Candidates for Oak Park village president and trustee and for open seats on the school boards at Oak Park and River Forest High School and the District 97 Oak Park elementary schools will take part in a series of three forums hosted by Wednesday Journal and Growing Community Media.
Each event will take place in the Veterans Room of the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St. The forums will be both in person and live streamed.
Oak Park Village Government Election Forum
Monday, Feb. 24
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
There are five trustee candidates for three open seats. Those candidates will appear from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The two candidates for village president, incumbent Vicki Scaman and current trustee Ravi Parakkat, will take questions from 7:35 to 8:30 p.m.
Laura Maychruk will moderate the forum. Maychruk, the former owner of The Buzz Café, hosted candidate forums each election season in her Arts District coffee shop.
District 200 School Board Election Forum
Tuesday, Feb. 25
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
There are six candidates for four open seats. One of those candidates, David Schaafsma is a write-in candidate. Because he has officially registered with the county as a candidate, the Journal is including him in its forum.
Dan Haley will moderate the forum. He is the former publisher and now a senior advisor at Growing Community Media.
District 97 School Board Election Forum
Thursday, March 6
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
There are five candidates for three open seats. Twyla Blackmond Larnell dropped out of the race last week.
DeRondal Bevly, a professor at Columbia College, will moderate the forum.
Questions are welcome in advance and may be sent to Dan Haley at dhaley@wjinc.com. Guests at the forum will be asked to submit written questions for the moderator to use.
If you are not able to attend in person, all three forums will be live streamed on the Growing Community Media YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@growingcommunitymedia). A recording of each forum will be available at the same site.
Max Reinsdorf, interim executive director of Growing Community Media, pointed to GCM’s long history of hosting candidate forums for contested races. “These forums serve as a platform for voters to listen to and talk with candidates. That platform is a core part of our work – informing our communities and fostering productive conversations,” he said.