During her 15 years of teaching experience, Sandra Arguello has seen classrooms that cross the socioeconomic spectrum — from Englewood on Chicago’s South Side to Ecuador. She also taught first-graders at Oak Park’s Longfellow School before founding the Learning League, “an affordable community-based education program that trains highly motivated and responsible high school students to become tutors,” according to its website.
Arguello said both her classroom teaching experience and her time interacting with Oak Park students through her work with the Learning League has afforded her a unique perspective on some of District 97’s most pressing challenges.
“I’m able to see kids from grades K through 8 and the discrepancies in the curriculum and the need that we have to make things cohesive,” she said. “As new initiatives [such as the recent teachers contract and Common Core testing assessment] roll out, I hope to bring my experience as an educator to help implement these ideas so we could better ensure higher-quality instruction for our students.”
Arguello, the mother of a Julian Middle School student and a seven-year resident of Oak Park, said as a former teacher and as someone who administers one-on-one instruction to students, she’s encountered the educational discrepancies between the district’s students firsthand.
“I believe every school is unique, but I see through my job how different [the curriculum] of each school is, and I also see the gaps that need to be filled before children go into middle school,” she said. “I’m witnessing things I didn’t even know as a parent or teacher — they surprise me.”
Arguello said her experience working with a variety of children from across the district distinguishes her from the 10 candidates running for four open board seats. It also would provide a constructive contrast to the prevailing top-down perspective embodied during retiring Supt. Al Roberts’ tenure, she said.
“I feel that decisions were made a little top-heavy under Dr. Roberts,” she said. “I would like there to be an opportunity for teachers to have more of a voice. They’re the people who are actually in the classroom, the ones who impact students’ learning.”
Arguello praised the board’s handling of the search for Roberts’ replacement though she said it could be more transparent about presenting the concept of a new administrative building to the community, but the controversy over such fiscal-related issues detracts much-need attention away from the issue of instruction.
“I do think it takes a little bit away from the race and what we really should be focused on, which is our students and how we’re going to provide more quality education for them,” she said.
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com