Kelly Henry: Elmhurst D-205 School Board Candidate – No Response

Editor's note: The following is a reader's commentary. This is unrelated to Patch's reporting on the race.

Dr. Kelly Henry, Elmhurst school board candidate, did not respond to our voter questions to provide an overview of her positions and perspectives regarding school board issues. Each of the nine candidates listed on the April 2023 ballot for District 205 School Board positions were asked to answer the same set of questions.

We reached out to Henry via her published campaign email addresses and received no response. Henry is well known in political activist circles, and special interest groups have supported her campaign. We have reviewed her campaign website. She also did speak at friendly forums, such as the League of Women Voters, and a PTA forum. She has touted her experience as a doctor, gun ban advocate, and leadership in the far-left Doctors for America political action group.

Much of what is publicly accessible about Henry has to do with her medical practice as a pediatrician and palliative care doctor in the Loyola network, and Doctors for America. Henry has identified herself as a “Doctors for America Vice Chair of Community Health and Prevention.” While the organization claims it is putting patients above politics, their website and in press releases reflects multiple instances where the organization demands what it calls “health justice and equity,” and complains about what it calls systemic racism in health care, “decriminalization and liberation,” socialized medicine legislation, the release of individuals in ICE detention centers, and Obamacare health insurance mandates. They have called for “remaking health care with a more progressive and inclusive vision."

Henry states, on the About Kelly page of her campaign website, “I model the importance of effective, compassionate communication.” Though access to Henry’s personal Facebook posts is now limited, one post she made was shared by others on the social media network, as well as recently on Patch.com. It gave a startling example of Henry’s “compassionate communication,” which read: “…parents who do not vaccinate and their kid dies of preventable diseases (or other kids) should be charged with murder in my opinion.”

After being called out for her extreme commentary,she tried to suggest that her views don’t matter much because the state is responsible for vaccine mandates, with local school boards having no bearing on such decisions. That isn’t entirely true. First, her political backers continue to lobby Springfield to impose more vaccine mandates. Second, school boards can impose vaccine mandates on their employees. This same article also references Kelly excoriating the district for not continuing the mask policy in D205, claiming that her universal mask demands were “following logic and science.” But at the recent PTA forum, particularly in view of the recently-published studies that confirmed mask mandates were largely ineffective for COVID outcomes, Kelly did begrudgingly suggest that she may have been wrong, but that she was just following the experts. Kelly must surely be aware that many medical experts, as well as D205 parents who were also doctors, including an Elmhurst infectious disease specialist, argued the logic, science, and best interests of students was to end the school mask mandates.

In Henry’s Patch candidate profile, she listed empathy and effective communication among the keys to post-pandemic academic recovery and growth, which she names as the most important issue facing the school board. Perhaps, Henry does not realize that calling parents murderers for having different opinions on their children’s health is neither empathetic nor effective. Her COVID-19 judgment and demands also turned out to be the wrong policy for D205 students, based on the science, which is disappointing for someone who is in the medical profession.

At a recent PTA forum, Henry also reiterated that despite the district’s falling test scores, she disagreed with the district focusing on getting “back to basics” with academics, and stated her priorities as a school board member would include equity and emotional health, and gun violence prevention.

The questions, posed to all nine candidates, and to which Henry did not respond, are as follows:

Question 1. As a school board member, how will you work with parents to further their children's education?

Question 2. Describe what you consider appropriate oversight of curriculum and the role you envision parents having in that oversight?

Question 3. Do you believe the current board has adequately enforced its controversial issues policy? What would you do differently?

Question 4. What is your understanding of transformative SEL and do you think that it has a place in District 205?

Question 5. In November 2022, District 205 admitted to falling SAT scores. A year previously, in October 2021, the district laid the blame for drooping academic performance at the feet of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet the district's test scores have been plummeting steadily downward since 2014. What would you do to improve this chronically unsatisfactory situation?

Question 6. In November 2018 Elmhurst voters approved a $168.5 million bond issue for District 205. In May 2021, drastic overages were reported, to the tune of $400,000. As of March 2022, the overspending had risen to $18.1 million, and in May 2022, the total over budget had dropped slightly to $17.7 million. That is still more than 10 percent of the referendum budget. What remedies do you propose for this enormous project that is obviously over budget and reportedly behind schedule?

Question 7. If elected to serve on the school board, what is the number one objective that you will pursue and seek doggedly to accomplish during your term?