Election 2013: Sandra Kulak

Campaign Info

• Position Sought: Orland School District 135 Board of Education
• Website:
• Email: skulak135@gmail.com
• Phone:
• Hometown: Orland Park

Personal Info

• Family: David, husband; Nicholas, son
• Education: BS, University of Illinois, Chicago, in Mathematics and Psychology (1974) MS, Northern Illinois University, in Educational Administration (1987)
• Occupation: Prior to retirement, I was an active, involved educator for over 35 years. Before working in Orland School District 135, I was Mathematics Curriculum Supervisor at Indian Springs School District #109. The remaining 22 years of my career were spent in Orland School District #135. During that time, I held the following positions: Computer and Mathematics Educator, Instructional Technology Specialist, Staff Development Instructor, and Associate Director of Instructional Technology.
• Political Party Affiliation: No particular party affiliation.

Candidate Questions

Why are you seeking office?

School board members are servants of the community who should work collaboratively in the best interests of the children. They are responsible to the community in providing the stability and leadership necessary to ensure the strength and well being of the community. The community deserves the best leadership possible. I will be a dedicated servant/candidate willing to volunteer my time and talents to ensure that the children of Orland Park and its community are served to the best of my ability.

What will be your single most important priority if you get elected?

The biggest challenge that the school district faces is to provide the best educational experiences to the children while maintaining fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers. Extraneous personal agendas, bias, and needless, expensive litigation must be avoided at all cost.

What sets you apart from other candidates? 

I have a wealth of experience in many areas of the educational environment including: school administration, successful grant writing, instructional technology, classroom, negotiations, staff development, district and building level decision making committees, team leader, department chair, curriculum supervisor, and the ability to view school issues, firsthand, from multiple perspectives.  I was the recipient of former Congressman Lipinski's Educator of the Year award and Phi Delta Kappa's Educator of the Year award (Homewood/Flossmoor Chapter.)

Over the last two years there have been a few sudden staffing changes, including the demotion of Melanie Walsh and putting in an interim superintendent while paying the former superintendent’s salary. Given legal and salary costs involved, should the board consider other means of addressing employee issues, and if so what would you do if elected or re-elected to do so?

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.

How do you propose the school district better communicate the importance of, and better prepare students and parents for, pilots of new educational programs, especially ones geared toward the Common Core standards?

I believe that the successful implementation of any new program involves parent education and community involvement.  Use the district's public relations person to design and distribute vital curriculum informing publications for the parents and the community via electronic and print media. Conduct parent workshops during the school day, in the evening, and during parent teacher conference days in an effort to make these meetings accessible to all.  Exhibit to the parents that the school district is willing and able to provide the training and information that parents need to understand the state mandated common core standards.

Concerns have been brought up about communication between board members outside of quorum and in violation of board policy. If elected or re-elected, what will you do to rectify these concerns, and do you recommend any new policies to be adopted? 

This is an issue that demands integrity, truth, and transparency. School boards convene under the auspices of the Illinois State Board of Education and are bound to the Illinois School Code.  New policies do not need to be enacted, however, a plan for implementation of adherence to and compliance with the Illinois School Code would need to be developed.  Board business should be transparent to the community and its taxpayers.  If school board members are violating Illinois School Code, they should be duly reprimanded.

Do you think the school district should consider a fund balance policy, and why? If so at what amount should it be set?

The school district should establish a fund balance policy for District 135 considering that the district already had much of what it needed to fund the school year before increasing the school district’s portion of the tax bill. Fiscal responsibility is imperative.  We currently have a government, financial expert on the school board, Joe La Margo. With his 18 years of experience, we should be able to determine what would be an appropriate fund balance target point.  There needs to be consensus on the funds that need to be reserved from year to year and remain responsible to the taxpayers of Orland Park.

Revenue from the state continues to dry up, while residents are also dealing with rising costs. Please rank the following in the order you feel the district should be focused on for meeting the district’s costs in light of these issues. 1) Staff Cuts 2) Contract Renegotiations 3) Operating Expense Cuts 4) Tax Increases 5) Other Funding Sources. Please also explain your reasoning.

1. Other: Cut the excessive spending on all the recent administrative changes.  Tighten up the contract language as I explained in question #12. We need cost effective, innovative ways to instruct our children in a fiscally responsible manner.

2.  Operating expenses: We can cut our operating expenses by reinstating the intergovernmental agreement with the Village of Orland Park, which was severed several years ago.  By sharing the resources that the schools have with the Village we will be able to share the expenses.

3.  Contract Negotiations:  We would save massive legal costs spent on the School District attorney if contracts are settled as soon as possible. Also by limiting the Board's attorney's use during the process unless absolutely necessary. 

4. Staff cuts impact the quality of the services to the children of Orland Park.  At the last school board meeting it was announced that the district could expect 59 less students resulting in a reported loss of 5 teaching positions.  That, typically, would warrant a loss of 2 or 3, depending upon the distribution across grade levels.

5.  Increases in the property tax levy are not necessary at this point in time.  It should be the absolute final option in these most difficult economic times.

Do you think board members, or potential board members, should have to submit for background checks? Why or why not?

Absolutely!  Shouldn't the guardians of our children be subject to the same stringent scrutiny of any potential employee?

What can schools do to increase safety?

The Orland Park Police Department is an extremely valuable asset to the school district.  They are the experts in situations regarding safe schools.  We should continue to partner with them to conduct a complete evaluation of our current safety plan, and make adjustments and improvements where necessary, based on their expert advice.  We also have many experts in this field, living right here in Orland Park. I would also encourage their community involvement so as to combine the collective knowledge of the police, community members, and district staff, to increase the safety factor in our schools.  Furthermore, I would suggest the following measures to increase safety: parent education for classroom volunteers, background checks of all who would have direct contact with the children, replacing the glass in the school entrances to shatterproof glass, a driver's license swipe device for visitors that communicates directly with the Orland Park Police Department.

The possibility of buying Tax Anticipated Warrants to then loan money out to other school districts and accumulate interest on the return has been discussed in the past. If the district has enough money to be able to loan out to other schools, should the district still be requesting the maximum tax levy possible? Why or why not? 

The 3% increase in tax levy that passed at the January 2013 board meeting was unnecessary. If the school district had enough money to borrow money to other school districts why did they do this?  The idea of funding/loaning monies to other school districts is completely preposterous.  Determine what fund balance is an appropriate level for the operation of our schools, invest our assets wisely and spend money on the children of Orland Park.

Have you ever been charged with a crime? Were you convicted? If yes, please say what the charge was, and what was the case's outcome as it stands.

No. Never.

Are there any candidates in other races you would like to endorse here?

Laura Berry, Michael Maratea, Mike Carroll, and the Orland First candidates.

Read about the other D135 candidates in the April 2013 election.