Oak Park Election Endorsements: The Journal Makes its Picks

The Wednesday Journal made endorsements this week for the local elections that are contested, including the village president seat and the crowded District 200 school board race.

The election is Tuesday, April 9.

By policy Patch does not make endorsements during elections. But read below for the Journal's picks and links to its full endorsements. 

Agree? Disagree? Tell us who you'll vote for in a letter to the editor. 

Oak Park village president

Endorsed: John Hedges

Also running: Anan Abu-Taleb

What the Journal says:

"By his actions as a village trustee over the past six years, John Hedges has proven himself to be an independent person with a critical eye, particularly on spending levels at village hall and the lack of forward motion in solving nagging process problems in village government."

Read the Journal's full endorsement for the village presidency here. 

District 200 OPRF school board

Endorsed: Tom Cofsky, Melanie McQueen, Jackie Moore, Jeff Weissglass

Also running: John Bokum, Eric Davis, Terry Finnegan, Beatrice Fung, Steve Gevinson, Barb Langer, Julie McCarthy, Steve Nations, Steve Perkovich

What the Journal says:

"Jackie Moore has been an active citizen volunteer in our schools for many years. She worked on the District 97 strategic plan, Oak Park's diversity task force, the rejuvenation of the high school's PTO, the board of the Collaboration for Early Childhood."

"Weissglass brings an adult life focused on matters of educational and cultural equity. ... He sees a lack of cohesion, an erosion of community trust, owing to the financial reserves and last year's TIF lawsuit."

"Tom Cofsky is a business person who understands that education is not the same as running a corporation — except when it is. ... Cofsky, though, is so much broader in his view of the high school than just seeing it through a finance lens. He is perceptive on race and the gap, on ways to create an atmosphere for learning, on how to engage faculty and the community more fully."

"(McQueen) is an active school parent and volunteer who understands the essential nature of the connection between home and school. She knows from her experience and that of parents she represents that the connection is frayed at OPRF — particularly, though not exclusively, between the school and African-American parents."

Read the Journal's full endorsement for District 200 here.