Meet Your Candidates: Jim O'Connor, District 97 Board Member

Jim O'Connor, 38, brings over ten years of experience working in public education.

He's served four years as a high school teacher math and science teacher in Arkansas and Chicago, six as a principal at the Kipp Ascend Charter School, and one year as a district administrator in Elgin District U-46. He now works in education public policy, focusing on excellence and equity in the education system

O'Connor and his wife, Hannah, have two children: a daughter who is a kindergartner at Irving Elementary School and a three-year-old son.

Four candidates — O'Connor, Denise Sacks and incumbents and Peter Traczyk — are running for the four vacant seats in this uncontested race. (Editor's note: Sacks and Traczyk were sent candidate questionnaires but have not returned them yet.)

He currently serves as project director at Advance Illinois.

Patch: Why did you decided to serve on the school board:

I am excited to build on the success of District 97. Over the past ten years, our district has much to be proud of:

• Implementing full day Kindergarten
• Increasing minority hiring: 26% of 60 new hires last year were minority candidates.
• Making AYP as a district in 2010.
• Consistently increasing the percentage of students meeting standards on the ISAT over the last nine years.
• Decreasing the achievement gap for students scoring in the lowest 25% on every subject area test of the ISAT for every grade level over the last 5 t 10 years.

Patch: Is there equity in the education offered between all District 97 elementary schools? 

No. There are some schools that offer programming that other schools do not offer, such as the Spanish immersion program at Lincoln. 

Patch: What are your personal thoughts on the upcoming referendum for District 97? 

I am supportive of the referendum.  Like many D97 parents, my wife and I value diversity and moved to Oak Park for the schools. As parents, we want our own children to be happy, smart, well-rounded, and ready to take on the world.  To do this, we need to ensure funding to maintain music, the arts, and foreign language programming so that we continue to produce well-rounded students who are competitive globally and honor the diversity within our schools.  Multicultural education is an essential part of teaching our children not only about the diversity in our schools but about the world around us. 

In this economic climate, every household has cut back, and I will work hard to improve programming while getting the most out of your tax dollars.  As a principal, I led a team that cut $115,000 out of our budget in 2008-2009 in order for our school to run more efficiently while not negatively affecting student learning.

Patch: Has the pressure of the No Child Left Behind Act to meet minimum standards made a positive impact on District 97 schools?  

Yes.  In order to “meet” standards on the ISAT. students need to score above the 25th percentile. In order to make AYP, District 97, like most others around the state, have emptied out this bottom quartile of students.  Every year for the last nine years, District 97 has decreased the percentage of students scoring in this bottom quartile. 

Patch: Name one or two major challenges facing District 97 in the next few years. 

We would do well to shift our attention to the percentage of students who score at or above the 60th percentile on the ISAT.  Research has shown that, on average, elementary students earning an ISAT score at the 60th percentile have at least a 50/50 likelihood of earning a ‘college ready’ ACT as 11th graders (which is equivalent to an ACT of 20 or higher).

Patch: What is the latest book you have read? 

Wicked Big Toddlah by Kevin Hawkes (to my kids).  Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov (to myself).