David Ocampo knew there was a lot of work to be done when he chose to run for a seat on the Proviso High School Township Board of Education. In fact, it was part of what his slate focused on.
“It’s multifaceted, but essentially it’s for the children, and not only my children,” Ocampo in a March 2023 interview. “The current situation at the high school is abysmal – there is no nice way to say it. It needs to be a viable option not just for my children but the community’s children.”
But after a year on the board, Ocampo said there is a lot more work to do.
“I feel like there have been some wins.” Ocampo said. “The naysayers will say that the year has been terrible. My counter to that would be ‘show your proof.’ People will stand up on the board and make claims with no substance to back it up, but people will buy it. That is the problem.”
But the year, and those wins, have been overshadowed by the district’s search for a new superintendent after James L. Henderson resigned last August.
It was a search fraught with controversy.
According to Ocampo, the board was close to appointing a new superintendent from among three final candidates when the search was paused amid some board and community members’ opposition.
“It has gone terribly, not because of the leadership, but because of people’s indifference,” Ocampo said, echoing former board president Amanda Grant. She has publicly said that certain board members did not fully participate in the search and that politics had come into play.
“It’s no surprise that Proviso is entrenched in politics, it’s no surprise. We can just be direct there,” Ocampo said. “As Amanda said, there was a lot of political pressure. It’s unfortunate that the strings … there were certain individuals that were being pushed by the powers at bay.”
Choosing a superintendent by the start of the new school year “logically” isn’t looking good for the district, he said.
“I don’t see any person willing to risk it all,” Ocampo said. “The goal is yes, get in someone by the start of the school year. The likelihood of it? Let’s be honest.”
He explained that as the board was trying to navigate the search he and other members attempted to talk with those who had objections, but they were not always successful.
“I do not have a strong enough word,” Ocampo said. “There were board members that didn’t do their homework. There were board members that did not come prepared. There were board members who did not show up at all. What does that tell you about the process? This is 90% of our work is to select and maintain a superintendent. When you don’t show up, what are you telling me?”
However, he said, there is front runner: Krish Mohip, from the Chicagoland area.
According to Ocampo, from the best of his knowledge, Mohip had expressed that he would still accept a position, but Ocampo said he does not believe that opportunity “would be afforded to him.”
Mohip, currently the chief education officer for the Illinois State Board of Education, could not be reached for comment.
Part of what slowed down the search was a call for a “re-do” from fellow board member Arbdella Patterson, who claimed the candidates were not treated equally.
“It was not done fairly,” Patterson said during an April board meeting. “We need to do this search over. We paid these people $30,000 and look at what we got.”
She was not able to be reached for additional comment.
Community members had also expressed the importance of a superintendent who reflected the school’s population.
“The district needs someone who will deal with compassion for our students, families, teachers, and staff,” said Village of Maywood Mayor Nathaniel George Booker during an April board meeting. Booker added that D209 needed a superintendent who represented the population of Proviso.
Ocampo said searching for a candidate of color was a critical part of the process. According to the 2023 Illinois Report Card, 60.7% of the student population is Hispanic. Those students have been the largest demographic in the district for the past six years.
But while there was a Latino candidate in the pool, Ocampo said they simply did not make the cut.
“Making it the only criteria is a mistake,” Ocampo said.
If no superintendent is selected, he added, the plan is to continue as is with the two current interim superintendents, Alexander Aschoff and Luke Pavone.
“Mr. Aschoff has that institutional knowledge, that district knowledge, and Pavone has that admin background and knows what to do when,” Ocampo said.
Election, power and concerns
The next election for the District 209 school board will be in April 2025. It will be a key election cycle as four of seven seats will be open. Patterson, Grant, Rodney Alexander and Samuel Valtierrez all hold seats that will be on the ballot. It is unclear which of the four might run for reelection. But with a majority of seats on the ballot it could lead to a power shift.
Ocampo said that any new board should be aligned about the district’s goals, something the current board hasn’t discussed.
“We went through a board retreat once but it was not productive, it ended up being almost Jerry Springer like,” Ocampo said.
Despite the differences, Ocampo said he believes the current board could work well together.
“All things are possible,” he said.
For the upcoming school year, Ocampo said his key concerns are security, discipline and working alongside families to set an academic standard for students.
He said the district may need to dismantle some practices currently in place.
“It is tactics. I would like to establish a security task force and understand at a high level what are the key concerns,” he said.
To begin that, the board has approved hiring deans again in an attempt to free assistant principals’ time.
Ocampo also said they need to improve communication with parents and guardians to address academic and chronic absenteeism concerns.
In all, Ocampo said that ending the year with a new contract with higher pay for teachers was a highlight often overlooked. The increase could attract high-quality instructors to the district, he said.