The Annual State of Our School Town Hall was hosted by Principal Jeremy Christian on Feb. 11 in the Black Box Theater. After being reinstated last year, the meeting brought issues and accolades to both the administration and parents.
The event was structured around Christian’s newest slogan, “Going From Good To Great.” A variety of topics were discussed at the town hall including upcoming events such as the new building addition, test scores, student behavior, chronic absenteeism and administration restructuring.
“I won’t settle for mediocrity for our kids, for our students. They have to have the best. We can’t say West is the best and then we don’t show them that West is the best,” Christian said.
The Niles West Parent Advisory Committee (NWPAC) helped out at the event. Parents were able to participate by questioning things they saw as an issue or by commenting on certain topics. Christian advertised for parents to get involved in the NWPAC. A sign-up sheet was posted with volunteers outside of the Black Box Theater.
“Myself and the two other board members I sat with were very impressed by Principal Christian’s dedication to the students of Niles West. I appreciate his honesty in providing the information of where the school is right now and also of where we should/need to be as a school,” NWPAC Chair member, Deb Ambrose, said.
One of the concerns brought up by parents was the percentage of students who were proficient in their scores for the English (ELA) and mathematics sections of the SAT. In 2024 41.6% of students were either meeting or exceeding the performance level for ELA and 35.4% of students meeting or exceeding the performance level in mathematics.
“I wish I had asked or that he had elaborated on plans to improve the overall math performance of Niles West students. One parent asked how the math department felt about the low score and the reply was that they were looking into it. I’d have liked more details. As an educator myself, I’d like to know if Professional Development in current best practices for math is being considered as a way to help our students be successful in math,” Ambrose said.
In addition to concerns regarding test scores, several parents raised concerns over the new addition. The construction of the addition will start after spring break. With this, the traffic pattern will change. Parent and community member Dennis Clarke commented on the proposed traffic pattern.
“I really appreciated that they put in a lot of thought on how to re do the parking and the difficulty of dropping off students. I could tell they had done a lot of work on it,” Clarke said.
Student behavior was also discussed during the event. Freshmen have had the highest number of referrals at 190 while sophomores have had the lowest at 130 referrals. Christian, along with some parents, acknowledged that the current policies regarding misbehavior are not having the intended impact.
“What I have done is, I have challenged our deans to look at discipline differently. I have said, do have we any partnerships with the park district or the library where our students, especially our seniors can do community service… sometimes I walk [into the RPC] and I don’t see the students being remorseful about their actions. I would like to see how we can change some of these things and put more things in place where students are learning, getting the restorative justice and practices they need to learn from their behavior. With our students in today’s time, [detentions and suspensions] are not as effective at all,” Christian said.
Christian, along with other administrators in the Core Leadership Team, has begun looking at ways to address concerns and issues that were brought up by parents.
“Our parents’ and students’ voices are important to me. Whenever I receive feedback, it is my honor to seek resolution and continually improve our school processes and procedures. I’ve begun to speak to our Core Leadership Team about questions and concerns raised by parents to see how we can ease their concerns, going from good to great,” Christian said.
