differently,” Larson wrote.

Mika had been complaining about the proposed grading policy on his Facebook page for weeks leading up to his comment.

"Why is Glenbard D87 trying to hide its academic performance by changing the grading policy?" Mika asked in a July 19 post prior to the meeting. "This helps students how? We can still see the final outcomes."

District 87 students returned to in-person classes in March.