The seat belonging to David Ko sat empty once again during the March 10 school board meeting of Niles Township High School District 219, which educates students in Skokie, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove and Niles.
Ko, whose repeated absences have drawn scrutiny from fellow board members since his most recent election in May 2023, was not present to hear the Board discuss his lack of attendance. Nor did Ko hear about its confirmation of the Jan. 28 official resolution to censure him for “willful failure to perform official duties,” which effectively passed with trustees voting 6-0 in favor of his removal.
But despite their efforts to formally remove Ko from his position, he remains an active member of the Board until his term expires in 2027. Ko was first appointed to the Board in 2013 to fill a vacancy and was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 and 2023.
Under Illinois state law, a local school board cannot unilaterally remove a member without sign-off from the regional superintendent, a position currently held by North Cook Intermediate Service Center (ISC) Executive Director April Jordan.
ISC acts as the liaison between the Illinois State Board of Education and local schools in northern Cook County, providing the final sign-off on a removal of this nature.
In a Feb. 18 letter addressed to District 219’s attorneys, Joseph Perkoski and Natalie Jakubowski, Jordan formally rejected the District’s request for Ko’s removal.
“At this time, upon careful review and consideration, the Board’s request to invoke 105 ILCS 5/3-15.5 is respectfully denied,” Jordan wrote. “While the law provides the power/discretion to regional superintendents to remove Board members for willful failure to perform official duties, it has only been done in very limited situations.”
At the March 10 school board meeting, District 219 Board President Amber Wood rebuffed the decision.
“Both the Regional Board of Education and ISC have been given the authority and the power statutorily to intervene and help boards address Board member misconduct,” Wood said. “Yet in response, I believe we have received, in fact, the opposite of that.”
“There is nothing more emboldening to those who are violating policy, as when those responsible refuse to do their duty and uphold Board policies that exist within our system,” she added.
“Our pleas were met with the equivalent of ‘it’s not that bad.’ I would strongly encourage you to not use this argument the next time a police officer pulls you over for speeding. ‘It’s not that bad’ is not a great legal argument.”
In Jordan’s letter signifying the rejection of the Board’s request to remove Ko, Jordan clarified that while the ISC acknowledged Ko’s attendance and involvement to be “poor,” the overall impact of his behavior on District 219’s Board functionality “as a whole is low,” Jordan said.
“It is not the direction and/or desire of this office absent more egregious and/or criminal conduct to override the voice/vote of the local constituents… under these circumstances, as well as the limited amount of time remaining on the term, the power of removal is best left to the voters and not to this office,” she said.
Wood took little time to respond to Jordan’s letter.
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In a subsequent email dated Feb. 23, Wood wrote that while the Board appreciated ISC’s “acknowledgment and affirmation” of their concerns, the District respectfully disagreed that Ko’s failure to appear “has had a low impact on the Board and the students and community that we serve.”
“This is not only a chronic absentee issue,” Wood wrote. “A board member cannot fulfill any of their fiduciary duties if they refuse to attend meetings.”
Jordan wrote in an email back to Wood on Feb. 27 that Ko had demonstrated “some level of engagement,” attending every fifth or sixth Board meeting, and ISC would not be inclined to “disregard the democratic process.”
Ko did not immediately respond to a Pioneer Press request for comment.
According to internal documents provided in the March 10 agenda materials, the District has substantiated their claims of Ko’s “poor attendance” at meetings dating back to 2021.
In the official censure resolution document, Ko is stated to have been absent for 37 out of 57 total meetings since May 2023.
“Throughout this period, Member Ko has provided no excuse for these absences and has refused to address his attendance issues,” the document states. “Member Ko’s absences and his refusal to address the absences constitute willful misconduct.”
The censure document also states that in 2024, the Board sought to address Ko’s absences by updating its policy to reaffirm meeting importance and participation.
A failure to attend Board meetings may be subject to a member review and recommendation for censure to the regional superintendent for further action, the document clarified.
The document also stated that Wood “repeatedly sought to counsel” Ko on his need to fulfill fiduciary duties, sending several communications to him via email throughout the school year from May 2025 to December 2025.
Ko did not respond to Wood’s repeated requests for attendance.
On Dec. 1, Wood sent an email to Ko stating that if she did not receive a response email by Dec. 30, she would call a “special meeting” at the end of January 2026 to address his chronic absenteeism with the rest of the Board. Ko did not respond.
“The ISC has effectively made it clear that attendance is optional, and a Board member’s duty to address their absences is also optional,” Wood said at Tuesday’s Board meeting. “I am astounded that in this time where we see attendance rates for staff and students as some of the lowest in decades, that this is their stance, that this is the example that we set.”
Wood questioned what kind of example Board members set when they are not held to the same rigorous standards to which the district upholds its students.
“I, first and foremost, stand in solidarity with President Wood and the majority of this Board in expressing our profound disappointment regarding the North Cook decision to decline the removal,” said District 219 Vice President Ken Durr following Wood’s remarks.
“This is not a personal grievance. It’s a matter of governance integrity,” Durr added. “When an elected official willfully and consistently fails to attend more than 60% of the meetings, ignoring every attempt at counseling and outreach, they’re effectively disenfranchising the voters who expect a full seven-member body to deliberate on their behalf.”
Despite Jordan’s decision to reject Ko’s censure, Wood and other Board members said they would continue to share with the ISC the “progress of the situation.”
Wood also stated at the Board meeting that she plans to attend the North Cook meeting of the Regional Board of Education on April 22.
Before proceeding with the rest of the night’s agenda, Wood ended on a note of resolve.
“As I tell my children, once you’ve made a commitment, you are obliged to see it through. As you can see, there are six Board members who communicate, who attend and participate at these meetings, and tonight, we are six of seven.”
As of March 2026, Ko remains an active voting member of the District 219 school board.