There are clear philosophical and ideological distinctions in the heated Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 School Board race.
On one side there is the slate of Nate Mellman and Josh Gertz. They are challenging what some view as the OPRF establishment and are questioning some core beliefs that have been dominant at the school in recent years. Mellman and Gertz are being vehemently opposed by a four candidate coalition that is supportive of the status quo and the school’s current direction.
The four candidate coalition is made up of incumbents Fred Arkin and Audrey Williams-Lee as well as current OPRF Community Finance Committee member Kathleen Odell and write-in candidate David Schaafsma. They are being supported by all of the current School Board members, the unions at the school and by many progressive activists.
Schaafsma got into the race as a write-in after Gertz knocked Tania Haigh off the ballot after a challenge to Haigh’s nominating petitions discovered she did not file a required form. If Schaafsma had not entered the race, either Mellman or Gertz would have been assured of winning a seat because there would have been just five candidates running for four seats.
Mellman objected to Williams-Lee’s nominating petitions because of a paperwork mistake but his challenge was unsuccessful. Williams-Lee, who was appointed to the school board in 2023, blasted Mellman and Gertz at a March 13 League of Women’s Voters candidate forum for trying to knock her off the ballot “on a technicality.”
“While it was legal, in my view it was wrong. It was cowardly,” Williams-Lee said. “They tried to guarantee themselves seats on the board by preempting your ability as voters to make a choice about whom you’d like to have on the board. And this reflects a level of narcissism that I think is bad for our community and for our students. You’re going to hear a lot of differences tonight as we speak on the issues but the biggest difference, in my opinion, is going to be character.”
Mellman also had his nominating petitions challenged by three people who are not candidates but that challenge was also unsuccessful.
Mellman, an administrative law judge who lives in River Forest, has been a lightning rod since last year when he alleged instances of antisemitism at the school, specifically citing the actions of three teachers and the school’s Middle Eastern and North African students club for actions connected to the war in Gaza. Last summer Mellman filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois attorney general’s office but no action has been taken on the complaint.
Gertz and Mellman oppose the three-year-old change in the freshman curriculum called Honors for All, which detracked much of the freshman curriculum for most students in an attempt to reduce the wide gap in academic performance between white and Asian students on one hand and Black and Hispanic students. The change eliminated the college prep level in freshman English, history and science classes so that nearly 90% of freshmen take honors classes in those subjects. The goal of Honors for All is to get more Black and Hispanic students into honors and Advanced Placement classes.
“I think it’s a compromise, it teaches the middle,” Gertz said at a candidate forum last month, arguing that Honors for All does not meet the needs of many students. “What we should be doing is identifying students that are just at or below grade level in core subject matters coming into 9th grade and what Nate and I are proposing are intensive summer school programs to try and bring them up to level to give them the best footing to succeed in high school.”
Gertz and Mellman said OPRF trails comparable schools in the percentage of freshman students on track to graduate. According to the Illinois School Report Card 90% of OPRF freshmen were on track to graduate, including only 75.4% of Black OPRF freshmen and 79.8% of Hispanic freshmen. The percentage of Black and Hispanic freshmen who are not on track to graduate, meaning that they failed two or more freshman classes, is higher than the state average for Black and Hispanic students.
Arkin, Odell, Schaafsma, and Williams-Lee all support Honors for All.
“Detracking is about equity; it’s about inclusion,” said Schaafsma, a professor of English Education at University of Illinois Chicago. “This notion of DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion. The inclusion of more students, giving them more opportunities within this honors curriculum is better for all students, there’s no question about it. To go back to tracking is a step back.”
Arkin, who has served two nonconsecutive terms on the School Board, noted last year’s average freshman PSAT score was, by a very small margin, the highest in school history although the test has only been given to all freshmen since 2018. Odell said preliminary data indicated more students are now taking Advanced Placement courses, suggesting that Honors for All is working.
Mellman and Gertz have also emphasized the need to increase safety at OPRF, noting that one survey indicates many OPRF students don’t always feel safe in the school’s hallways and bathrooms. They are also more skeptical of OPRF’s emphasis on restorative justice.
“Restorative justice doesn’t work for more serious incidents like fights,” Mellman said at a candidate forum.
The other candidates bristled at the suggestion that OPRF is not a safe school.
“I as a parent have never thought of OPRF as an unsafe environment,” said Odell, the mother of two daughters who attend the school.
Mellman and Gertz say that they would, if elected, bring a different perspective to the School Board.
“We’re going to be independent thinkers who ask good questions,” Mellman said.
The OPRF teachers union, known as the Faculty Senate, recently endorsed Arkin, Odell, Schaafsma and Williams-Lee after reviewing questionnaires that were submitted by all the candidates. The Faculty Senate will also contribute $750 to the campaigns of each of the four candidates that they endorsed.
Odell said the endorsement showed the four candidates “had answers that meant something to the teachers and that the teachers saw as being a good direction forward for the school and the district.”
She brushed off the suggestion that being endorsed by the teachers union could influence the School Board’s stance in future contract negotiations with the teachers union.
“I think the contribution that they make is helpful, for sure,” Odell said. “Out of the campaign budget the $750 is significant, but relative to the teachers’ contract that amount of money is very small and I can’t imagine that there would be any expectations they would have any additional leverage or bargaining power based on having supported candidates who are aligned with their vision for the school. I don’t see that as an issue.”
SEIU Local 73, which represents janitors, security guards and teachers’ aides at OPRF, has also endorsed Arkin, Odell, Schaafsma, and Williams-Lee.
Odell, a professor of economics and associate provost at Dominican University, entered the race expecting to run an independent campaign but said that as the campaign evolved she realized that her values aligned with those of Arkin, Schaafsma and William-Lee.
Mellman and Gertz’s campaign committee, Neighbors for a Better D200, has raised $17,808 thus far, an impressive number for a School Board race. Of that, $11,808 came from a loan by Mellman to the campaign committee.
“Good for him, I’m glad he’s got that kind of money to be able to do that for himself,” Arkin said. “Look, his position is pretty clear. They try to dress it up, alright, but they’re against the curriculum change, they’re against restorative justice. He came out to a board meeting and ranted about how we should fire three teachers.”
The Mellman and Gertz campaign committee also has received contributions of $5,000 from Ron Friedman of River Forest and $1,000 from David Mausner of Oak Park.
Williams-Lee is the only member of the coalition of four who has created a campaign committee. Her committee, Audrey for D200, has thus far only reported only one campaign contribution, $1,500 from Mary Jo Schuler of Oak Park. All four of the coalition candidates are spending their own money on the campaign. Candidates who spend less than $5,000 on a campaign do not have to create a campaign committee or report campaign contributions to the Illinois State Board of Elections. If that threshold is met, contributions of $1,000 or more must be reported within five business days of receipt of the contribution while contributions of less than $1,000 need only be reported quarterly.
Odell said she expects to spend less than $5,000 on her campaign, but the four coalition candidates are sharing expenses and the other three candidates are also spending money on the campaign for things like signs, advertising and mailings.
Election Day is April 1 and early voting is now underway.
Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
