Elmhurst D-205 Critic Running For Board

ELMHURST, IL – Tom Chavez, a critic of the curriculum in Elmhurst schools, announced Monday he is running for the school board.

He is the second resident to publicly reveal plans to campaign for the Elmhurst School District 205 board. Earlier this month, Jammie Esker Schaer said at a board meeting that she would run.

In 2021, Chavez told Patch that he was considering running for the board. In an email Monday, he said he was circulating a petition and expected to gather far more than the required 50 names to get on the ballot.

"I've been pleading with the district to focus on academics vs. politics and ideology for a year to no avail, because it's a distraction from academic learning," Chavez said.

Chavez was a leader in the movement to get Elmhurst's school to reopen in early 2021. That summer, he started speaking to the school board, contending the district was pushing critical race theory.

The district denied it taught the theory, which examines societal issues through the lens of race.

But Chavez said the district was doing so through its equity efforts, including a display titled "intersectional identity."

In early 2022, as opposition to mask mandates reached its height, Chavez was relatively quiet on the issue. He said at the time that he was more focused on what he saw as the failings in the district's curriculum.

Last winter, Chavez helped form Elmhurst Parents for Integrity in Curriculum.

In Monday's email to Patch, Chavez noted the district's news release last week, in which it reported that the state designated six of its schools as "exemplary."

"How low is the bar set?" Chavez said. "Elmhurst 8th graders dropped from 55% proficiency in math in 2019 (pre-Covid) to 45% in 2022, and Bryan is 'Exemplary'? By what standard? Even where numbers went up, they still show nearly 50% of students are not proficient in core subjects."

According to the Illinois Report Card, Bryan performed better than the district's average among eighth graders. In 2022, 54 percent of Bryan's eighth graders met or exceeded standards in proficiency on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, down from 58 percent before the pandemic.

Chavez questioned the district's touting of the exemplary designations.

"Is this the most straightforward and honest way for the district to explain to parents where kids stand academically, or is it an attempt to mislead parents about what's really going on with academics?" he said.

Four of the board's seven seats are up in the election. They are held by Chris Kocinski, Courtenae Trautmann, Beth Hosler and Karen Stuefen.