The Orland School District 135 board election features a slate of three candidates led by the board president and another incumbent who says she’s running as the only option to prevent a “rubber stamp” board.
They’re competing for three, four-year terms on the seven-member board, which has had a major turnover since 2013 when five new members joined.
All of those rookies were supported by Joe La Margo, who ascended to board president after that election and now has appointee Greg Okon and newcomer Angie Sexton with him on this year’s slate over fellow incumbent Tina Zekich.
The election centers on an uncertain future for District 135 muddied by the state’s dour finances as well as a split past. The board approved maximum property tax increases and built budget reserves during the first two years La Margo and Zekich were in office and since has maintained the tax levy while boosting spending to bankroll take-home student computers and a planned launch of full-day kindergarten in fall 2016.
“We’ve made some really great leaps and bounds since I’ve been president,” said La Margo, who is Orland Park’s deputy village clerk, the village spokesman and the father of four. “The district has kept the (property tax) levy flat for the past two years.”
La Margo, who voted against the earlier tax hikes, paints Zekich as part of an “old regime” that quarreled with the teachers union and was “hoarding money.”
Zekich says it’s not that simple.
“I was on the board the first two years when they saved a lot of money, and I was on the board the last two years where we spent money,” said Zekich, an Orland Park attorney and mother of two. “The last two years were important in making those changes, but I also understand the first two years of keeping the money. Without all the money we were able to save, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
The school board has followed through on promises that the La Margo-backed slate campaigned on two years ago. In addition to holding the property tax levy flat, a debt levy was retired early, saving the owner of a $350,000 home about $245 last year. A pact to share athletic fields with Orland Park youth sports teams was restored, and by next fall every student in third through eighth grade will have a take-home iPad or laptop.
The computers and tax cut were possible because District 135 decided to spend down its financial reserves, which had been as high as $52 million. That figure is now about $44 million, with a new policy in place to maintain it at 45 to 55 percent of the district’s annual budget.
Zekich pledges to be an “independent voice.” She was the only board member to raise concern last year when the board did not conduct a search before hiring a finance director who had previously worked with La Margo in the Illinois secretary of state’s office.
La Margo stands behind the hiring of Carl Forn and subsequent financial moves, including a recent change in bus companies that’s expected to save about $200,000 a year.
Zekich was rebuffed last month when she suggested surveying parents before the board dropped a planned full-day kindergarten center in favor of keeping kindergartners at neighborhood schools but could increase some class sizes beyond recommended levels.
Zekich also said she worries about the future cost of replacing student computers, particularly in light of pending state legislation to redistribute education funding. That proposal, Senate Bill 1, is currently projected to cost District 135 about $1.8 million next school year and as much as $5 million annually by 2019.
“We’re watching what’s going on in Springfield through our reps all the time. You’re talking millions of dollars on the table,” said Okon, who was appointed to the board in 2013. “We know we have a teachers contract coming up. We just did a technology initiative that was certainly very expensive, but it was necessary to keep our kids at the front line of the technology.”
Okon is the director of public safety for Palos Community Hospital, a position he has held since retiring in 2007 as commander of Orland Park Police Department’s patrol division. He was on the school board before but lost a 2011 re-election bid.
An Orland Park resident and father of four adult children who attended District 135 schools, Okon has worked on security issues for the district, such as the installation of cameras and a visitor background check system.
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Sexton is an Orland Park mother of three and a former teacher in Chicago and Blue Island who is now working as a paraprofessional in Kirby School District 140. She’s a first-time candidate for public office.
Having taught both full and half-day sessions, Sexton said she recognizes the student benefit of full-day kindergarten, which is expected to cost about an extra $800,000 a year.
Like the three other candidates, she said dealing with state funding cuts could consume the new board.
“That’s going to be a very big challenge,” Sexton said. “If I am elected, I want to make sure we’re looking at every piece of the budget so we’re not pulling anything from the classroom.”
Patrick Guinane is a freelance reporter.