All of New Trier’s sender districts, with the exception of Wilmette District 39 and Avoca District 37, have caucuses of their own that are elected by their local community and vet and endorse candidates for their local boards. The elected caucuses that, by custom and usage, have the responsibility for nominating candidates for their own sender district school boards are also responsible for selecting delegates to send to the NTSB Caucus. These sender district caucuses include: the Glencoe Caucus School Board Nominating Committee, the Kenilworth Citizens Advisory Committee, the Northfield School and Park Board Caucus, and the Winnetka Caucus Council. If you live in one of these sender district communities and are interested in serving as a NTSB delegate, you will need to contact your local sender district caucus for information about how to become a delegate.

For Wilmette District 39, which does not have a caucus, the NTSB Caucus appoints two NTSB Caucus delegates from Wilmette to serve as Sender District Chairs responsible for recruiting and selecting delegates. For the smaller Avoca District 37, the NTSB Caucus appoints one NTSB delegate from that district to serve as Sender District Chair.

The Wilmette and Avoca Sender District Chairs are tasked with reaching out to their community to fill the delegate seats by all practicable means and may place announcements in print and social media with nonpartisan social, civic, and business organizations and other available outlets with general circulation in those Districts. If you live in Wilmette District 39 or Avoca District 37 and are interested in serving as a NTSB delegate, please contact the NTSB Caucus for information about how to become a delegate. 

In addition to the delegates from the sender districts, New Trier High School's Student Council selects two students to serve as delegates. These student delegates participate fully in the NTSB Caucus and have the same voting rights as other delegates from the sender districts.

All delegates are subject to term limits to ensure regular turnover of delegates each time a new NTSB Caucus convenes.

The total number of NTSB Caucus delegates selected by the sender districts is 47 (excluding the 2 student delegates). The number of delegates allocated to each of the sender districts is in proportion to the kindergarten through eighth grade enrollment of the respective sender districts (not counting parochial and private school enrollment) using the State Board of Education Fall Housing Report figures from each Sender District. The NTSB Caucus evaluates this data every four years and reapportions the number of delegates allocated to each sender district when necessary to conform to the data. The NTSB Caucus last conducted its required evaluation and reapportionment in 2022.

For the current 2024 NTSB Caucus, and based on the data evaluation conducted in 2022, delegates are allocated to the sender districts as follows:

Avoca District 37

4 delegates

Glencoe District 35

7 delegates

Kenilworth District 38

3 delegates

Sunset Ridge District 29

3 delegates

Wilmette District 39

20 delegates

Winnetka District 36

10 delegates

With an unwavering commitment to be transparent and thorough, the NTSB Caucus delegates interview, vet and endorse a slate of board candidates. Steps in this comprehensive process include: publicly communicating to the New Trier Township community about open board positions and how candidates seeking the NTSB Caucus’ endorsement may apply; developing a candidate questionnaire and interview questions to discern a candidate’s qualifications and readiness; interviewing each candidate; gathering information from the candidate’s references; and intensively deliberating to identify the most qualified candidates to endorse. 

In the interest of fairness and impartiality, the NTSB Caucus ensures that each candidate seeking endorsement is subjected to essentially the same process regardless of whether the candidate is a current board incumbent or not. The NTSB Caucus asks each candidate to fill out the same questionnaire and asks each candidate the same questions during interviews. Interview questions remain confidential until the NTSB Caucus presents them to candidates during interviews, and they are not disclosed to candidates prior to their interviews.

At the final meeting of the NTSB Caucus in any given year, the delegates thoroughly deliberate and discuss the qualifications of each candidate. Following this deliberation, the delegates vote to endorse board candidates by secret ballot, with separate rounds of balloting to fill each open board seat. A candidate must receive a majority vote to win the NTSB Caucus endorsement. If no candidate receives a majority vote on the first ballot, balloting continues until one candidate is selected by a majority vote. Rounds of voting continue until the NTSB Caucus has made an endorsement for each and every open board seat.

The NTSB Caucus was created to be a nonpartisan resource for New Trier Township voters in an effort to keep partisan politics out of our local elections. Local municipal elections are typically low turnout affairs and objective information about board candidates can be difficult to find. 

The NTSB Caucus is composed of a cross-section of residents from New Trier Township who take this volunteer job very seriously. The NTSB Caucus works diligently and thoroughly, logging many hours over the course of several weeks to interview, vet and identify the best prepared, most well-rounded and most qualified candidates for the school board. Essentially, we are here to help voters with their candidate research homework. 

We believe our track record over the past 70 years demonstrates the value of our endorsements and our commitment to excellence. Most candidates who received the endorsements of the NTSB Caucus went on to win board seats in local municipal elections. 

While we believe our endorsements carry hard-earned weight, it’s still up to the voters of New Trier Township to decide who to place on the school board.

The NTSB Caucus convenes every two years (during even numbered years) for six to eight weeks in the Fall preceding local municipal elections in the Spring (which are held during odd numbered years). The schedule for the current 2024 NTSB Caucus can be found here.

Some meetings or portions of meetings are closed to the public to preserve the confidentiality of interview questions that will be posed to candidates and discussions about candidates, as well as to preserve the privacy of candidates who fail to receive the endorsement of the NTSB Caucus.

The NTSB Caucus tries to create a welcoming and encouraging environment for all candidates who seek endorsement and does not want to discourage candidate participation for fear of having candidate deliberations shared or making public the failure to receive our endorsement. 

In practice, this means that meetings other than candidate interview meetings are open to the press and public with the following exceptions: parts of meetings where interview questions or the qualifications of a candidate are discussed or interviews or voting on candidates is taking place. The Chairperson of the NTSB Caucus determines whether a meeting or parts thereof meet the above requirements. 

Persons who are not delegates shall be introduced to the NTSB Caucus at each meeting, shall not participate in a meeting except at the discretion of the Chairperson, and shall not be present during any closed portion of a meeting.

No. The NTSB Caucus is not a political committee. Rather, it is a nonpartisan group that convenes for 6-8 weeks every two years for the limited purpose of interviewing, vetting, and endorsing school board candidates. The NTSB Caucus does not raise or solicit funds.

Once the NTSB Caucus approves a candidate slate for the Board of Education, it makes public its endorsements as well as the bios of the endorsed candidates. The NTSB Caucus, through the volunteer work of its Petition Committee, also assists endorsed candidates with meeting all petition requirements to get on the election ballot.

The NTSB Caucus does not engage in any campaigning on behalf of endorsed candidates.