Oak Lawn Dist. 229 Board of Ed Race - The Difference

OAK LAWN, IL — It’s been just two months since the race for Board of Education became a write-in contest. I want to explore what the community has seen from my opponent, and how dangerous his candidacy seems for District 229 and the students who rely on it.

For a bit of background: I am a 20-year resident of Oak Lawn, with a wonderful, devoted wife and two children making their way through Oak Lawn schools. My youngest, Vivian, joins OLCHS next year as a freshman, and my oldest, David, will be a senior next year. As a parent in District 123 and 229, and as an involved citizen, I have skin in the game.

I went to public schools through college, including one of the best-funded public school systems in Ohio. Grades 7-12 comprised a grand total of 380 students, and, because our community valued education, they supported the school. The rewards were a strong academic program, better facilities and extracurriculars than many schools many times our size, and a graduation rate over 99%. I have seen the value of a community coming together to nurture student development, and I see those same principles and opportunities in Oak Lawn, as well.

I have been following high school policy for years, and attending board meetings since November, getting a feel for the group, its leadership, and whether I could serve positively and successfully. I was welcomed by the superintendent, staff, and board members, several of whom have endorsed me directly, and I feel confident that I can offer the best possible contribution the board needs right now: continuity.

At this point, with so much instability elsewhere, having firm guidance and strong leadership at the board level will be crucial in the coming years.

What I have seen from my opponent, Dr. Ken Yerkes, appears to be anything except stable. The bio he writes for himself on Facebook is a long list of grievances about the campaigns he has lost, the people who wouldn’t support him, the organizations who wouldn’t get behind him, and even family that didn’t back him. In a March 14th Facebook post, he said, “I didn’t get enough support from the #IllinoisRepublicanParty #CookCountyRepublicanParty Or #ChicagoRepublicanParty. Nor, did I get enough Family Support.” (All misspellings, grammatical errors, Random Capitalization, and hashtags are his. I left out his emojis to preserve some shred of dignity.)

Ken’s clear ambition is higher offices. It sounds like he perceives the board member position as a stepping stone where he can make noise and draw attention to his campaigns for other offices. In his questionnaire for Patch, published March 12th, he stated he would serve out his full term. Two days later, he posted on Facebook that his “answer is yes, but no one, except God is going to guide me to do whatever I was meant to do” which seems to give him an escape hatch if another little voice in his head tells him to run for something else.

In the same post, Ken wrote his slogan “America can not be free unless #WeThePeople can speak and live freely”, yet he is unwilling to hear what others have to say, often blocking Oak Lawn community members on Facebook. Or, as in my case, accusing them of bullying him and then blocking them. My unforgivable sin was pulling his own quotes to explain how out of touch he was with his community and the students in it.

To be fair, I won't miss him.

It should be noted, though, that this is not admirable candidate behavior, or even behavior one might expect from anyone over the age of 20.

Ken keeps on saying that he was called to run, but I don't think there’s anybody on the other end of the line. I was called by actual members of the Oak Lawn community who wanted me to serve. And I am determined to serve, with nothing but our students’ futures in mind. Our school punches well above its weight with curriculum, activities, and opportunities for students to pursue their career paths, and I want to aid the continuation of that success.

Ken Yerkes is not presenting as a serious candidate. He appears to be a serious threat. He has threatened to audit the high school’s media center for controversial books. He has implied threats to the payroll at the school. He uses data from a site which is solely focused on threatening the future of public schools. He seems to threaten children in our school who might identify in ways he doesn’t acknowledge, calling such people “mistakes.”

His ambition to stir things up threatens the board’s stability at a time when our greatest strengths are inside the community, and our greatest challenges are outside of it.

Mail-in ballots are already out, early voting starts tomorrow, March 17th, and day-of voting is April 1st, 2025. Please fill the write-in bubble and write “Ben Bush” or “Benjamin Bush” on the line. Thank you for your support!