When it comes to school board candidates, we are admittedly and unapologetically biased against “educators” and incumbents.

Our anti-“educator” bias stems from our view that, just like war being “too important to be left to the generals,” education is too important to be left to the educators.  Our public schools are already dominated by teachers, former-teacher administrators, and teachers unions – all of whose economic interests are usually at odds with those of the taxpayers, despite their masterful public relations slogans: “It’s for the kids” and “Kids first.”

Consequently, putting current or former teachers and school administrators on school boards is like electing hens to guard the hen-designed, hen-oriented, hen-controlled and hen-managed henhouse – when what the taxpayers really need are “foxes” guarding that henhouse: people whose characters, backgrounds and experience are most likely to ensure hard-eyed, practical, taxpayer-oriented, rational cost/benefit attitudes toward our schools and the folks who operate them (the hens).

Our bias against incumbents, on the other hand, is tied to the need to hold elected officials accountable for what they’ve done and not done while in office.  So if we can’t find enough good things – or at least one or two great things – achieved by the school district during a particular incumbent’s term, we presume that the incumbent hasn’t been doing a good job, unless there’s clear evidence that he/she has tried his/her best but was frustrated by an obstructionist board majority.

With those two biases in mind, and after reviewing the candidates’ campaign material and their responses to the Daily Herald’s questionnaire, let’s look at the seven (7) candidates for the four (4) seats on the Maine Twp. High School District 207 board: incumbents Eldon Burk and Margaret McGrath; barely-incumbent Carla Owen; and newcomers Jeff Spero, Mary C. Childers, Jin Lee and Sean Story.  (For what it’s worth, Burk, McGrath, Owen and Spero are running as a slate.)

We’ve heard some folks suggest that the hazing scandal at Maine West, by itself, justifies a vote against all incumbents on this board.  Based on the evidence we’ve heard so far, we don’t see the kind of board-level negligence that would support such a view.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other reasons for sending these incumbents packing.

The first suitcase needs to be handed to incumbent Eldon Burk, a retired Maine West teacher/administrator who, at a candidates’ forum on March 21, insisted that D-207 was “one of the greatest school districts in the country.”  Apparently Burk overlooked: (1) the 691st-place national ranking (and 29th-place Illinois ranking) of Maine South, D-207’s only ranked school in U.S. News & World’s 2012 public high school rankings; and (2) D-207’s slow but continuing decline in the annual rankings of Chicagoland high schools – to 24th, according to the 2012 Chicago Sun-Times analysis of ISAT scores.

Sorry, Eldon, but our anti-educator bias is even greater aainst delusional ex-teachers/administrators.  And your attempt at the forum to blame the entire pension mess on “Springfield” shows that you’re either unwilling or unable to understand how the upwardly-spiraling teacher and administrator salaries regularly handed out by you and the other incumbents have done their part in making this state’s public pension obligations so back-breaking.  Here’s hoping the voters retire you from this position.

Four years ago we endorsed incumbent Margaret McGrath on the basis of “a whole lot of potential”; and we even gave her a “You Go, Girl!” kudo in our 05.07.10 post for being the only D-207 board member to articulate the obvious: that “there’s a negative impact to borrowing a lot of money to spend short-term.”  Unfortunately, in all other respects she has shown herself to be a go-along-to-get-along rubber-stamp for the administration, approving merit-less salary increases with barely a whimper of objection or analysis.  That’s a lot less than we had hoped for in 2009, and it’s a lot less than the taxpayers – and the students – deserve in 2013 and the next four years.

Jeff Spero is a CPA with Grant Thornton who earned an MBA and has a wife who is a Lutheran school principal.   Those credentials suggest he might be that rare combination of a hard-eyed, bottom-line analyst with the added insight into how private and parochial schools do more with less.  That’s why we endorse him, albeit with a twinge of concern that his sharing the same ticket with Burk might mean he will be checking his CPA and MBA at the door before every board meeting and grabbing a rubber stamp.

Although Mary C. Childers occasionally works as a substitute D-63 teacher, her extensive business background – most recently as a real estate broker, and before that as the owner/operator of two Brown’s Chicken franchises – ameliorates that stigma.  And her common-sense positions on school finances (“We are at a crossroads of individual taxpayers and government organizations needing to think the same way about financial limitations.”) and teacher compensation (“[S]alary increases should be based on merit” unrelated to the Consumer Price Index) suggest that she will bring some refreshing fiscal sanity to the D-207 board.  That’s why we endorse her.

Jin Lee, on the other hand, considers deficit spending to be “a sacrifice shared by the taxpayers and the state” – whatever the heck that means.  And while he suggests that teacher salary increases should be based in part on student and teacher performance, he also includes the CPI as a factor – thereby encouraging school districts to raise teacher salaries to preserve teachers’ buying power and to provide them with a hedge against inflation.  That’s fundamentally wrong on several levels, including its being economically foolish and unsustainable.

Carla Owen was appointed to the Board just a few months ago, so she does not deserve any anti-incumbent stigma.  And although we have vigorously disagreed with her anti-Park Ridge Park District battles on behalf of the “us first” crowd that used to control the Park Ridge Senior Center, we’ve always admired her intellect.  Unfortunately, she is another fan of teacher salary increases tied to the CPI, viewing them as “a reasonable way for the District to work within its revenue stream.” That’s a big red flag of fiscal irresponsibility, and more than enough to deny her an endorsement.

If academic credentials and business experience were the only qualifications needed for a school board seat, Sean Story would be a lock with his politics and economics degree from Princeton, an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and his work experience that includes his current positions as CFO and COO of Chicagoland Beverage Co.  But a review of his website discloses an alarming lack of substance and an alarming plethora of hackneyed and vapid phrases like “create a positive culture,” “creating positive environments” and “[t]aking an open, collaborative approach.”

Worse yet, it appears he didn’t even attempt to answer the Daily Herald’s questions: “Would you ever support deficit spending in a District 207 budget?” and “How can the district keep its finances healthy going forward?”  That’s a shame, because in all other respects he would appear to have the makings of a good “fox” for the taxpayers.

It’s no April Fool’s joke that we have endorsed only two candidates for the four available seats.  We take these endorsements seriously will not endorse a candidate merely as the lesser of two or more evils.

C’est la vie.

Coming Next:  Park Ridge/Niles Elementary School District 64

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