Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the April 4 general election.
Voters on April 4 will choose one of two candidates in a race to fill a two-year unexpired term on the Oswego-based School District 308 board.
The district, which serves more than 18,000 students in preschool through high school, covers approximately 68 square miles in Oswego, Aurora, Joliet, Montgomery, Plainfield and Yorkville, according to the district.
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Incumbent Jared Ploger and challenger Kevin Johnson are vying for the two-year seat in the April 4 general election.
Ploger returned to serve as an interim school board member in April 2022 to fill the unexpired term of School Board President Donna Marino, who resigned for personal reasons.
“Education is my passion as much as it has been my profession,” Ploger said in an email response to questions from The Beacon-News.
He was elected to the school board in 2015 and served a four-year term that expired in 2019. He did not run for re-election.
Ploger is a teacher at Bolingbrook High School in Valley View School District 365U. He is in his 17th year as an educator, he said.
One of the most important functions of the board after the election will be hiring a new superintendent, he said.
The board in February selected an educational consulting firm from Oak Park to help guide in the search for a replacement for District 308 Superintendent John Sparlin, who announced in January that he will retire at the end of the school year.
“It is imperative that the community put people who they trust in position to follow through with the superintendent hiring process,” Ploger said. “I believe we need help in looking for the correct candidate for our district. That process should also involve feedback and input from a variety of stakeholders in the community.”
Budgetary matters will continue to be something that the board will need to balance between the availability of resources and the various needs of the district, he said.
“The main economic priority of the district continues to be for our students’ overall well-being,” Ploger said.
“We have found ourselves having to play catch up in the area of curriculum writing. We need to make sure our curriculum changes are keeping up with changing standards and updated expectations,” Ploger said.
He said “with continued proper funding, I am much more confident about what this district will look like over the next five years than when I looked at things four years ago,” Ploger said.
Johnson, senior vice president of information technology for a Fortune 500 company, became involved in the district during the pandemic due to the mask mandate.
“I could not allow our community of students to suffer as the community of adults was at odds,” Johnson said in his response.
He has not previously served in an elected position.
As to what he would bring to the school board, Johnson said he has financial experience and leadership skills to bring diverse groups together for a common cause.
“I have experience being accountable for and successfully managing multi-million-dollar budgets in good and bad economic times,” he said.
Johnson said safety in the schools, teacher compensation, student proficiency, parental rights and financial responsibility are on the list of his priorities if elected, he said.
As for academic achievement, “I do have concerns that students are graduating not being able to read, write, comprehend and perform mathematics at a proficiency level to succeed in life. I have also noticed within the job market that the current generation is leaving the school system without the ability to handle adversity. This needs to be addressed,” Johnson said.
He said he has some concerns about the district’s financial status.
“I have concerns regarding the level of debt in the district which prevents them from keeping pace with the compensation of vital positions and important programs to provide a quality educational experience for all,” Johnson said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
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