Penny Kazmier – President CUSD 220 Board of Education (And winner of the 2011 Daily Herald Cook of the Week Challenge)
From a friend of The Observer…
“Dear Friends,
As most of you know, I have served on the Barrington 220 School Board for the past 16 years and am not seeking re-election on Tuesday. My friend, and former board colleague, Brian Battle and I are concerned about the tone of the election and put together the letter below to express our thoughts. if you have already voted, great, but if you haven’t, please be sure to vote this coming Tuesday, April 6.
Hope you had a wonderful Easter!
Penny”
# # #
“Friends,
We are both writing to share our thoughts on the current election for 4 seats to our Barrington 220 School Board this Tuesday, April 6. After each having served 16 years on the Board, we remain committed to the success of 220, and have been closely following the candidates in this year’s election. We know you still care about 220 also, but may not have had the time to invest in watching all 3 candidate forums.
COVID has certainly created an interesting backdrop for this election. The constantly changing guidance has stressed School Boards, teachers, parents and students. Districts across the suburbs have taken different approaches, however there is no single approach that has proven to make all stakeholders satisfied. One result of this universal frustration is the large numbers of candidates for School Boards across suburban Chicago. Barrington 220 has 11 candidates that will appear on our ballots, confirmation of the vital role of our schools in our community.
Another result of the COVID response, is the increased presence of partisan support for candidates. Again, this is a statewide trend, and Barrington 220 is no exception with PACs, partisan political organizations, and employee unions supporting different candidates. We do not support partisan politics injected into School Board elections. However, it is not in violation of any election laws. We suggest you simply ignore this issue as unwanted noise, and focus on selecting the best candidates that will serve our community for the next 4 years.
Regarding the issue of COVID and schools, we have been listening for candidates that appear knowledgeable, take into account all stakeholders, and demonstrate a willingness to be flexible while recognizing the diverse needs of our community’s families and students. However, we want to emphasize that in choosing which candidates to vote for, our experience has taught us that single issue candidates don’t make the most effective Board Members over the entire 4-year term.
We believe that the next Board will need to address significant issues in addition to re-opening. These issues include working with a new superintendent, planning and executing the facility improvements approved in last year’s referendum, developing a new long-term strategic plan, negotiating both employee union contracts, addressing equity issues, and maintain our existing strong curriculum and strong financial position. To accomplish these objectives, we need Board members committed to effective community communications.
After watching the 3 recorded forums involving all of the candidates, as well as discussions with many of the candidates, we believe there are 5 strong individuals worthy of your consideration. Those five are Sandra Ficke-Bradford, Erin Chan Ding, Tom Mitoraj, Lauren Berkowitz Klauer, and Robert Windon.
We strongly recommend a vote for Sandra, Erin and Tom.
Sandra’s experience will be valuable on the Board with all the challenges we described during the next term. Sandra is completing her third term on the board and has served on numerous Board committees including finance, policy, labor management. Sandra considers the impact of a decision from all sides and listens to other board members when they speak.
Erin demonstrates a depth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and a commitment to engaging our community. During conversations, she has shown the desire to understand “why” something is the way it is, while thinking creatively about how it might be improved. Erin is a good listener which comes from her background as a journalist. We believe she will bring thought-provoking ideas to the board, while also respecting the opinions of others.
Tom impressed us during the candidate forums. Tom is thoughtful, creative, and thoroughly assesses a problem before trying to solve it. He will be a strong school board member who takes his role seriously, and has financial management experience that will benefit the Board in budgeting and negotiations. He has also demonstrated his commitment to serving his community through his many years of service to the U.S. Navy. Tom is forthright and honest, and will do the hard work needed to become an active and involved board member.
For your fourth vote, we suggest you look closely at both Lauren and Robert. Lauren appears to be genuinely interested in serving our community, and Robert has great community service experience as a trustee for the Village of Barrington.
If you are interested in learning more about these five candidates, here are links to their campaign websites:
Highly Recommended
Sandra Ficke-Bradford: www.sandrafor220.com
Erin Chan Ding: www.erinfor220.com
Tom Mitoraj: www.tomfor220.com
Recommended
Lauren Berkowitz Klauer: www.facebook.com/lbkfor220
Robert Windon: https://www.windon220.com
We hope this helps you in deciding how to cast your votes. Please feel free to forward this email to your friends in our community and as always, contact us if you have any questions.
Please vote next Tuesday, April 6!
Penny Kazmier & Brian Battle”
Oh, yeah, this helps! Tremendously! These people are pure narcissists. You set the tone. Are you too tone deaf to recognize that? You decry partisan politics my arse. You are the epitome of partisan politics and you created the “unwanted noise” that people should be ignoring. Actually, no, people should be waking up and be outraged! You and Ficke-Bradford put together your “steering committee” workshop with Chan Ding and now you want to pretend that you don’t engage in partisan politics? Was Battle involved in that grooming session too? People, run as fast as you can from these recommendations! Vote Wang, McGonigal, Karam & Shackleton!
Sandra voted to keep our kids home. I cannot support a candidate who did that
Mitoraj will have no kids in school. I cannot support him. He does not understand fully how the children suffer without being in person
Ding supports critical race theory and “equity” being taught to our children. I find the teachings and how they are administered to be racist. I cannot support that
Here’s an article from 2012 that gives a glaring example of why we don’t want Kazmier and Ficke-Bradford’s handpicked minions negotiating with the teacher’s union over contracts. Both were on the board at the time of these negotiations, Kazmier since 2005 and Ficke-Bradford since 2011. Vote Karam, McGonigal, Wang & Shackleton to relieve our District from the IEA & BEA ties to our Board of Education.
https://johnbiver.com/barrington-dist-220-teachers-19-raises-are-not-enough-were-going-on-strike-what-other-goodies-are-in-their-contract/