District 112 School Board Candidate Q&A: Michael Cohn

Background: Michael Cohn, 44, believes that he would bring financial expertise to the school board, which would help the board make budgetary decisions that best serve the students. A retired options trader, Cohn has recently served on the Ravinia Festival Community Relations Committee as its chairman and will now serve as its vice chairman. He's also one of three candidates.

Highland Park Patch: Why run for the school board?

Michael Cohn: I got interested about a year ago when the budget deficit reduction talks started and was concerned where the proposed cuts were. I took their proposals and I came up with my own proposals and suggested them at the board meetings. Some of them were adopted instead of some of the others that they had tossed out there. They were talking about increasing class sizes and that kind of bothered me. I though the cost savings they were going to receive from there meant firing teachers and that would’ve had a direct effect on kids in classroom. I would much rather do anything than affect the kids in a negative way. I threw out a bunch of proposals that weren’t going to affect the kids, but would affect everyone else. I threw out the idea of increasing registration fees and the possibility of some type of activity fees. I suggested that everybody across the table -- employees, parents, etc. -- pitch in to cover the costs. I thought everyone has to suffer a little bit, but it shouldn’t affect the kids. This is all about providing a world-class education for the kids. I thought this was the best way to increase revenues instead of just looking to cut. They did increase the registration fee, but the concept of activity fees was not used.

HP Patch: How do you see the role of the school board? How activist should it be?

Cohn: I don’t claim to be an educator. When it comes to curriculum decisions, that’s what you have to hire good administrators for. They’re going to do the research and come to the school board and say we looked at 10 math programs and this is the one we should go with. I don’t claim to have the expertise. You have to believe in who you hire and have some meaningful discussions. I think there might be a better way to do the financial things and maybe on that regard I am an activist. I think it depends on the topic. I think there are certain circumstances you have to be active. I want all kids to have the best opportunities to get the best education and have the best experience. I know coming through the system, I didn’t appreciate it when I was a kid, or realize how wonderful the opportunities were until I got to college. I’m trying to help preserve that. I’m afraid that everything comes back to money and if we lose some of these things I really think it’s going to hurt the kids.

HP Patch: Are there ways in which the school board operates that you would like to see changed?

Cohn: As a school board member, you’re one of seven and you have an opinion. The bottom line is it’s all about the kids. You’re relying on experts for certain things, you bring a voice, you listen to the public. As far as the whole system, I think it’s a good system of getting input and using that input to make good decisions.

HP Patch: What personal traits do you believe are important in a school board candidate?

Cohn: I think you have to be able to listen to everybody on an issue and try to pick out the most important aspects of what everybody’s saying. When you get to heated issues, there are lots of opinions. I think listening is right at the top. Because there are so many opinions and experts you have to be able to listen to what each person is saying and hopefully make rational observations and decisions.  

HP Patch: Given the state of the economy and dwindling budgets, are there any programs would you recommend cutting?

Cohn: I understand it’s a difficult economy and nobody wants to pay more, but at the same time I’m afraid some of the cuts could negatively impact the kids. One of the current board members said they had picked all the low-hanging fruit – the easy cuts have been made – and there’s another roughly $1.5 million they’re looking to cut from next year’s budget. Eighty percent of the budget is fixed. Now you’re only dealing with 20 percent, which doesn’t leave much to cut. Not that I really want to raise fees, but in order to keep what we have, something has to give. When you talk to educators, many of them say it makes a lot of sense to combine the dual language programs – you can increase teacher collaboration, you have multiple classes per grade, and from a social aspect it’s better for the kids. From a financial aspect I think it’s better. From the surface it seems to make a lot of sense. I know it’s being talked about.

HP Patch: Two schools in District 112 have not made Adequate Yearly Progress by the standards of No Child Left Behind. What are some things the school board can do to help the schools meet these standards?

Cohn: Here’s the problem. In 2014 every school is going to fail. The bottom line is this legislation needs to be changed. When you start breaking down the numbers at Red Oak, there was a new sub-group referred to as the “free and reduced lunch program.” Now that’s over 45 students that fall into that category, and that’s the category that didn’t pass, so the whole school fails. It’s a small population that caused the school to fail. But they will get relief for that one sub-group. With the Dual Language (DL) Program students, the testing is done in English so any of these kids who are ESL or are in DL, they’re behind the eight ball because of the way the programs are set up. It’s not until you get to eighth grade that the program works as far as having its cumulative effect of teaching in both languages. It makes testing not completely fair. What do you do when the system needs to be adjusted to look at circumstances? Hopefully when they do that it will be addressed. That being said, everybody seems to be convinced that these programs work, it’s just that the kids are learning the material in two different languages. I think the school board can make sure that schools that are struggling have additional support to make sure all students succeed.

HP Patch: How can the school board effectively promote partnerships between all parents, teachers and the board?

Cohn: I think we could use the media to keep people better informed. As far as having informal meet and greets, I don’t know how effective those are. I suppose it’s possible that giving the community a chance to come and talk to people would be productive. Parents have questions. I think it’s great for community members to get in touch with the board members, whether it’s email, or phone calls, to express their opinions. You are serving the public by doing this, so parents’ opinions do matter and count. I realize that at the school board meetings it can be difficult to always express opinions and get answers, but as a community member I know that I’ve called people on the board, and I would encourage that.