Dan Burke, a District 97 Board of Education member, will not seek re-election next April, the one-term trustee said Monday. First elected to the board in 2003, Burke said the demands of his job with a Chicago affordable housing development company and his work on the board had taken too much time away from his family.
He made the decision over the weekend after considering it for the last several weeks. Burke is vice president of development for Chicago Community Development Corp., which owns and operates 2,000 multifamily apartments in Chicago.
He said he informed Board President Carolyn Newberry Schwartz about his decision over the weekend.
“To be an effective board member, you have to make a substantial amount of time for it. I’ve done that for the last term, and I don’t foresee over the next four years that I will have the time to commit to it,” said Burke, a father of three children, two enrolled in Dist. 97 and a sophomore enrolled at Oak Park and River Forest High School. “I’ve had a terrific experience with this board, but I’ve taken on several new projects at work, and with the amount of time it takes to serve on the board, the time with the family has become less.”
Seats held by board members Marcia Frank, Michelle Harton and Sharon Patchak-Layman are also up for election in April 2007.
Harton and Patchak-Layman have told Wednesday Journal they are still considering whether to run again. Harton is currently serving her first term and Patchak-Layman her second. Frank did not return our phone call last week.
In District 200, meanwhile, Board President Barry Greenwald said he will seek re-election. Board member Yasmin Ranney said she will make a decision sometime in December. Barbara Fernandez did not return our call. Ranney and Fernandez are also completing their first terms.
Prior to joining the Dist. 97 board, Burke served on the Finance Advisory Task Force. He said he’s most proud of having worked to stabilize the district’s finances, and hiring Supt. Constance Collins last year.
