The Wednesday Journal sent questionnaires to each person running for public office in 2025. The Journal’s questions are in bold and the candidate’s responses are below.
Last summer, Wednesday Journal reported on a demonstration by district parents and teachers expressing concerns over student safety and behavioral policy. What do you make of D97’s behavioral policies?
Several significant behavioral policy changes were made at the state level and in the district just before the outbreak of COVID-19. When students and staff returned to in-school learning, in addition to the general mental shift of returning, these policies were in place with no training and no discussion around implementation. Working across the two middle schools, administrators, teachers, students, and families have now had the time to come together and implement components like restorative justice in practice, not just in concept. Supporting these efforts and following requests by the Board to provide a better transition for students as they move from elementary to middle school, we have also seen improvements in connecting students to peers and adults in the building with our incoming sixth graders. These connections make a significant difference in safety and the sense of community. There is always room for improvement, but I appreciate the amount of progress this year.
What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing elementary and middle school students in our post-pandemic world? How would you work to support D97 students?
Mental health, finding an overall sense of belonging, and the opportunity gap are the biggest hurdles currently facing our students in the post-pandemic world. While our amazing teachers and families rallied around students to keep learning loss to a minimum, the toll of the pandemic in Oak Park could not be overcome when it came to challenges to our students’ mental well-being and loss of grounding in the school community. Additionally, with the district’s equity policy passing just before the pandemic, we lost two years to meaningfully address the opportunity gap while we focused on keeping everything and everyone afloat. Today, we must continue creating and implementing strategies to reconnect and reengage our students and support their mental health. Middle School Connections for rising sixth graders is a good example of district efforts in this area. Beyond the work currently underway to shift practices in schools to address the opportunity gap, we also need to look outside the school day if we are going to see meaningful change.
Is there any program or resource you’ve seen implemented in another school district that you think D97 students and families would really benefit from? How would it fill an existing gap?
Regarding in-school resources, the district is selecting a new K-5 literacy curriculum and is about to begin the selection process for K-5 math. The current, thoughtful timeline, which involves educators and robust in-district evaluation of the materials, will avoid past pitfalls and yield the best resources for our students. We need a change in how we think about out-of-school time. We could use this time to make a difference in the opportunity gap based on research assessing a wide variety of out-of-school programs conducted by experts such as Dr. Deborah Lowe Vandell at the University of California-Irvine. Offering quality, deliberate out-of-school programming has been shown to improve academic gains for all students but most significantly for those students with the lowest standards-based test scores. Strategically combining our education resources and expertise with those of other community organizations to reinforce and grow our students’ learning is a direction I strongly support.
What does equity in education mean to you? How would you advocate for it if elected?
I define equity in education as providing resources and support with the recognition that we don’t all start from the same place or face the same barriers. The district has correctly defined equity in the school setting as “the systematic fair treatment and full inclusion of all students, especially those who have historically been underserved in public education settings.” The second part of that definition is critical: To achieve equity will require addressing the historical, systemic, and structural inequities with intention, not as an afterthought. I support the continued implementation of the District 97 Equity Policy. I believe there is rightly an extra onus placed on public officials to listen, pay attention, support, revise thinking on equity, and speak up. I continually adjust my assumptions, reading articles and books that challenge my thinking and listening to those who point out inequities in our community. I have and will continue to challenge the district to do the same.
With a new presidential administration has come sweeping federal changes affecting public schools. How would you look to guide the district in this new climate?
Right now, all the shifts coming out of the new presidential administration are chaotic and attention-seeking. I would guide the district by not being distracted and following our vision: Create a positive learning environment for all District 97 students that is equitable, inclusive, and focused on the whole child. That is our core, and in the flurry of changes, our students are best served by holding to that vision. From a pragmatic viewpoint, I also have a spreadsheet of current and potential changes, related state and board policy, and budget items that might be impacted. Understanding where federal policy could take us is essential to being prepared. Fortunately, Illinois has robust protections for student data and human rights that will remain even as federal guidelines change. Additionally, while the impact on our budget if funds are pulled would not be trivial, it is also not insurmountable within our existing funds and community-informed budget policies.