Jim Geldermann: Candidate For Glenbrook High School District 225

GLENVIEW, IL — Ahead of the April 4 consolidated municipal elections, Glenview Patch provided questionnaires to all candidates on the ballot.

Five candidates are running for a four-year seat on the Glenbrook High School District 225 school board, according to the Cook County Clerk's Office, with three seats up for grabs. Current members Sidney "Skip" Shein and Marco Sztainberg are running for reelection with their terms ending in April. Joel Taub is not running, leaving three seats up for grabs for the following candidates on Election Day:

• Sidney Shein, current member (term ends in 2023)
• Marcelo Sztainberg, current member (term ends in 2023)
• Jim Geldermann
• Paul Kelly
• Sandra Muhlenbeck

Patch is publishing all responses submitted by candidates verbatim.

Jim Geldermann

Age (as of election day)

71

Town/city of residence

Northbrook

School district

Glenbrook High School District 225

Family

N/A

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

Campion Jesuit High School Class of 1970; Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, MI 1970-1972

Occupation

Software Architect 35+

Campaign website

jim4d225.com

Previous or current elected or appointed office

Illinois Cemetery Oversight Board

The most pressing issues facing our (board, district, etc.) are _______, and this is what I intend to do about them.

I stand for citizens volunteering to serve their community. I am running as a “Good Governance” candidate, meaning I am there to represent the taxpayers and parents of the district. I am not promoting or fighting any politicized agenda. I plan to serve to ensure the district fulfills its primary mission of educating our students in the principles of citizenship, promoting student competency at grade level, guiding students to career paths that are personally fulfilling and financially responsible, and building and maintaining strong relationships among the teachers, administrators, students, and parents.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am an independent candidate not associated with any group. I do not have an agenda and I am not endorsed by any groups that may cause or be a direct conflict of interest.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community or district?

I believe that the health of the board is dependent upon board members serving as volunteers not as entrenched unpaid consultants. One’s service on a volunteer board should inspire other citizens of the community to volunteer.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform

I bring years of experience in problem solving. As a software architect and business transformation consultant, I have met the challenges of helping my clients define their problems, come to a consensus for a solution, build a transformative roadmap, execute the solution plan, test the implementation, measure the anticipated results, and harvest the unanticipated benefits. I will apply these skills when evaluating the district’s challenges and influence the administration and staff in design and implementation of their plans.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have actively served as a board member on important local institutions and I have been directly involved in education for many years. For 19 years I served on the associate board and full board of directors of Grant Hospital in Chicago. Currently I am a board member and treasurer of The First Step House, a men’s halfway house for recovering alcoholics. I was appointed to the Illinois Cemetery Oversight Board and have been active in many volunteer organizations and local ministries. I also taught religious education for 25 years, ages ranging from 2nd grade to 8th grade.

Why should voters trust you?

I view my role on the board as similar to a judge and not as an advocate or activist.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office a success?

That the school district inspires its students to embrace a life of learning.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the handling of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

Before money is spent, a clear definition of the return on investment must be defined and after allocation tracked. I am not adverse to spending money on programs to benefit the students, but I am not for spending money outside of the roles and responsibilities of the district.

What are your thoughts on how the district has handled the COVID-19 pandemic?

Although I did not follow the district’s response, I am aware how state and local governments responded. I believe using a crisis as a means to stifle debate, to cite and not question government agencies, to demean opposition to the prevailing consensus point of view leads to dividing the community in a time when neighbors need to be assisting neighbors.

In software design, assumption is the biggest risk to successfully delivering a project. If an assumption can not be converted to an apriori, then it is tested and retested through the whole development life-cycle. In that way, we do not lose sight of the purpose of the project.

During a crisis, good governance demands that policies need to be monitored for effectiveness, and when a policy is not performing as anticipated, it should be adjusted, or if the policy is more harmful than the crisis, a new policy should be formulated.

Another important step is the “post-mortem”. Much is gained by assessing the policy’s effectiveness, and lessons learned.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some school boards saw extremely heated disagreements during public meetings. If elected, what changes, if any, need to be made to ensure meetings are run efficiently while still allowing open discussions?

All participants at meetings, including the board’s members, should respect the time and the views of everyone in the room. If someone is disrupting the meeting, they should be removed from the room.

How do you feel about sex education being taught in school? Should an LGBTQ component be included, and why or why not?

I would need to know more about the curriculum at the district before commenting specifically to that point. In general, the district must have a set of clear guidelines that make a distinction between education and advocacy.

What are your views on critical race theory and whether it should be taught in the district?

CRT has many definitions. I would need to know which one you’re speaking to before I respond in detail. In general, I believe that students should be taught that as a country we are guided by a set of immutable principles, that are espoused in The Declaration of Independence and that as a nation of human beings we continually fail to live up to, especially as individuals. It must be acknowledged that just because someone or a group cloaks themselves in good, it is their actions which define whether they are guided by a set of principles or if it is just a selfish means to an end.

As a general principle, it is not fair to apply relativistic ideas or presently accepted norms to people of other times, cultures, and/or ethnicities. By examining the nature of a person’s character, in context, one can be inspired by a person’s desire to rise above the norms of the time, their failure to do so, and how they became the shoulders for the next generation to stand on.

Part of the role of the district is to impart a set of principles that we all share as citizens. A principle by its nature is a guiding star and not a destination. Principles do not suggest conformity or acquiescence. Rather principles call us to be someone more than we are. We refer to it as “living up to”, which denotes that we become more than what we are.

I believe that anything that, at its core, divides us, or is detrimental to our grand experiment, should not be suppressed, but rather exposed for what it is.

Do you think the current board has done enough to support racial equality, and if not, what specifically should be done to do so?

I believe that each student has different capabilities in regards to learning. It is the district’s responsibility to challenge each student to achieve more than they may believe they are capable of. We live in a society that believes that you should be compensated for the product you produce. It doesn’t matter where you land on the social economic ladder, high school is an introduction to this fact. High school, as in life, sets well-defined goals, but we are not expected to go it alone. The district should be offering a helping hand and encouraging all of its students to accept the help offered.

When it comes to student achievement, what are schools within this district doing well and what needs to be improved? How can those improvements be made?

When my children attended Glenbrook South, their mother and I felt that they were immersed in a rich learning and social environment. We felt that they were able to absorb the core competencies and through athletic, community, and social activities were able to interact with the entirety of the GBS community.

One of the advantages of age is that issues that younger people think are unique to their time, are usually the same issues that I faced as a high school student. Sure the names have changed and the platforms/delivery systems are different, but after you boil it all down we are facing the same unsolvable problems that require us to be there for one another.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

No

The best advice ever shared with me was ____________

Don’t be a burden on your neighbors; If a neighbor is in need offer a helping hand; When I am in need ask a neighbor for help.