Four Challengers Unseat Three D135 Incumbents

Four new candidates took the places of three incumbents on Orland School District 135’s Board of Education.

As of early Wednesday morning, all 43 precincts are showing vote totals that place Michael Carroll, Sandra Kulak, Laura Berry and Michael Maratea as the new members on the Orland School District 135 Board of Education, unseating Ann Gentile, Tom Cunningham and Mary Bragg.

“Winning four out of the four seats is a clear message that the residents of District 135 were not happy with the state of affairs,” said Carroll. “We have heard that everyone who works there is afraid that they might lose their job at any time. That whole culture of fear and bullying will stop May 7.”

Carroll said two orders of business will be on his mind when beginning his term. The simpler of the two will be re-establishing an intergovernmental agreement with the Village of Orland Park for sharing park grounds and other space, while the other involves examining all pending lawsuits.

“Some things might need to be litigated, others might not,” Carroll said.

Union officials have filed an unfair labor practice claim against the district, following recent resignation and termination of staff related to a Park School incident, where it was alleged that a special needs child was instructed to eat soap among other issues.

“Additional grievances are going to be filed in the next couple of days,” Carroll said.

Michael Maratea said he hadn’t seen the same level of excitement since around the time of the last district referendum.

“There was a low turnout predicted for the area, but the people who came to the polls came because they wanted to see change,” Maratea said.

Berry and Kulak were not immediately available for comment.

View Patch’s Orland Park Election Results table for a rundown of the votes.

Tom Cunningham said he was honored to serve for eight years on the D135 board, and is now ready to move on to the seat he won on Moraine Valley Community College’s board.

“One door closed, another door opened,” Cunningham said. “It’s disappointing to lose, but I did win and I won big.”

Mary Bragg thanked the community for supporting her, and wished the new board members luck.

“I just hope they remember that their first duty is to tax payers and children, and not to mayor that supported them,” Bragg said. “They have a lot to address with all the changes in law and mandates coming forth that they have to deal with.”

Ann Gentile did not return a message left requesting comment on the race.

The district has faced several instances of turmoil since the 2011 election, including several sudden staffing changes with demotions and firings, most recently stemming from the alleged incident at Park School.

The board itself has also shown signs of dysfunction, with Bragg calling for board president John Carmody’s resignation, as well as repeated and heated disagreements between members.

The newly elected board members shared their thoughts on the staffing issues earlier in our Patch election questionnaire, and what they might do if elected.

Michael Carroll

Yes. I can’t help but think that the majority of the current board has made decisions contrary to prudent legal advice, and without thinking about their legal and financial consequences. This is the primary issue that focused my attention on the operations of the District. A board cannot be driven by emotion, at the expense of the taxpayer. A board should not hire, fire, promote or demote based on revenge or personal relationships. It is clear that the decisions the board has made in the last few years will have financial impacts for years to come. Legal counsel is present at Board meetings for a reason. The board needs to heed their advice and make decisions that make ethical, legal sense and that strongly consider the financial consequences involved.

Laura Berry

While there are certainly times when there needs to be immediate changed to personnel such as when children or staff are in danger or there is fiscal irresponsibility, these current situations did not warrant the responses that this board mandated. Ms. Walsh was qualified for the position. Period. If the board wanted to assure nepotism was not an issue a policy needed to be in place. You don’t remove a qualified person and then put a policy in place. Additionally, the superintendent could have completed his contract. There were no reasonable causes for the change. This includes the retiring Assistant Superintendent being banished from the district office so that she could not reasonably complete her job. If elected I would act in a responsible and professional manner.

Michael Maratea

There is a well-defined hierarchy in an educational system.  If that system is functional, a school district will run professionally.  When it becomes dysfunctional and people overstep their roles with hidden agendas, chaos reigns.  There is a reason a school district has legal representation and that is to advise the board in all legal matters and decisions.  If one does not listen to that advice, lawsuits and duplication of services creates misuse of funds.  I would make sure everyone stayed within his/her defined roles.

Sandra Kulak

The board's decision to demote Melanie Walsh was not in the best interests of the children and the taxpayers. The Board of Education acted with full disregard for the costly repercussions to the taxpayers.  It was a fiscally irresponsible decision that will result in litigation that will far supersede the $10,000 salary differential had they just gone with the original decision, with board approval, to hire her in the first place.  Melanie successfully performed her duties for 3 months! 

Regarding administrative decisions/changes, we need to stop the practice of hiring two well-paid administrators to perform the exact same job.  Hiring experienced district office will eliminate costly training expenditures. Single year contracts should be offered for any district level administrator.  The Board should create a performance based rubric for evaluation of administration that includes clauses in their contracts that absolve them from continuing to pay their current salaries if they resign, are dismissed, or unsatisfactory performance as based on the established rubric.

The Human Resources department should form a committee composed of administrators, support staff, certified staff, and union leaders to develop a system to consistently deal with personnel issues that are in tandem with the tenets of the collective bargaining agreement. This would help to ensure the stability and consistency of the decision-making process and to avoid the prior costly personal errors in judgment made by some current Board members. This is in the best interests of the community.

Return to our results page for other election outcomes.

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