In 12 years, Tom Cofsky has seen almost everything as a member and then president of the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 board of education.
With his finance background, he often focused on the district’s financial concerns, including a ballooning fund balance. Under his leadership, the board modified the budgetary process, while shifting the district’s financial mindset, committed to balancing expenses and revenue over the long term, while eliminating end-of-year “true up” budgets.
“We changed our levy philosophy from ‘tax to the max,’ to levy what was needed,” Cofsky said May 1 at his final board meeting, which installed the new board, including new president Audrey Williams-Lee and newcomers Josh Gertz and Kathleen Odell.
“I’m very proud that after maximum levies in years directly preceding my service, we have completed 12 consecutive years of not taxing to the max, something unheard of, leaving roughly $80 million dollars plus interest in our taxpayers’ pockets, and this equates to roughly one full year of D200 taxes.”
But on departing the board, Cofsky made himself clear that there was a lot more to his role than financial. What’s he going to remember most?
“It’s not one thing,” he said. “It’s about making sure this is a pillar in our community for our students, and that includes having strong academic programs, strong facilities and being able to stay around for a long time.”
The biggest challenge in his tenure was no surprise – the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was crazy,” he said. “I mean, it’s a blur now. But it was just so uncharted and you were just trying to kind of live for a new day. We were facing laws and changes and didn’t know what to do the next day.
“We had a year of students not in this building.”
Cofsky received multiple testimonials about his long-term work from the board members with whom he served, including Williams-Lee and Fred Arkin, both of whom were re-elected April 1.
“Your 12 years of commitment have been remarkable,” Arkin said. “The change that you have helped lead has reshaped the future of the district. The district is now aligned to provide 21st century learning to all of our students.”
Williams-Lee, who was appointed to her role in July 2023, built on that, saying Cofsky leaves the district on “very firm footing, in terms of not just the financial piece, which you do quite well, but also the process and the infrastructure. I want to express my personal appreciation for all you’ve done and how you’ve helped me personally.”
In addition to Williams-Lee being named board president, Tim Brandhorst was named vice president and Dr. Jonathan Livingston was named secretary.
After a contentious April 1 election cycle, which saw Gertz run on a slate with Nate Mellman, Gertz emerged victorious and said Thursday he was ready to get started.
Suffice to say for Gertz, it was a long journey to Thursday. He noted that the mere fact of holding his right hand up as he was sworn in was “a little surreal.”
“I didn’t really envision this coming, being all in the middle of it, but now it’s exciting, it brings a formality to it and really marks the beginning of my term.”
The key for Gertz is attacking his learning curve. He’s met with several board members individually, while looking back at board records. In a word, studying.
“I have a couple of things that I’ve already mentioned to board members individually, that I think are not very controversial, but I’d like to explore,” he said. “One of them being the safety issue with the bathrooms, trying to look into some sort of monitoring device for bathrooms to try and cut down on vaping in the bathrooms. So I’d like to explore that.”
Odell, who is a professor of economics at Dominican University and associate provost, is ready to jump in as well.
“It’s a great institution, really a treasure for the community as someone said, and so being part of carrying that institution through its next four years is very meaningful for me,” she said.