North Cook News

Glenbrook High School District 225 school board member Marcelo Sztainberg is overlooking a scandal that plagued the past few years in seeking reappointment by voters. 

Glenbrook 225 board meetings have taken on a circus-type atmosphere with Sztainberg on board. Sztainberg said his top priority if reelected would be making schools "a safe and nurturing space for our students, teachers, staff, families and community as a whole." 

"While the last few years have put more emphasis on our differences, I believe that we all have at heart what is best for our district,” Sztainberg told Patch.  

However, his record shows a different tact plagued by controversy. In early 2022 Sztainberg made a ghastly comparison in saying unvaccinated children should be treated as schools would if they were knife-wielders or intoxicated and should be turned away. 

“If a student shows up (to school) with a knife, we won’t let them in,” Sztainberg said in the Jan. 10 meeting. “If someone is intoxicated, we won’t let them in. Why is it different from COVID? Why is the district pushing people to take a risk sitting with people who won’t take any mitigation? At what point do we say this is not safe?” 

The knife-wielding comment hit parents hard as the district had just seen a Glenbrook 225 student stabbed to death in 2020. Sztainberg’s use of the example in comparing it to the unvaccinated was cringe-worthy for many.  However, that was not the end of it.

At the board meeting following Sztainberg’s comments, parents spoke for 30 minutes against him. But those comments were to only be heard if you were at the meeting. The board later announced that due to “technical difficulties,” that part of the board meeting had to be removed from the video of the meeting. The school system released the videos of the Jan. 24 Glenbrook School Board meeting with the note “There were technical difficulties that led to a partial recording.”

Sztainberg, who holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, not medicine, was overlooking very real instances of vaccine-related injury and death in young men. Many studies have stated that people receiving the vaccine should take this into consideration when making medical decisions given the low likelihood of mortality and/or major disease in children owing to Covid and the lack of a significant benefit from vaccines.

The World Health Organization also revised its vaccination guidelines to preclude children at low risk. Still, Sztainberg and others like him have refused to apologize for misguided policies.

Sztainberg is also closely aligned with fellow Glenbrook 225 school board member Joel Taub. Taub – who is not running for re-election – infamously hurled abuse at a senior citizen who addressed a committee meeting and was granted an exemption to the mask policy. "Wear the mask on your f***ing balls!" Taub said to the man. "If you don’t wear the f***ing mask, you get the f*** out of here!” District 225 went mask optional a short time after the outburst. Sztainberg stood by Taub amid calls for him to step down. The two were later instrumental in re-engineering board rules to limit public comment at board meetings.

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