Des Plaines District 62 candidates talk teacher pay, school diversity
Challenger Dan Bachar and incumbents Ronald Burton, Brian Inzerello, James Poskozim and Stephanie Duckmann are vying for four 4-year seats on the school board.
The board also has an open 2-year term seat, but no candidate is running for the spot. Board members will appoint someone to fill the seat after Tuesday's election.
A diverse district
Some candidates considered diversity and family incomes as the biggest challenge facing the district. Nearly one-third of the district's students are English-language learners and half the student population is from low-income families, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
"We view it as a positive, but it is also something we have to deal with," said Poskozim, who's an attorney and the board's vice president.
The candidates agreed encouraging parent involvement should be a priority. Inzerello, a data/project manager at Lindahl Brothers, suggests recruiting parents to volunteer at a grass-roots level through parent-teacher organizations at each school.
Dan Bachar, a coordinator for blended learning and intervention analytics at Maine Township High School District 207, said District 62 can focus on making programs convenient for parents.
"If you can get them in the door, you can have an impact," Bachar said. "But just getting them in the door is the biggest challenge."
Teacher salaries
The candidates all agreed the district's teachers are paid adequate salaries. On average, the district paid teachers about $8,000 more than other Illinois teachers in 2016.
"As the climate against public education continues, we may see fewer college students going into education or fewer teachers wanting to be administrators," Duckmann, the board president, said. "If this happens and the pool of candidates gets shallower, we will need to adjust pay."
Bachar said pay is just one part of keeping teachers in the district.
"If you create a solid culture somewhere and the pay is really close everywhere else, I think people are going to stay," he said.
State funding reform?
With the possibility of state lawmakers changing the way education is funded, candidates predicted the district will lose money under any of the proposals. Whether a change will be made remains unclear.
"Any way the state goes, there will be an impact on District 62," Inzerello said. "I don't think there is another way they could have put themselves in better position."
Burton, the director of document processing centers at CME Group, said the district's budget issues will largely depend on action at the state level, and he opposes tax and fee increases.
"The solution to me lies in concentrating on the current programs, making necessary adjustments in spending and looking for alternative financing where available," he said.