With four seats up for vote, and only two incumbents running, a crowded ticket is on the ballot for the Orland Park School District 135 Board race on April 1.
Nichole Browner and Elizabeth Jobb are seeking second terms on the board that governs primary schools Centennial, Center, Park and Prairie, intermediate schools High Point, Liberty and Meadow Ridge, and junior high schools Century, Jerling and Orland.
Incumbents Jennifer Tutor and James Bax, who is running for High School District 230 Board, are not seeking reelection.
Browner said candidates Ray Morandi, Chad Capps, Vince Oluwaleke and Kelly Chmielewski were handpicked by Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, following contention between the district and the Orland Park Village Board over tax increment financing districts and other issues.
Other newcomers running are Deborah L. Scumaci, Aisha Zayyad, Jennifer Durkin-Fekete and Daniel Finlayson.
“I feel like this election especially, we’re seeing a lot of people who are potentially running for the wrong reasons and just really don’t understand what they’re getting into or the role of a school board member,” Browner said Monday.
Capps contributed $2,700 to Pekau’s campaign committee between August 2023 and January of this year, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Morandi and Oluwaleke each recently contributed $1,000 to the Republican Organization of Orland Township, which has endorsed them along with Capps and Chmielewski in the upcoming election.
Browner said she recruits and runs community activities as a Girl Scout leader and was asked to run for a school board seat in 2021 by parents in District 135. She said she’s not a politician and will likely not seek a third term.
“I’m running again not to fix anything, because I’m extremely proud of our district and we’ve come such a long way in the last four years, coming back from COVID,” Browner said.
She said she wants to see through projects she worked on during her first term.
Browner said the board’s accomplishments over the past four years include creating a strategic plan that represented the feedback of district staff, parents and community members, as well as renovating buildings as part of an eight-year plan to improve facilities for students that is expected to wrap up in summer 2026.
During a candidate forum hosted by Orland School District 135 Parents for Education March 13, Browner, Jobb, Zayyad, Durkin-Fekete, Oluwaleke, Chmielewski and Finlayson shared views on TIF districts, curriculum development, the role of school libraries and redistricting.
Chmielewski, who said her youngest daughter attends school at Jerling, raised concerns about the district’s academic outlook, citing data from the Illinois State Board of Education showing 60% of district students are proficient in English/language arts compared to 41% statewide, and 38% of students are proficient in math compared to 28% across Illinois.
“These numbers tell the story of District 135 not providing the education our students deserve and that the taxpayers are paying for,” Chmielewski said.
She said the board lacks transparency by cutting public comments out of board meeting recordings posted online.
“Their statements are gone forever, but the concerns remain,” she said. As as board member, she said she would make more meeting content available to the public as well as ensure fiscal responsibility.
Jobb and Browner highlighted what they see as positive progress made by the board, including expanding five district schools to reduce class sizes. Jobb said she was instrumental in swapping numerical grades with traditional letter grades as well as in plans to update the district’s math and literacy curricula.
“I support continuing focus on student growth across all academic levels, quality staff retention, building a positive relationship with the community through transparency and outreach and responsibly managing taxpayer money through a student-focused budget,” she said.
Morandi said Monday he supported he the switch to letter grades and that it increased motivation in his own children to succeed academically. Morandi said he is running now that his children are older and he has more time to offer up to the community.
Major priorities for Morandi, a real estate agent and owner of Morandi Properties, are to retain high quality teachers by offering competitive salaries and benefits as well as maintain a balanced budget.
During the candidate forum, Jobb criticized TIF districts, which she said can pull funding away from school districts, with Browner saying they are most useful in “blighted or undeveloped communities.”
Those supportive of TIFs include Chmielewski, who said the district turned down $5 million from an Orland Park TIF that she would have supported as a board member, and Oluwaleke, who works as an assistant director of pharmacy at the University of Illinois Chicago.
“If it’s good for the village, it’s good for the schools,” Oluwaleke said. “As long as it’s used correctly, everybody still benefits from it.”
Zayyad and Durkin-Fekete both said they are parents of District 135 students running independently. Zayyad said she is active in recommending books to add to school libraries, to which she said the district has been responsive.
“Most of the books that I’ve recommended ended up in the library, and I’m very, very happy to see that,” Zayyad, who has a professional background in biochemistry and food science, said at the candidate forum. “I think we have a great selection of books, and I think it really keeps the kids engaged.”
Incumbent Alan Kastengren took to social media to endorse several candidates in the upcoming election, including Zayyad, Jobb and Browner.
:She has stood out by doing her homework: reaching out to board members, attending board meetings and laying out clearly what her priorities will be,” Kastengren said in a March 17 Facebook post. “She has shown the willingness to work hard and to learn that is the heart of being a good school board member.”
He said he also sees Durkin-Fekete and Finlayson, who works works as a science teacher within Westmont District 201, as other good choices for voters.
Durkin-Fekete said at the candidate forum she has been a math teacher in South Holland for 19 years and as a District 135 parent has collaborated with administration and staff “to create a positive, inclusive and effective learning environment.”
She said she would support adding a board committee tasked with special education, especially amid threats to the U.S. Department of Education that provides funding to special education services.
Finlayson agreed on the importance of special education as a discussion topic for the board but emphasized the importance of holding committees accountable for achieving set goals.
“I would want to make sure that it’s not just a bureaucratic push through, but actually something that has goals and would be resonated with the board and the community,” Finlayson said.
The next District 135 Board meeting is April 14 at Meadow Ridge School, 10959 W 159th St, Orland Park.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
