Dupage Policy Journal

The D87 Transparency Group opposes new grading policies crafted by District 87 school officials.

During its July 19 meeting, Glenbard Township High School District 87 heard opposition from parents and students to explanations on the change in the grading system. But the reactions at the meeting were just the tip of the iceberg — D87 Transparency Group sees a lot of inconsistencies and concerns.      

“What was this D87 board member's reason to support changing grading policies?” Kurt Mika  posted on Facebook. “‘Sometimes you have to run the experiment.’ These are high school kids, not BOE crash test dummies.”

Despite the district's transparency page, concerned parents formed the D87 Transparency Group to monitor the district and Superintendent David Larson.

“The process to put in place changes in grading procedures for the district has been terribly flawed,” the group stated. “There has been a consistent pattern of lying or misleading/omission of information.”

The group claims the change in grading policy includes having the lowest grade of 50% despite no work being done, unlimited retakes of tests and papers, achieving honor roll would still be possible even if the student has a failing grade, and no academic consequences for students caught cheating or plagiarizing a paper. The group claimed that “District 87 has a serious issue with of lack of transparency.”

“Information on times and places of committee meetings is often very late and needs to be requested by members of the public because it doesn’t get put on the website in a timely fashion,” the group pointed out. “Minutes of meetings are not always posted in a timely manner and are taken down quickly; the district has recently had missing video of meetings. The 6/2 SPA and 6/14 Policy meetings come to mind; the quality of sound and video of all meetings is very poor; the district has been admonished by the State Attorney General’s Office previously for not properly supplying information to a FOIA request; District financial data is difficult to attain on the district website; the school board has a recording secretary who is not a board member; board members have apparently been denied timely information to help make policy decisions.”

Larson has previously reported a higher-than-average failure rate in the district.

Last year, the superintendent was reproached for releasing a video that included a Black Lives Matter resource page that indicated ways to donate, vote, sign petitions, and a map of protests.