D219 School Board Forum Previews Election Candidates

Seven candidates running for the D219 School Board attended a forum in which they were interviewed by Niles West and Niles North students on March 9 in the South Lobby of Niles West. The schools’ parent advisory councils, NWPAC and NNPAC, moderated the event.

Candidates include David Ko, Amber Wood, Celia Stennett, Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, Sidney Stein, Ramsen Sheeno and Kennya (Ken) Durr. David Ko and Mateo Farzaneh are incumbents running for reelection, whereas the rest are newcomers.

The candidates answered questions ranging from their thoughts about exclusivity in D219, security present at the schools, social and emotional well-being, academics, the school budget, and staff benefits. There was no question and answer (Q&A) portion for the spectators at the forum.

Each candidate began by giving a one-and-a-half-minute opening statement in order to introduce themselves and their qualifications.

The first to speak was Farzaneh, whose qualifications include working as a college professor. He was asked questions about the school budget, addressing racism and ways to create more college awareness for the underclassmen.

“D219 is a special place because of its diversity and with that diversity, there’s a lot of responsibility. The idea of the board not responding to racism in the district is something that concerns me, and I would want to see more of Calvin Terrell [motivational speaker and activist] and people like him to address these issues,” Farzeneh said.

“Our budget priorities have to be based on a need basis and currently, we need more education that is going to prepare our students for college. The College Resource Center needs to have a better relationship with local universities and educate students on scholarship opportunities,” Farzaneh said.

“Security is also of utmost importance and I’m interested in finding more SROs [School Resource Officers] that are sensitive to the needs of our student body and go through cultural training. An idea that has also frustrated me a lot is the board not actually responding to the racism that goes on in this district to let that community know that we’re going to do something about it. I will do everything in power to make sure this communication is put through because hate has no home here,” Farzaneh said.

The next candidate, Amber Wood, drew heavily on her non-profit board experience. She was asked to address the school budget and address mental health services.

“I think something we need to prioritize in our budget is normalizing non-college paths. If we do not invest in this then students will continue to feel less than. We should also invest in hiring the security staff in-house and making them a part of the D219 family to help improve the training and overall security within the school. Having regular security assessments by outside professionals is essential. The Skokie Police Department can help us with those assessments and find any gaps,” Wood said.

“Mental health is another issue that has existed before COVID, and I’m concerned we’re not addressing social-emotional learning in a comprehensive way. We need to have capable staff to support those kids and are implementing programs to create both mental health capabilities and build on social-emotional learning,” Wood said.

Wood had a different stance on reducing hate speech and criticized the board for not directly responding to students protesting racism in both schools.

“When the Black Student Union had a protest, the board should have answered. By not hearing the stories, the board did not acknowledge there had been a problem. Every year that we push out those plans to make sure [to] have equity which is a lens through which all decisions are made, that’s one more set of kids who are missing out and living with these situations,” Wood said.

Celia Stennett is a community member who does a lot of volunteer work and works as an employee in Skokie School District 69. She was asked to discuss her stance on LGBTQ inclusivity, eliminating discrimination and regulating the school budget.

“Central to my platform is the recruitment and retention of teachers and staff of color. It’s crucially important that our staff reflects the student body. Support staff also play such an important role in these schools so I would prioritize offering a competitive salary and benefits packages to them,” Stennett said.

We need to make sure we’re investing in our youth so they have outlets and people that they can lean on. Tutoring and additional resource is another thing we can look at because right now we’re looking at an academic deficit because of the pandemic and we need to start closing those gaps,” Stennett said.

We also need to denounce any kind of hate speech and make sure that the students and community know that it’s not tolerated. We need to take these situations more seriously and launch investigations,” Stennett said.

Sidney Stein comes from a military and martial arts background and also has 25 years of teaching experience. He’s worked in many Chicago-area schools. He was asked about his top priorities and ways to make District 219 safer for students of color.

“My top priority is having rigorous classes that will take students out of their comfort zone. Those include AP and language because we’re competing with other schools internationally in terms of education. Second, sports team to build perseverance,” Stein said.

“We need more armed security, and we need to have a very close relationship with the officers of the Skokie Police Department. We’ve had a panorama report where people from the outside are coming in and giving us feedback so we have a more global sense of everything. We know we have a problem here with prejudice and racism, we need to eliminate it and attack it from the grassroots level such as encouraging students to be in clubs with other people,” Stein said.

Ramsen Sheeno attended Madison Elementary School, Lincoln Jr High School and Niles West High School. He has two students at Niles West and volunteers at the school. He shared Stein’s opinion that district sports teams must be improved and more well-funded.

“I sponsor the Assyrian club, I work with the football team and I’ve made great donations to different sports teams. We need feeder programs to put freshmen in the right position to excel in the programs in which they want to play. I believe in this district, I believe that I can make a change on this forum to better this district and better the education of these kids, and provide more opportunities for sports. As far as security goes, I don’t think we should have armed security here but our current security guards need more training,” Sheeno said.

He also agreed with many other candidates that District 219 needs to eliminate all racism and hate speech more effectively.

“We have to combat racism on all levels and we should have a zero-tolerance policy here at these schools. Although we say we have equity programs for this, I don’t think we’re doing enough because it’s not going to go away unless we directly do something about it as teachers, administrators and students,” Sheeno said.

Incumbent David Ko has served on the board for ten years and hopes to continue his progress with D219.

“I’ve lived in Skokie for 30 years, I graduated from Niles North and I have three children who are also in the system. Fortunately, being on the board for ten years we have balanced our budget and annually we’re saving about four million in our district. We have a net positive district which is probably the only few in this country, so we have the funding to make sure we are maximizing all our student opportunities and creating career pathways,” Ko said.

Kennya Durr has 3 decades of corporate experience and has a student in the district. He answered questions relating to his goals for the school budget and how the district will provide equal opportunities to students.

“Social-emotional well-being was one of the factors that drove me to get on the board during COVID. My top budget priorities would be equitable access to different resources and investing in a diverse faculty and support staff, so we can continue to differentiate ourselves at D219. Another priority is equitable and fair access to resources regardless of your ability, gender, ethnicity, identity or financial background,” Durr said.

Durr is another candidate that stresses the importance of security while bringing his own ideas to the board.

“The safety of our students also depends on having good security, and it should be something that is homegrown. When we make decisions like outsourcing the security forces, we’re not taking into consideration the implications those decisions can have because it impacts the lives of the children,” Durr said.

A big topic of conversation among the candidates was the inequality within the D219 community. In regard to addressing hate speech, Ko emphasized that this was an issue the board was actively working on, though change might not be happening as fast as students would prefer.

“We have been working on equity, we are listening, learning and making these changes. It might not be as fast as we want it to be but our goal is to make sure we are deliberately going a little bit slower but are making all the right moves,” Ko said.

The questions intended to help voters navigate the election and choose who they want to see represent their school. To conclude the two-hour event, each made a closing statement to summarize their platforms and secure votes. 

Residents 18 years of age or older can participate in the election that will take place on Tuesday, April 4. Voters can visit the Cook County Clerk’s office website to find their voting location.