Glenbrook School District 225 Board of Education President Skip Shein (left) and Superintendent Mike Riggle listen to the presentation on who has property rights to businesses developed in the incubator.
GLENVIEW/NORTHBROOK — Glenbrook North and South High High Schools will have business incubator classes in the next academic year where students will develop their own enterprises, but Glenbrook High School District 225 continues to debate who is entitled to ownership rights.
The board unanimously approved the new classes during its meeting Jan. 25 at the Administration Building in Glenview but will gather legal advice over the next two months to determine who owns the property rights to any business students in the class develop.
The class will be open to sophomores and juniors starting in the 2016-17 school year who will work with mentors and coaches as well as the class teacher to develop a business plan, according to Dawn Hall, the Glenbrook South business department instructional supervisor, and her Glenbrook North counterpart, Mary Kosirog, at the Jan. 11 board meeting.
At the end of the school year, students will pitch their idea in a “Shark Tank” atmosphere to potential investors, according to Hall and Kosirog. The lucky one or ones who get funding will further develop their business as seniors.
Though no one on the board said they wanted to deprive the young entrepreneurs of benefitting financially from their ideas, some members were not ready to give property rights to the students without a closer look.
“I like the idea,” board member Bruce Doughty said. “The problem is we’re using public school money. What do the other schools that have this do? There must be a model. Do we have liability?”
Robert Boron, the board vice president, suggested looking at models used in colleges as well as at places like Lake Forest High School and Barrington High School where similar programs are already in place from INCubatoredu, the vendor selling the course to the district.
Riggles has said in the past that students in the Barrington and Lake Forest incubators keep any profits.
Boron said he does not want to deprive the students of profiting from their ides but wants to draw the line when it comes to outside investors who could earn a return on their investment from intellectual property developed with district funds.
“I’m struggling with this,” Boron said. “Are we dealing with any confidentiality that has to be protected in some way? If an investor comes in (to profit) perhaps they should pay something back to the school for the public funds, like a piece of the deal.”
District 225 Superintendent Mike Riggle likened a business idea generated by students in the incubator to a painting created by a student in an art class.
“We provide them instruction and even some criticism,” Riggle said. “When they are done they go home with their painting. If they enter it in a contest and win $10,000 they keep it.”
Boron distinguished the artwork from the business idea because the students will potentially find investors to back their idea. Assistant Superintendent Rosanne Williamson said potential investors would not be involved until the end of the course when students pitched their ideas to raise money to move forward.
Joel Taub, another board member, said he was in favor of the product but worried about the district’s liability if one of the young entrepreneurs developed a defective product.
“I would like to see these students do something to fix the errors of my generation,” Taub said. “I’m more concerned with our liability if something goes wrong. What repercussions will come out of it?”
Board President Skip Schein decided to call a time out on the legal issues. He took a cue from Doughty who said he wanted a full legal analysis from attorneys expert in the appropriate fields of law. Boron said he thought he could find the specialists to study it without cost to the district.
“We need to figure this out,” Schein said. “If something goes wrong someone will want to know who is in charge, who has the largest insurance policy.”
As board members told Riggle setting the course up for student registration should not be impeded, the superintendent said the goal was to resolve the legal questions by the end of spring break.