North Cook News

Iwona Piwowarczyk is a member of the 135 United slate of school board candidates. According to its website, the slate is stressing education first, transparency, and community. 

“I'm concerned about our children and want to make sure the schools are focusing on core learning as they should be because it's our children's futures that are at stake,” Piwowarczyk told the North Cook News.

The 135 United slate includes Patti Thanos and Ryan Valan.

The slate's website expands on its themes. Under education first, it says: “Focus on providing a quality education that prepares students for the future. We represent children, parents and families to ensure proposed curriculum continues to advance academic growth and personal success.” 

For transparency, the slate wants schools to “Welcome and encourage parents to participate in school activities, engage in student success planning and be a voice for policy improvements. We believe in open communication between parents, teachers, staff and local residents.”

Under community, the candidates want to, “Empower communities with a bottom-up approach to policy improvements. We believe in creating a partnership with our local residents to improve schools, resulting in lower taxes and rising property values.”

As a mother of three young children, Piwowarczyk said education is a priority. From a community perspective, “I just want what's best for our kids. I want to do whatever it takes to give our kids their best chance of being successful,” she said.

Piwowarczyk’s Facebook page lists her qualifications. She works in business development for a global logistics company, and she has a master's and bachelor's degrees in business administration.

Her children are 14, 12 and 6 – "meaning I definitely have a vested interest in how our schools are functioning,” Piwowarczyk said. “I think the schools should be more focused on primary education and I want to make sure that's what's happening. Right now, we're taking too much time away from what should be the core curriculum with other things that shouldn't be.”

Orland School District 135 has 5,210 students in its 10 schools. The district headquarters is at 15100 S 94th Ave. in Orland Park. The school system employs around 396 teachers, giving it a student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1.