Irshad A. Khan: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Irshad A. Khan

City: Lake Villa

Office sought: Board Member District 24

Age: 52

Family: Spouse, two boys and two girls -- 2 kids are school district

Occupation: Vice President -- Strategic deployment

Education: BS Mechanical Engineering

Previous elected offices held: Millburn School Board current

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? 2016

Issue questions

What are the most important issues facing your district and how do you intend to address them?

Keeping balance maintaining financial stability and keeping excellence in providing education to students of this district.

How satisfied are you that your school district is adequately preparing students for the next stage in their lives, whether it be from elementary into high school or high school into college or full-time employment? What changes, if any, do you think need to be made?

We are always focused on providing excellence in education first hiring qualified teachers and retaining them to prepare our students ready for next stage. Board directed and encouraged our superintendent to engage with his peers to prepare students for next stages and help smooth transition for students for high school

What budgetary issues will your district have to confront during the next four years and what measures do you support to address them? If you believe cuts are necessary, be specific about programs and expenses that should be considered for reduction or elimination. On the income side, do you support any tax increases? Be specific.

Financial stability is one of major focus of this board, we help district to retain that stability. We were able to provide students excellence level of education, lowering class sizes, added Spanish, augmented our fine arts and voted to abate $250,000 in property taxes in 2019, district also applied for state property tax relief grant. We were able accomplish in past five years going from negative $5.6 million fund balance to having positive fund balance.

Are you currently employed by or retired from a school district, if so, which one? Is any member of your direct family -- spouse, child or child-in-law -- employed by the school district where you are seeking a school board seat?

No, I am not employed by school district nor any member of direct family.

As contract talks come up with various school employee groups -- teachers, support staff, etc. -- what posture should the school board take? Do you believe the district should ask for concessions from its employees, expect employee costs to stay about the same as they are now or provide increases in pay or benefits?

Board recently settled a new contract with teacher's union that will give them a significant increase over the course of the next several years. We are glad to finally be in position to increase their salaries. We were able to move their salaries up to the average compared to our local school districts. Our strength is our staff and their dedication; we love our staff.

If your district had a superintendent or other administrator nearing retirement, would you support a substantial increase in his or her pay to help boost pension benefits? Why or why not?

No, I will not support