Geneva School District 304 election candidates share school improvement ideas

GENEVA – Voters in Geneva School District 304 will have their choice of three incumbents – Larry Cabeen, Molly Ansari and Paul Radlinski – and three challengers seeking three four-year seats in the April 4 consolidated election.

Cabeen, Ansari and Radlinsky spoke about their reasons for running and what they hope to accomplish on the Board during a Daily Herald endorsement interview. Three challengers for the same seats that are open – Brent Nakayama, Andrea Heeg and Brittney Quinn-Sopcak – were invited but did not participate.

The Consolidated Election is April 4, though early voting in Illinois is open.

“I was appointed to the board about a year ago and this is my first formal election,” Ansari said. “The reason and entire motivation behind my choice to run is my experience and my career in mental health.”

Ansari is a professional mental health counselor and an assistant professor at Bradley University.

“I really want to bring my knowledge and expertise of mental health, wellbeing, safety to our students, to our teachers in every decision that the board makes,” Ansari said. “And to make sure we are absolutely paying attention to how everything we do impacts the mental health and wellbeing of our students and our teachers.”

Cabeen, who is about to complete his first term, said he is seeking reelection because he believes there’s still work to be done.

“I want our school system to be the best it can possibly be,” Cabeen said. “And although we are in the process in having selected a new superintendent … (and) the teacher contract has been settled without issue, but we want to make Geneva schools really excellent. And so I am running to continue to advocate for that position. And I want to see that the district is well run.”

Cabeen also endorsed Ansari and Radlinski.

“I’ve worked with them on the board and I think they are excellent candidates,” Cabeen said. “And I will be very comfortable working with them going forward.”

Radlinski joined the school board the same time as Ansari, both appointed to fill vacancies.

“I was pleased to be nominated by the group and finished out the term,” Radlinski said. “And now I’m running for the second term. Why I’m running is, this is an opportunity to give back to the community that has been so supportive of me and my family.”

Radinski said the reason his family chose to live in Geneva was because of the strength of its schools.

“When I was working, I traveled a lot, I didn’t have a chance to give back. But I’m recently retired and this provides me this opportunity to give back to the community that supported us when my children were growing up and going through school here at Geneva 304.”

“I really want to bring my knowledge and expertise of mental health, wellbeing, safety to our students, to our teachers in every decision that the board makes. And to make sure we are absolutely paying attention to how everything we do impacts the mental health and wellbeing of our students and our teachers.”

—  Molly Ansari, Geneva School District 304 school board candidate

Goals for continued service

Asked what one goal might be to make the district better, Radlinski said he wanted to be sure Geneva’s students are ready for the changes in technology, demographics and society that are coming.

“They’re coming a lot faster than when we were in school and when our children were in school,” Radlinski said. “And we need to make sure our students and our children that we are educating are ready for it. … We have to make sure our curriculum is robust enough to make our kids critical thinkers and somebody who embraces change. Because if that’s the case, they’re going to do a much better job when they … go out on their own in the future.”

Though he said COVID-19 has passed, Cabeen said he believes it was a serious problem and officials dealt with it as the science evolved. He said what remains is to play catch up.

“Nevertheless I think there is a lag right now of where we are and where we need to be, pretty much because of that problem and the challenges that we faced,” Cabeen said. “I think we did as good a job as possible with the knowledge at the time – keeping the schools open more than almost any other school district – and opening further as time went on.”

Cabeen said he wants the staff to be responsive to students, listening to them and how they’re feeling.

“I think we can recover from this and get everybody up to speed. And that is my goal, to help the staff do exactly that,” Cabeen said.

Ansari agreed, saying she believes the global pandemic fundamentally changed education, and how it’s delivered to students.

“And I give extreme appreciation to everyone who stepped up during that time. But now the fallout is at our feet,” Ansari said. “And it’s a matter of supporting the changes that happened and supporting what this means moving forward. We have many students affected in so many different ways.”

She said if elected she would look to hear from teachers so she can understand their experience, as a way of supporting everyone moving forward from the pandemic.

“It’s only when we feel the most safe that we can really grow and reach our highest height,” Ansari said.

Staffing issues

In relation to staffing issues for teachers, support staff and bus driver, Cabeen said he believes it’s not as easy to hire anyone in any position these days.

“We’re a little short right now – but just a smidge,” Cabeen said. “We have managed to cover all the teaching positions and we have just enough substitutes to get by if somebody is sick or something. The bus driving situation – the people who are in charge of that work tirelessly to keep the schedules so that everybody can get everybody picked up.”

Cabeen noted that this is a national and statewide problem, but said Geneva is fortunate in that it is a charming community which is an incentive for people to live and work there.

Ansari said the district used to see a time when a single job posting brought in significant amounts of candidates making it hard to choose.

“Now we don’t see that,” Ansari said. “I would lean into the attractiveness of our district. We are a very attractive district, we are a destination and I really think with a new superintendent we have coming on board, the changes that are going to be happening with that, we are really going to continue to make that positive growth and make our district even more attractive to candidates.”

Radlinski said he agreed with Ansari and Cabeen.

“I’d like to make a shoutout to the administration, Radlinski said. “They have done the yeoman and the hard work in this area. … Our staff and our administration have done a very good job in making sure that our teachers are competitively paid.”

Radlinski said Geneva is a strong school district that helps attract young talent to live and work in the city.

“This is all about talent acquisition and keeping the talent here other than letting it go somewhere else.”