District 128 School Board Race: Cara Benjamin Profile

LIBERTYVILLE, IL — There are 10 candidates running for four open seats this spring on the Community High School District 128 school board.

Patch.com requested information from all candidates through a survey. Here are the responses submitted by District 128 school board candidates Cara Benjamin:

Town/city of residence:

Vernon Hills

School district: District 128

Family - Names, ages and any pertinent details you wish to share:

Josh Benjamin - Husband
Son - Age 8
Daughter - Age 5

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you're running for: No

Education: College plus Masters-level hours

Occupation - Please include years of experience:

Certified Secondary Educator (English): 15 years

Campaign website: www.facebook.com/CaraForD128

Previous or current elected or appointed office: None

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it:

The most pressing issue facing our district is navigating a post-Covid return to school. I intend to support mitigations and policies that allow us to do this with the utmost safety and equity.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?:

The critical difference is that I am the only candidate of the ten who resides in Vernon Hills, a village that contributes a large number of the students to District 128. I am the only one who can authentically represent the needs and concerns of the families whose children live in Vernon Hills and outlying areas and attend VHHS. Additionally, due to the age of my children, I do not have a closely personal short-term agenda and will be focused on the overall student population. My children are very young - one in elementary school and the other still in preschool. My service on the board would not be short sighted nor self-serving in a way that relates directly back to my children’s immediate educational experiences. Rather, my purpose would be to ensure longer term successes for the district that serve all district stakeholders both present and future.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community or district?: I am a challenger, but I do not think the currently seated board has failed our district. I believe they have done quite well in navigating our most recent challenges. Two board seats are being vacated, and two are up for re-election. I am not seeking to actively “knock anyone out,” so to speak, but, rather, occupy one of the soon-to-be-available seats.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform:

I am a fierce advocate for inclusion, safety, and equity. I believe every student should feel at home and have a place to land in our school communities. I believe teachers deserve respect and that we should collaboratively work with teachers, administrators, and families in a cooperative partnership to give our children the best educational outcomes. Board members should be faithful stewards of district resources and provide governance that is fair and just - I intend to fully engage in these practices as a board member. Our present is just as important as our future when it comes to the successes of our District, and we need to do everything we can as a board, as a district, and as a community to ensure a continuity of quality education and support for our students.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?:

Over the years as a student, professional, and community member, I have had opportunities to lead groups, organize initiatives and projects, manage a budget, and more recently, get involved in a number of causes related to social justice, food security, and environmentalism. I was a classroom teacher, as well as a team leader, mentor, student advisor, and club sponsor in my professional life, and have managed the progress and well-being of thousands of students over the years. Currently, I work with high school students as a professional tutor. And perhaps most notably, I am a mother of two young children who have had their lives upturned completely by this pandemic. I along, with my husband, have been managing their remote learning, enrichment, health, social engagement, and happiness. Like all parents - all people, really - going through the last year, this has been one of the defining challenges of my life, but I have remained calm, informed, organized, healthy, open-minded, positive, and flexible through it all. I am an eternal optimist, a-doer, a perennial student, a passionate educator, a fierce advocate for justice, an empath, an effective communicator, and a solutions-seeker. I do my best work as part of a collaborative team and hope to do more for my community as a school board member.

Why should voters trust you?

Voters should trust me because I am honest and transparent. I don’t pretend to know everything, nor how to solve everything, and I will tell you as much. I am self-reflective and seek to understand what I do not know. I ask questions. I speak up. I am kind, but I do not take abuse. I consider new and different viewpoints with an open mind. I engage in the service of others regularly. I truly believe helping others helps us all - it contributes to the greater good of the world - and I seek to be helpful and create goodness whenever possible.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office a success?

I don’t hold a specific accomplishment that I would like to complete if elected. I am not interested in broad, sweeping changes. I am interested in the quest of our district to continually elevate the educational experiences of our students. I want to help facilitate continued growth and success. I will measure my success through three guiding tenets: (1) collaborating effectively with other Board Members and and the administration, (2) Engaging with key stakeholders regularly through a listen-first approach, and (3) fiercely advocating for all our students.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the handling of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking?

Overall, we are in good shape as it pertains to our savings, spending, investments, and financial planning for the future. A large part of that is due to the responsible oversight of the current school board. Certainly, the role of a school board member is supervisory with regard to the budget and finances, but ultimately, we have a full-time district employee to manage the day-to-day business of the district. As an elected Board member, my goal would be to continue this responsible oversight of district finances and take an informed, prudent, and balanced approach to our financial planning. Our number one priority as a district is to provide safe, equitable, and high-quality education to our current and future students, and being faithful stewards of our tax dollars will serve that goal well.

Do you support Black Lives Matter and what are your thoughts on the demonstrations held since the death of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake?

I support the Black Lives Matter movement wholly. This year’s related protests were a symptom of a much larger problem this country has with systemic racism and white supremacy. While the destruction of property during these protests was not inherently “right”, neither is the blatant disregard for civil rights, nor the disproportionate number of Black Lives lost to unchecked Police violence every year. To the best extent that I can as a white person, I understand our troubled history and empathize with the anger, hurt, and bloodshed that has brought us to this point. Things must change.

Do you think the current board has done enough to support racial equality, and if not, what specifically should be done to do so?

I would never be able to give an absolute answer to say that we have done enough. I can’t speak to whether the board has done “enough” with regard to racial equality because my opinion is not nearly the most relevant one on this topic. Do families who are most affected by racial inequities feel the board has done enough to foster equity, inclusion, and celebrate diversity? It is these stakeholders’ perspectives that I am interested in when it comes to developing policy and engaging in governance. We need to continually move in the direction of total equity as a society and as a district.

What are your thoughts on the district’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic? Are you in favor of remote learning, in-person learning or a hybrid of the two? Do you support a mask mandate for students and school staff, or mandatory coronavirus testing for both students and staff?

The response to the Pandemic by the school board has been excellent, considering these unprecedented circumstances. The school board cooperatively partnered with educators, administrators, teachers, and families to deliver robust remote instruction. And now, with proper testing and mitigation efforts available, plus our faculty being able to receive vaccines, we are able to provide a hybrid model that allows families the option to be fully remote or partially in person. And now, with positivity rates being relatively low, we are moving successfully in the direction of the schools being open full-time, while still providing the option for remote instruction. Our Board has worked tirelessly to safely navigate Covid and has kept the students’ and faculty’s health and safety their priorities. I am very proud of our district response. I absolutely support a mask mandate for students and teachers as long as epidemiological experts feel it is warranted. This is a simple thing we can all do to limit spread. I do support mandatory testing, excluding the testing of students and faculty who have recently recovered from Covid (I believe the guidance is a 90 day refrain from testing). Mandatory testing allows for safer buildings with less asymptomatic spread possibility, as well as more effective contact tracing and related quarantining. If schools are the essential services they are purported to be by many, the burden of keeping them safe should partly fall on the school community. Testing and masking allows for a shared responsibility in achieving the goal of safety.

When the vaccine is available to them, do you support mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for students and staff?

I do support the mandatory vaccination of students and staff who do not otherwise deal with health complications that might prevent them from being safely vaccinated. We require certain vaccinations for students at other points during their education. In the same way that mandatory Meningitis vaccines are typically not controversial for students entering American colleges and universities, Covid vaccines, as a measure to prevent massive outbreaks, should not be considered controversial. In lieu of vaccination for all teachers and eventually students (when it is feasible and safe to have students vaccinated), mandatory Covid testing should be required until the threat of localized outbreaks has subsided. Our district, along with many in the area and around the country have developed effective methods to teach students remotely. This capability could be continued in the future to provide high quality education to those families that chose not be vaccinated.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family?

No.

The best advice ever shared with me was ____________

It is a sign of good character to be able to admit that you were wrong.