Keep our kids safe.

Josh and Nate’s Priorities

Keeping our kids safe will always be our top priority. Having a safe learning environment is critical to enabling our kids to learn.

Nate has been advocating for a safer school environment as a father of OPRFHS students since 2018 and as an OPRFHS Community Council member since 2022. He has national-level experience on how to properly respond to emergencies and large-scale events through his prior military career.

As a father of three young children, Josh wants to ensure his kids and all kids have a safe high school, not only now but in the future. Josh is adept at viewing risk from a critical perspective, and has experience advising school boards throughout the midwest and assisting them in identifying risks and potential pitfalls.

We will improve the school’s Behavior Education Plan to reflect state law and ensure it is enforced.

We will ensure the school is as prepared and is as safe as possible for active shooter situations.

And we will be transparent on disciplinary action taken and the discipline imposed.

I. Improve the Behavior Education Plan (BEP).

There are too many instances in which students have been found to have guns and knives and there are too many fights. In the 2021-2022 school year, for instance, there were more than 76 students who were disciplined for inappropriate non-sexual physical contact.¹

There are also too many instances of repeat offenders. In recent years, there have been an average of 74 students who have had three or more disciplinary infractions.² Remarkably, 10 to 15 students have had seven or more infractions in the four non-remote school years between 2019 and 2023.³ While that number is low as a percentage of the number of students in the school, there needs to be a better response to repeat offenders because, invariably, a small number of students misbehaving has a disproportionate impact on other students who want to learn.

There were significant changes to the disciplinary rules starting in 2017-2018. First, the infraction matrix was deleted, which eliminated a visually clear expectation of what would happen if a student committed an infraction.⁴ A matrix of sorts was returned in 2020-2021 but with only wide variations of possible consequences ranging from Level 1 to Level 5.⁵ Two, the infractions that would be imposed were changed from a firm punishment to a range of punishments through 2019-2020. And three, starting for the 2020-2021 school year, the Code of Conduct was replaced with the Behavior Education Plan (BEP), which deemphasized the disciplinary nature of the process (click here for details).⁶

Unfortunately, alongside the relaxation of consequences under the Code of Conduct/BEP, we have seen an increase in students engaging in physical violence. Since the 2016-2017, the number of students engaging in physical violence has more than doubled.⁷ In 2016-2017, 31 students were disciplined for physical violence. By the 2021-2022 school year, that number increased to 76 as of March 14, 2022, with two more months remaining in that school year. For the current school year of 2024-2025, there have been 41 physical altercations or threats through January 13, 2025, almost as many as during the entire 2023-2024 school year.⁸

While restorative practices might be a good idea for lower level infractions, the data suggests this does not work for more serious infractions. More concrete disciplinary actions in the BEP for more serious infractions would increase deterrence and create a safer environment.

While recent Illinois legislation generally eliminated past zero-tolerance policies, there is a specific exception for students who bring to school a firearm or a knife. The Behavior Response Grid in the Behavior Education Plan directly contradicts Illinois state law. State law mandates that any student who brings a firearm, or a look-alike firearm, knife, or other weapon if used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm, face a minimum of a one-year expulsion. However, the Grid only calls for as little as a four-day out-of-school suspension.⁹

From the 2018-2019 school year through the 2022-2023 school year, there were 19 incidents of students bringing a gun or knife into school — five of which were guns. Two of these were real guns. While we don’t know from the school data if the other 17 weapons other than a real gun were used or attempted to be used to cause bodily harm, only one of these 19 incidents resulted in an expulsion.¹⁰ While we are not advocating that every instance of a student bringing a knife, for instance, into school should result in an expulsion, we do expect state law to be followed.

Nate and Josh believe the Board should do the following:

  1. Change the Behavior Response Grid to accurately reflect state law. A “Level 6” for the initiation of the expulsion process should be added.

  2. Publicize the Illinois state law to students and families so that they know if firearms and knives are brought to the school, the state law will be followed.

  3. Enforce the law.

  4. Ensure that fighting is a Level 4 or 5 offense. Right now, the BEP Grid shows a range of punishments ranging from Level 2 to Level 5 for “physical attack against a student,” "two or more persons committing violence or inflicting injury to another person,” and “use of physical force, including the use of an object, directly against or affecting a student or a staff member of OPRFHS or any adult who is legitimately exercising authority at the school or during any school activity.” There is no legitimate reason why any of these offenses should not be a Level 4 or Level 5 offense requiring at least a one day out-of-school suspension. And this is not to give these students a day off; teachers will be expected to give the student homework so that when the student returns the student is able to maintain pace with the rest of the students in their classes.

As members of the OPRFHS Board of Education, Josh and Nate will make these changes, publicize them, and enforce them to ensure a safer school for students and staff.

II. Be better prepared for worst-case scenarios.

According to Education Week, 2024 had more school shootings than 2023, and continues an unacceptable and tragic trend.¹¹ Unfortunately, with increases in violent interactions amongst students, the risks posed to an under-prepared D200 loom larger and we must act now to protect our children.

We are now on our fourth director of campus security in two years.¹² The Board has an interagency agreement with the Oak Park Police Department¹³ and yet there are striking absences from this agreement. While we do not expect sensitive information to be publicized, there is no indication D200 has any of the following:

  • A robust response plan that is consistent with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and best practices

  • Memorandums of Understanding, advanced planning, and joint training not only with the Oak Park Police Department but with the River Forest Police Department, local fire departments, and other critical first responders such as mental health professionals

  • A wearable emergency alert system for all teachers and staff so that anyone facing an immediate threat can call for action — because seconds save lives¹⁴

We must follow best practices, have experienced and well-trained staff, and actively coordinate and train with community first responders.¹⁵

Josh and Nate will pursue all of the above to ensure the high school and everyone in it is as prepared and as safe as possible for worst-case scenarios.

III. Be more transparent.

Along with being more transparent in how we spend taxpayer money, we need to be more transparent on disciplinary measures taken.

On the Board’s webpage, we need a dashboard showing incidents of fighting, guns and knives brought into school, and other violations of the Behavior Education Plan, and the discipline imposed. We can’t address what we don’t track. If the school is safe, parents and students should know about it. If there are areas that need improvement, such as drug use and/or dealing in school bathrooms, parents and students should be aware of it so they can be addressed.

Josh and Nate’s Other Priorities

Click each priority below to read more:

Challenge all students.

We need to ensure all students are academically challenged.

While a one-room schoolhouse with 30 students may require a single classroom with one teacher for all students, we are blessed to have a well-resourced high school of over 3,200 students. Forcing students into a single classroom for basic freshman classes does not challenge those students who are more academically advanced and it overly stresses and fails to adequately teach students who need more assistance.

Safeguard taxpayer dollars.

We will always scrutinize costs before agreeing to any tax levy increase.

Josh and Nate will scrutinize spending on high-paying administrators, get to the bottom of why teachers are absent more than the state average, hold the line on property tax increases, and pay close attention to spending on the over $100 million-plus Project 2.