Proviso’s invisible slate – Forest Park Review
School board races for the Proviso Township High Schools have, most often in recent years, been contested. That is always good. But they have also been discouraging as the campaigns have offered little opportunity for engagement with voters.
That is the case again this year as one slate, Proviso 209 United, shows up in the usual places to campaign. And the other slate, 209 Students First, does not.
We saw this last week when the League of Women Voters of Oak Park and River Forest hosted a virtual forum for the District 209 school board race. Rolandra Morris, William Fisher, Nicole Molinaro and Ebony Smith were all present representing the Proviso 209 United slate. But Arbdella Patterson, Zihualpilli Hernandez, Jerry Jenkins and Candace Ross were no-shows as the 209 Students First campaign chose to skip the debate.
As our Amaris Rodriguez reports this week, the event moderator called the slate’s absence, in typically moderate League fashion, “disappointing.”
The following day, the United campaign took a somewhat more direct tone in a statement where they said, “Our slate is committed to making sure that we engage the community and articulate our goals and vision for our schools in District 209. We take each and every opportunity to speak to the community seriously.”
Same situation in the slate’s response to the Review’s efforts to have each candidate sit for an interview. We heard from the United slate and published four worthy interviews. Only incumbent Della Patterson from the 209 Students First campaign responded to the Review.
This is a deeply troubled school district. There are many reasons for that which date back decades. Way high though on the list of contributing causes to D209’s dysfunction is the quality of its school boards. Over the past decade the district has ricocheted from somewhat more stable, reform-minded members to those with motives more dubious.
Campaigns are intended to help voters separate out those motives. Being invisible doesn’t help voters.
D91 works to engage
On the other hand, there is District 91, Forest Park’s elementary school district. It has challenges of a different sort. In next week’s election there are four open seats on the school board and only two candidates. That’s a message and an opportunity that the district needs to address.
The new board will need to appoint two members to fill out the full roster needed on the board. We’re confident this board will choose wisely and add strength to the group. But it is telling there is not enough interest in the district to field a full slate of candidates.
Meanwhile, on page 1 this week, we report on the second annual D91 Education Summit which was held last weekend and turned out a somewhat larger crowd than in year one for a morning of resource sharing and face-to-face opportunities for parents and educators to meet.
This is a positive step for a district that is credibly working to rebuild positive energy and connections to Forest Park.
