Greg Okon Chosen as New D135 Board Member (Live Blog Transcript)

The Orland School District 135 Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of Greg Okon to fill the vacated board seat for the next two years.

"Any one of these five candidates could've been it," said D135 Board President Joe LaMargo, after the decision was made. "Greg had that one piece we're missing and that's public safety. I know from past experiences that he's an excellent board member. He analyzes and thinks through his decisions."

Okon, a former Orland Park Police commander who now is Director of Public Safety at Palos Community Hospital, said he decided to apply for the open seat after seeing dysfunction within the previous board, but also after sensing promise in the current members.

"I was certainly a little disenchanted with what was going on with this school board," Okon said, who served from 2007 until 2011 on the D135 board. "There was such a disconnect of any unity on the board. I just saw these factions that were just unsettling. But now, it's a different perspective. The other members have a lot of great skills to bring to this."

Okon thanked the board members, district staff and other candidates for offering their time. Each D135 board member made note of the deep qualifications they all saw in each candidate.

"You look at resumes and applications from time to time, and you wonder if they are as good as they sound on paper," LaMargo said during the meeting.
"Everyone far exceeded what was written on paper."

The four other candidates were Joanna M. Liotine Leafblad, Glenn R. Babbitt, Daniel J. McMillan and Christy Serdar.

Find out more about each candidate in our live blog transcript above.

LaMargo said that the board will likely ask the other four candidates to participate in resident advisory committees, including one that focuses on special education and another on technology.

The D135 board is scheduled to meet next on June 10.

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