North Cook News

Glenbrook Community Action Network is asking Glenbrook 225 parents to contact the school board to push back on the planned opening of a health clinic for the school district that will cost taxpayers $500,000 per year. 

A group member said the drive to build a health clinic on school grounds was launched after it was discovered 300 students did not have adequate health records. The group says the health clinic could undermine parental health choices for their kids, and has been quietly pursued without public input.

“If you are unaware of the Joel Taub fiasco (hard to believe but we guess it's possible), you are probably certainly oblivious to the planned health clinic inside GBS high school,” Glenbrook Community Action Network said in an email. “Apparently, a small group of forces from within and outside of the school/district have pushed this issue to the Board and convinced them to establish the clinic. Our state representatives, (Sen.) Laura Fine (D-Glenview) and (Rep.) Jennifer Gong Gershowitz (D-Glenview), lobbied the state for grant money to use as start up costs, and the projected annual costs will be close to $500,000 per year. GCAN believes this is an incredible overreach of the Board's authority and a blatant abuse of taxpayer funds.”

D225 board member Joel Taub made national headlines and was urged to resign after he cursed at a public meeting participant and asked for him to be removed from the chamber.  Taub told a community member who had a mask exemption in a meeting earlier this year, "Wear the mask on your f------ balls!" Despite the controversy, Taub declined to resign.

After Taub’s outburst, the school board declined to censure the board member and instead sought to limit future public participation.

Glenbrook 225 is accountable for 5,132 pupils in Glenview, Northbrook, and unincorporated parts of Northfield Township, according to its website.

Glenn Farkas, a Glenview resident and Glenbrook Community Action Network member, who earlier alleged he was harassed for being concerned on some matters in the district, according to Prairie State Wire, spoke at the District 225 board meeting on Monday night. 

“The District’s responsibility is to send students home and inform the parents that they cannot begin school until their medical requirements have been completed,” Farkas said in a statement to the board. “It is not the District’s duty or obligation, at taxpayer expense, to sympathize and rationalize the failure of parents to meet the basic requirements of enrollment by spending millions of dollars annually on an in-house clinic. If there is a percentage of families in our District that have trouble meeting the financial obligations of the required basic health care for enrollment, there are a multitude of ways that we could address that issue without abusing the Board’s authority and taxpayers’ rights...The Board’s actions in regard to the planned clinic display a lack of current financial reality, long-term fiscal responsibility and a tone-deaf attitude toward many parents and the community. We demand that this project be put on hold until a thorough public evaluation (via townhall style meetings) can be done in order to have complete transparency and consent from parents and the taxpaying public.”