Bolingbrook Teacher Running for Oswego Board of Education

Jared Ploger. Credit: Submitted photo

A Valley View School District middle school teacher this week announced he’s vying for a seat on the Oswego School District 308 Board of Education in April 2015.

Jared Ploger, 38, is a social studies and language arts teacher at Jane Addams Middle School in Bolingbrook. In a press release, the Aurora resident said his top priority is restoring public trust in District 308, saying faith in the school board and administration have eroded in the last four years.

The best interests of students are ignored, according to Ploger, as board members have failed to deliver on better communication with the district’s various communities. Meanwhile, creating a top heavy administration is the priority as classrooms go without computers and books, said Ploger, whose mother lives in District 308.

“I believe solutions exist outside of undercutting our kids’ education and raising already high taxes,” Ploger said.

In a campaign release, Ploger called for greater transparency so parents can understand the reasons behind decisions affecting their children’s future, along with improved communication with other local governing bodies and the public.

“The decision to pull out of the special education co-op is a prime example,” Ploger said. “They did this without having any real plan in place for our most vulnerable kids -- without even talking to the parents until after the fact. They ultimately had to put it off a year because they put our co-op partners in such a bad spot.”

In the release, Ploger also addressed changes in the district’s English Language Learners program, saying parents are upset by the lack of transparency and communication.

“The district announced in June that it would audit the program as a whole, but ultimately, the audit focused only on Dual Language, the most successful of the methods used to deliver instruction to English learners,” Ploger’s release noted.

“Spanish-speaking parents are echoing other parent’s sentiments telling me the district just doesn’t care about them,” he said.

Ploger is a 1993 graduate of Somonauk High School and attended Northern Illinois University, where he graduated Phi Theta Kappa and received the J. Patrick White Student Teaching Award. He received his master’s degree from Olivet Nazarene University in 2010.

He has taught at Jane Addams Middle School for nine years and serves on various curriculum-writing committees in Valley View School District. Ploger said he also serves as a basketball coach and has taken several teams downstate and has been named Coach of the Year by the Illinois Basketball Coaches’ Association three times.

Ploger and his wife, Monica, a Spanish teacher in the Indian Prairie School District, have lived in Aurora for nine years. They have two sons — 14-year-old Alex, a student at Oswego East High School; and 7-year-old Aiden, who attends Hunt Club Elementary.

In the campaign release, Ploger said he started the Father’s Forum at Long Beach Elementary School and is currently active with the Home & School Organization at Hunt Club and with district’s Bilingual Parents Advisory Council.

Three spots on the board of education are up for election in 2015. Incumbents Bill Walsh, the current board president, and Brent Lightfoot, have announced re-election bids.