Thoughts on the Many Thoughts

We've completed another local campaign cycle here in Oak Park, with the voters having stated their minds during the April 7 elections.

What stood out to me during this campaign season was the variety of candidates running for the various offices, especially for the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Board of Education.  For the first time since I've started voting, the District 97 race was contested, and had quite a crowded field.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to get to know many of the candidates in a personal way at a candidates' forum sponsored by the Village Managers' Association at Trattoria 225 back on the evening of March 18.  The event was structured to be an opportunity to informally mingle and speak with the candidates in the various contested races.  I was at it for quite a while talking with the candidates, and I got into some pretty interesting conversations.

This was certainly the case when I talked with the three candidates running for the Oak Park Library Board of Trustees, with whom I shared my own perspectives from the work I've completed so far on my MLIS degree as I make my foray into the field of library and information science.

There was quite a range of perspectives and backgrounds presented by the candidates in the various races.

Fred Arkin, who won a seat on the OPRFHS District 200 Board of Education, is an alumnus of OPRFHS, and serves as a wrestling coach, underscoring his commitment to the students there.

Gil Cabacungan, who attended West Point and served in the US Army, had this very visionary plan to make the high school a very ergonomic and energy-efficient building by reorienting it so it runs west-east and the solar panels placed on top would achieve maximum energy efficiency.  To accommodate the building's reorientation, he also had the idea to move the football field south of Lake Street and make Lake between Scoville and East a pedestrian zone.  He claimed that his experience on a nonprofit board, the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation, would allow him to get the funds needed from higher levels of government to do all of this.  Much of this plan seems impractical, but at least he's been thinking big.

Sharon Patchak-Layman, who ran unsuccessfully as an incumbent, had some notable ideas about the high school.  She raised concerns about how there's too many students there and the need to implement policies to give students other opportunities so they don't all have to be in the building at once, especially as District 97 will soon be sending upwards of 700 more students to OPRFHS.  We also chatted about a lot of other things, like the nature of the middle schools in Oak Park, as she formerly served on District 97's board.

The Park District candidates fell into two groups: the three running on a slate, and three others who all ran on their own, so to speak.  The slate included two incumbents, including Vic Guarino, a great guy I first met several years ago when he ran for the District 200 Board, and who I've seen around at my home parish, Ascension Church.  The incumbents were very practically minded about things the Park District has done, like the new Ridgeland Common facilities, whereas the three others wanted to implement some new initiatives, like community gardening, and even having a space at every park for dogs to be off the leash.

The District 97 candidates were a great and varied group of individuals:  There were the candidates who ran out of frustration with the way the board and Dr. Roberts, the superintendent, have handled their business recently.  Then there were those with interesting backgrounds, like Rupa Datta, an education policy expert and Holly Spurlock, who works at Groupon.  Rita Kahn has experience serving in an administrative capacity with the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry.  Sarah Arguello taught English in South America.

Then there was Marcus Croom, who has some experience in educational leadership.  I had a very good conversation with him at the candidates' forum.  One question I like to ask candidates is what their moral vision is, a big picture question to get their sense of how they approach life.  Mr. Croom was excited when I asked that question, and was ready with a well-thought out answer: "More human fulfillment, less human suffering", which governs the way he approaches education, to ensure every child succeeds.

There were also the two incumbents.  Jim O'Connor, who lives two doors away from me, is very experienced in education as a teacher, principal, and policy expert.  Then there's Bob Spatz, who worked extensively to make the middle schools in Oak Park a reality.  I had some good conversation with him back and forth over e-mail about his work with the middle schools.  I was glad to hear that someone put in so much thought and effort to make the middle schools what they are, as my time at Julian Middle School was one of the best times of my life, in part because of changes he helped implement.

It was a little difficult to pick from such a diverse group of candidates, but I nevertheless made my choices and then voted.  As I went off to vote on Tuesday, April 7, at my polling place, the Oak Park Conservatory, I couldn't help but think that six years before, just weeks after turning 18, I went there for the first time to vote, after having spent much time researching the candidates, even attending forums.  It's been a great experience, being engaged in the democratic process of our republic, especially at the local level, because these races have a very significant impact on us.

Here's to all the wonderful discussions that took place during the campaigns, and best wishes to all the winners as they go off to do their work.