Would you work for the betterment of children – without pay – for 33 years?
Shelly Marks of Homewood has done just that as a member of the Homewood District 153 school board.
She is ending her volunteer efforts in May when she finishes her eighth term on the board.
“I know when I go off the board, the schools are just going to get better and better. That’s the one thing I’m confident about because we are so much better than we work five years ago, 10 years ago, 33 years ago,” she said. “We keep improving and I know that we will keep improving. I’m excited to see what happens next.”
Marks was the mother of two boys, a kindergartener and a preschooler, when she first considered running for the board.
She said her family instilled in her “that you need to make your community a better place.”
She’d been volunteering and working part-time in a family business, but realized she was “passionate about public education, so I thought this was a good place for my efforts.” Her first election was in November 1992. (School board elections later were moved to April.) She has served as the board president since 2001.
Marks has dealt with issues large and small. Some of the hardest topics for the board were:
Approving the transition from neighborhood schools to today’s grade centers. “We worked so hard to be deliberate in our decision. We knew we couldn’t make everybody happy, but we knew we wanted to answer everybody’s concerns and questions.” She believes today “people really value the way we deliver education.”
Getting three referendums passed to keep the district’s finances on an even keel. “People in Homewood want the quality education for the kids, whether it’s their kids or someone else’s kids. They get it. They get that to have the things you want in an education system in a school you have to pay for it. It doesn’t come free.” The 2011 referendum passed with 79.7% approval, the 2016 referendum with 80.6% and the 2022 referendum with 71.3%.
Shutting down schools during COVID and implementing online learning. “There was no way to prepare, we just did the best we could and the nice thing about (working through) COVID is our community was so supportive of what we were doing. …The amount of trust people had in the board and our decision making and our administrators and our teachers was like a big team and families are part of that team.
There’s still trauma from COVID.” Marks knows kids’ social/emotional needs are a long-term negative affect from the pandemic.
Making improvements to aging buildings that need major work. Referendum dollars, and federal dollars for COVID relief have given the district money to start bringing improvements to Willow, Churchill and James Hart Schools. Special education services need more space, and the district recognizes that its preschool program needs to grow, but space and finances are a challenge.
Marks believes staff are the ones who really make District 153 what it is.
“There’s not enough I can say about our remarkable staff. They are extraordinary. They do everything they can every single day for the kids who are in their care,” she said. “I think it’s the board’s responsibility to give them the tools they need and get out of the way.”
She spotlights the support and parent dedication shown through the District 153 PTA, the Parent Music Association and the District 153 Foundation.
Marks appreciates the support she’s received and the friendships she’s made both on the board, in the schools and in the community.
“I tried to shine the brightest light on our school board and school district,” she said.
For Marks, being a school board member was “such a rewarding job. People say it’s a thankless job. It’s not. Every day I learn something new. I’m in awe of what our staff accomplishes with kids. I won’t say I’ve enjoyed every single minute, but looking back even the things I didn’t enjoy I think, ‘Wow we really got through that!’ I really feel like our board has made a difference in the school community.”