Early voting for our April 7 local election started last Monday (March 23) and continues through this Saturday, April 4. Although we always encourage voter turnout, we oppose early voting for a number of reasons, several of which we noted in our post of October 20, 2014.

Irrespective of when voters vote, however, make no mistake about it: voting matters.

As we’ve seen over the past decade, electing pleasant but inept go-along-to-get along folks to our school boards can bring our community years of overpriced-but-underperforming educational services that not only do a disservice to the children of our community but also rob our taxpayers of money that could and should be better spent.  The higher our property taxes increase and the lower our school rankings fall, the more likely it is that comparative home shoppers will look more favorably on places like Glenview and Northbrook.

Being eternal optimists, however, we always hope for elections that present the voters with meaningful choices. Occasionally the choice is between a good candidate and a better one, but all too often it seems like the choice ends up between a mediocre candidate and a bad one; or between a bad and a worse one.

And sometimes, especially where incumbents are involved, their record of poor performance dictates a “throw the bums out” vote, almost irrespective of who their opponents might be.

Which explains today’s “endorsement” for throwing out the incumbents at Maine Twp. School District 207 who are running as a ticket/slate: Sean O’Brien Sullivan, seeking his third four-year term; Paula Meyer Besler, who was appointed to the board last April and is seeking a full four-year term; and Pablo Morales, who was appointed to the board last August and also is seeking a full four-year term.

Admittedly, Besler and Morales are incumbents lite, their appointments appearing to have been engineered and effected in closed session meetings to avoid the scrutiny of the media and the taxpayers who provide the overwhelming majority of D-207’s approximately $150 million annual budget.  We wrote about that perverted process in our August 29, 2014 post. Such a lack of transparency raises all sorts of questions about the honesty and integrity of both that board and its process for appointing replacement board members.

But the key reason why we encourage the voters to show these incumbents the door is because they clearly don’t “get” what it means to hold the public trust for that many students and that much taxpayer money – or to “get” what the students and the taxpayers deserve for their $150 million a year.

Back in our October 30, 2009 post. we reported that D-207’s flagship school, Maine South, ranked 12th on the Chicago Tribune’s “Top 50” high schools list (based purely on test scores), while the Chicago Sun-Times ranked it 13th on its “Top 100” list (based on test scores and other factors). Just three years later, however, Maine South had slid to 24th place according to the 2012 Chicago Sun-Times analysis, and 29th-place in U.S. News & World’s 2012 rankings of Illinois public high schools.  Worse yet, neither Maine East or Maine West was within a $50 cab ride of Maine South in any of these rankings.

But you wouldn’t guess that from hearing Sullivan, Besler or Morales talk about D-207.

According to a Daily Herald article dated February 19, 2015, Sullivan claims that D-207 “is doing an excellent job” – so excellent, in fact, that he “would make no ‘changes’ at this time.” Running mate Besler claims to be “extremely satisfied” with how D-207 is preparing its students for college and/or the start of their careers, and she too does not “believe any changes are needed at this time.” Only Morales gives a less-than-stellar endorsement of D-207’s educational achievement, saying that it merely does “a good job preparing students for the next phase of their lives.”

What’s that old line about denial being not just a river in Egypt?

If you need any other reasons to just say “no” to Sullivan, Besler and Morales, try Sullivan’s 2011 endorsement by the Maine Teachers Association, D-207’s teachers union – a dubious achievement he is likely to repeat again this year, either expressly or tacitly. Or check out Besler’s website, where the “Issues” tab gets you what appear to be a bunch of canned platitudes from D-207 rather than Besler’s views…assuming she has any beyond the District’s own pablum.

As for Morales, his response to a Daily Herald question about his views of teacher contracts – without acknowledging that D-207 teachers and administrators are among the highest paid in the state – speaks volumes: “Therefore, one of my core beliefs is that teachers should work in an environment where they feel respected, valued, have the tools to do their job well and are fairly compensated.”

For those not conversant in politician speak, that translates to: “Whatever the teachers want.”

When it comes to demanding a full dollar’s worth of educational value from every taxpayer dollar expended, these three incumbents have demonstrated little more than the ability to rearrange deck chairs and play “Nearer My God To Thee” on the kazoo.  Re-electing them would effectively condemn D-207 to the continued decline of its academic standing – which these incumbents and their four fellow board co-conspirators would likely address with even more spending, even higher taxes, and even less accountability.

Unfortuntately, while we would love to provide glowing endorsements for each of the three challengers to these incumbents – Theresa Collins, Jill Dolan and Chimanlal Patel – we cannot.  They are just alternatives.

In that same February 19 Daily Herald article, Collins says that “[w]e should be able to increase our rankings…on an overall basis” without suggesting even one way of doing so. Dolan professes to be “proud that our District offers many programs academically and in the arts.” And Patel, while claiming he believes “in constant improvement,” seems fixated on “special needs…cultural integration and language education” without any recognition of the related costs.

Nevertheless, the three incumbents have already shown themselves to be hell-bent on continuing to drive the D-207 train the wrong way down the track, with no intention of letting up on the throttle.  So all we can do is urge voters to switch engineers ASAP and hope for something better.

Because “better” won’t be coming from these incumbents.

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