Office sought: Homewood Flossmoor High School Board Member
Your name: Debbie L Berman
Email address: dberman@jenner.com
Education: AB, Economics, summa cum laude with highest distinction, Brandeis University
JD, cum laude, The Harvard Law School
Occupation: Equity partner at Jenner & Block LLP since 1998, associate at Jenner & Block from 1990-98, Co-chair of the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation, Trade Secrets and First Amendment and Media practices, Member of the firm’s management committee
Current employer: Jenner & Block LLP
Family: Proud mother of HF grad and HF junior. My family has been part of the HF community for more than 50 years

Incumbent? Yes, five
Other elected positions? I have been elected and appointed to philanthropic positions with international, national and metropolitan Chicago organizations during the past 30 years.  Here is just a few examples.

Chair of JAFI’s budget and finance subcommittee for Operational and Support Units.  JAFI is an international organization and is the world’s largest Jewish philanthropy.

I served on the board of Leadership Greater Chicago, including chairing the search committee for the new executive.

I am an elected board member of the Harvard Law Society of Illinois

I have served for the past almost 30 years in numerous positions with the Jewish United Fund, including Executive Committee Member, Vice Chair, member of the leadership development committee, Chair of the Trades, Industry and Professions Division

Board member, Anti Defamation League, Midwest Region.

Most important issues: The most important issue that we will need to address is how to continue to identify and provide effective academic and extracurricular opportunities so that each student can succeed at HF and equally important post-HF, be it 4 or 2 year college, military, vocational training or employment given the uncertainty and pressures around public education funding.  We have launched several important initiatives, including the International Baccalaureate program, Fine Arts MVP program/building expansion, enhanced culinary arts training, additional applied academics programs, an intensive curriculum review to ensure stronger alignment with learning goals and outcomes and implementing social-emotional supports for students.

We have been able to do so because we have been fiscally prudent and planned ahead.  Going forward, we will need to find creative solutions to ensure we are meeting students’ needs despite potentially less state resources. We also need to continue to work with our state legislators to address the broken education funding model in Illinois that burdens local taxpayers with funding much of public education. The property tax grant program we pushed our legislators for is a good first step to try to reduce on the burden on property owners, but we need more.

Goals: HF is the crown jewel of our community so my goal is to continue to contribute to setting policy and strategy to ensure that HF not only maintains its stellar reputation, but is positioned to enhance and grow it. To achieve this goal, we not only should focus on the immediate issues facing the district, but we need to determine where we need to be in three or five years to remain competitive so that we can begin the planning now.  It takes an extraordinary amount of resources (financial and time and effort) to launch new initiatives, such as the IB program or the Fine Arts Academy, so we need to plan ahead to ensure that we have those resources available. I chaired the academic achievement portion of the recent strategic planning exercise and have served on the Planning Committee for 5 years so I am particularly well positioned to help the school achieve those goals as well as the other strategic goals we as a community set for HF.

As an attorney, I am trained to think strategically and identify potential issues and risks. These skills will help me, the rest of the school board and the administration to accomplish these goals.