Phil Pritzker: District 21 School Board Candidate

Name: Phil Pritzker

Age: 59

Family: Married to Susan, have 5 daughters and 6 grandchildren

Education: BS Political Science and Secondary Education, Bradley University

Occupation: General Manager - 400 Condominium Association (Outer Drive East) for the Habitat Company — largest condominium in Illinois with more than 950 units under one roof.

Previous Elected or Appointed Offices: Appointed to District 21 Board of Education in July of 1989, and have been elected beginning in November of 1989, and succssive four year increments since that time.

Other community involvement: Previously, President and Board Member of Harmony Village Homeowner's Association for 5 years; co-chair of Wheeling Friends of the Park referendum for the recreation center.

Position sought: Re-election to Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21 Board of Education

Campaign E-mail address: ppritzker@juno.com

Campaign committee: None

Campaign Website: None

Campaign Facebook: None

Campaign Twitter: None

Why are you running?

I have decided to run for re-election at this time for the same reason that I initially wanted to serve the community back in 1989, and that is to make a positive difference in the lives of the children in our district. With my children having gone through the district previously, I have no agenda other than to help our community's children receive the very best educational opportunities available and to help make sure that they are prepared to succeed.

In what ways would the school district benefit from your service?

With 24 years of experience in working with administrators, staff, and a variety of board members and the experience of being involved at the state level on the executive committee of the Illinois Association of School Boards, I am confident that such experience and a common sense approach, collaborative approach will continue to provide the type of leadership and a steady hand during the next four years that will be helpful in such trying financial times. My leadership experience as Board President and chair of the Finance Committee has involved working with the administration to formulate both deficit reduction and prevention activities that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for the district. As part of the last staff negotiations, a one year hard freeze in wages saved the district over one million dollars which has helped maintain a balanced budget in the face of reduced funding from the state.

What is the biggest challenge the school district faces and what should be done to address it?

The challenges facing the district involve the handling of scarce financial resources from the state and federal sources while trying to provide the best educational opportunities for our children. We must continue to be watchful stewards of the financial resources of the district, and work with both administrative staff and our teachers and other district employees in order to allocate the resources we have with the needs of the children uppermost in our minds. We must constantly press our team to look for ways to reduce where we can while putting into place best practices in our educational system.

What do you think the district does well?

I believe the district has done, as noted above, an excellent job of marshalling the financial realities of the district, and getting the most out of our team of educators and administrators for the children. I believe we communicate with our community very well and are constantly looking for ways to improve upon what we do. I believe we emphasize professional development for our staff so that they can be continually improving in how they reach our children and get them excited about learning. I believe all of our team of professionals are accessible and care very deeply about the children and their education.

What should be some of the school district’s priorities over the next four years?

Our priorities must always be doing the very best educationally for the children regardless of the financial parameters in which we must work. The twin priorities of maintaining our financial strength and wherewithal joined with the constant search for improving the educational delivery system must continue to occupy our intentions and efforts.

What else would you like voters to know?

As the senior member of the Board of Education in terms of tenure, I continue to truly value the opportunity the citizens of our district have afforded me to help shape the educational delivery system in District 21. With a new superintendent in her first year, I believe my district experience and support will be very helpful for both her success as well as the district's success.