Lake Park High School Board 108
- Zachary Cook
- School board , Illinois
- April 1, 2025
- Independent
About
I have a vested interest in the future of Lake Park High School and the community it serves. My child is currently a student of Roselle School District 12 and will attend Lake Park in a few short years. While I did not graduate from Lake Park, I am a proud graduate of Glenbard District 87, and know how valuable our public education system is. I want to prove my commitment to our community by earning this post, and I am dedicated to shaping policies that will benefit students and families for years to come.
Policy
As a candidate for the school board, I am committed to promoting evidence-based policies that prioritize the best interests of our students, teachers, families, and community. With a deep respect for the important role that public education plays in shaping the future, I believe that decisions should be grounded in research, data, and thoughtful dialogue, rather than partisan ideology and political pressures.
The largest specific issue I’m aware of in the district today is the subject of installing a swimming pool. I have no current position on that, and if I am elected to the board I look forward to reviewing proposals that include comprehensive data collection, analysis, and evidence to support their conclusions. I would offer decisions that balance community interests, including fiscal responsibility.
Experience
I have spent the last 20 years working with technology in the private sector for large enterprises and ground-floor start-ups. While this position would be my first direct experience in the public sector, my corporate work has been relevant in many ways. My enterprise experience includes working for a subsidiary of Stewart Title Company where I directly contributed to projects that included electronic court case filing, plat map design, and property legal description research. Designing software and systems that support these requires obtaining a reasonable degree of domain knowledge to be of good value to the attorneys and accountants who depend on them.
A start-up I helped grow from four employees to over 50 and into a successful acquisition was a property tax research and monitoring company. Growing a start-up into a successful acquisition in any industry requires learning a lot about every aspect of the business. The regular municipal involvement and nature of property tax research offered me a lot of insight into municipal organizations. In growing that business I was directly involved in everything from technology, to operations, to customer relations. I believe that experience will serve me well in fulfilling board member duties relating to policy, personnel, budget, and entering into contracts.
Collaboration
This board consists of seven people and I feel voters are served best by engaged individuals that can work well as a team. As a newcomer to this I have learned a great deal about the position and other candidates as quickly as I can. It was exciting to be offered the opportunity to make my personal views known and read about other candidate positions thanks to the Daily Herald’s long tradition of posting candidate questionnaire responses for all to read.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a stage, and I was delighted to recently share it with other qualified community members at a public forum courtesy of the League of Women Voters and Lake Park High School. Video of that event has been made readily available in two parts (Part 1 | Part 2).
Building a good team requires active participation, and I feel voters should narrow their choices to candidates who elected to be interviewed for the job they are applying for. Among those candidates, who did the diligence of making their positions known in various public forums, I think voters would be well served by a team composed of any combination of us. I was impressed by everyone who shared the League of Women Voters stage with me. Local races are so often left unopposed, but the opportunity to fully embrace new voices presents itself in this race. I believe the community and students will be best served by seizing the chance for fresh perspectives by electing myself, Melissa Johnson, Donna Limper, and Andrea Wittig.