PK Parekh: 2025 candidate for Central Unit District 301 board

Bio

Office sought: Central Unit District 301 board (Vote for 3)

City: Elgin

Age: 49

Occupation: Self-employed

Previous offices held: No prior political office

Why are you running for this office? Is there a particular issue that motivates you?

I am running for board of education because I am concerned about the direction our school district is headed. Out district has:

• taken positions that by all appearances are on the wrong side of the law;

• spent millions of dollars on a project that the majority of voters are against;

• mobile units at every elementary school, with no viable plan to build capacity for growing K-5 enrollment;

• worse reading and math proficiency and fewer curriculum options than surrounding school districts;

• the highest student-to-teacher ratios in Kane County, combined with shortages in special education resources;

• the lowest teacher retention in Kane County — lower than Chicago Public Schools!

While each one of these issues is significant and should be a priority for the board and district administration to resolve, I am most concerned about the failure of current leadership to address these issues before they became big problems.

Our community deserves better, and I believe we need stronger leadership on the board to make the right things happen in the right way, restore trust and fiscal responsibility, and deliver a better education for all children in our community.

What is the role of the school board in setting and monitoring the curriculum?

While many curriculum standards are set by the state of Illinois, the school board sets more specific policies for the district, maintains approval authority for significant decisions including curriculum decisions, directs investments, monitors performance, and holds the district administration accountable.

Decisions by the school board are important and make the difference between being an average school district and an exceptionally good one. We not only need a board that is more engaged in setting and monitoring the curriculum, we need board members who will act as a group to:

• consistently perform the board's oversight role over the superintendent;

• take action to improve academic outcomes;

• make financially responsible decisions that improve our district, while reducing the high real estate tax rate over the long term.

Are there curriculum issues within the district that you feel need particular attention from the board?

Yes, there are a lot of issues:

• Our district lags other suburban districts in Math and ELA proficiency. Less than half of students are meeting math standards, and math proficiency declined from 2022 to 2024. While ELA improved, it has not improved to the same extent as surrounding school districts.

• Our district has a narrower curriculum in K-8 and fewer electives in high school than surrounding districts.

• Our district does not have a gifted program and has been slow to implement other approaches to differentiated learning. Kids who are academically ahead of their grade level in one or more subjects are not advanced to the next grade level for those subjects.

• Ability-based groupings, which benefit kids above and kids below grade-level standards, are inconsistent across grades and schools.

• Our district does not provide math intervention to kids below grade-level math standards.

• Our district provides reading intervention to kids below grade-level reading standards, however this intervention is not offered to all kids with special needs who also need reading intervention.

• Our district reduced special education resources last year, contributing to this problem.

How do you view your role in confronting policy or curriculum controversies: provide leadership even if unpopular, give a voice to constituents — even ones with whom you disagree, or defer to state authorities?

First, the board has a duty to ensure the district implements a curriculum in compliance with federal and state requirements, whether those are popular or not, and without regard to any personal political opinion.

Second, the board has a duty to seek out, listen to, consider, and respond to constituent input on the curriculum and district policies — and to make decisions in the interest of the school district's educational purpose and its financial means.

Third, the board has a duty to provide effective governance, including defining goals and priorities for the district, setting policies for district administration, monitoring performance, and holding the district administration accountable for results.

Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage school district policy? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions for your school board.

I bring prior board and executive experience, including policy development, creating and implementing multiyear strategic and operating plans, negotiating hundreds of contracts, and approving and overseeing budgets up to $250 million.

I have been the treasurer and president of a board, and I am currently the chairperson of the board of a nonprofit that works with another K-12 school district in the Chicago area to renovate schools and provide essential community services such as health screenings, eye exams and eyeglasses, food pantry, free early childhood program, and free after-school program.

I have 25 years of management consulting and corporate leadership experience, including over a decade as a senior executive in a Fortune 300 company, where I served on multiple governance committees and shaped new divisions of the company into industry leaders.

Through these experiences, I have practiced and modeled a style of critical thinking and fact-based decision-making, which deepens understanding of the issues, builds alignment on intent, improves the quality of recommendations, and delivers better results.

What is your assessment of the school district's diversity and equity efforts? Do you support the continuation or enhancement of such programs, or would you rather see them diminished. Please explain your reasoning.

DEI has become a divisive political topic. It is important for our community and all current and prospective board members to know that school board roles are apolitical and board members have a duty to make decisions in accordance with enacted laws, not necessarily their personal beliefs or sociopolitical pressures.

We have a number of enacted federal and state laws that district policies must follow. In that context, we should be creating an environment that is welcoming, inclusive, and supportive for all students and staff, without discriminating against any class of person.

Sometimes it makes sense to foster opportunities for disadvantaged groups. Sometimes we have seen these good intentions go awry when in the process of creating equitable opportunities for some, others are unfairly disadvantaged.

In my prior career, we strived to maintain the right balance by for example developing diverse slates of candidates while always hiring the best person without regard to any protected attribute and without being constrained by quotas.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

We have the opportunity in this election to fill the board with people who have the experience, ideas, mindset, and execution skills to move our district forward in a positive direction. As one of those board members, I will tackle the big issues facing our schools and put our district on a path of continuous improvement. I will bring to the board:

• vision to shape our district into the best in Kane County, together with priorities that advance us toward that goal;

• tone from the top that promotes professionalism, ethical governance, and mutual respect — restoring positive relationships and trust with teachers and the community;

• fiscal responsibility and transparency in decision making;

• accountability for delivering the right results, in the right way, in compliance with the law;

• urgency to resolve issues before they snowball.

What’s one good idea you have to better your district that no one is talking about yet?

The board needs to fundamentally change the way it and district administration engage with teachers, parents, experts, and taxpayers. Engagement and input from these constituents should be integral to the problem-solving process — not an omission or afterthought.

Decisions should be transparent and communicated openly and timely. Board agendas and discussions should be about the major issues and priorities in the district, and performance should be measured against targets.

The board should ask critical questions, demand facts, and elevate the quality of decision making to shape our district into the best in Kane County — the best for academic outcomes, the best at preparing children for college and the workforce and good citizenship, and the best workplace for teachers and staff.