Jonathan Baum is a product of Evanston.

Baum, 46, who was elected to the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board earlier this month, grew up in the city.

He went to Evanston Township High School and has already put three of his four children through District 65.

“I’m not surprised he ran for the school board,” said Maxine Lange, an Evanston resident who has known Baum for about 30 years. “It seems logical for someone who is interested in government, went to school here and has four school-age children.”

Board President Mary Rita Luecke said before Baum was elected to the board, he would often call her to learn more information or comment on the board’s decisions and policies.

“He’s very thoughtful and conscientious,” Luecke said. “He has been paying attention to the school board for a long time.”

Concerned by various problems facing the school district, including a looming budget crisis, Baum decided to run for the board.

“I felt that public education, nationally and in District 65, was at a juncture,” Baum said.

Baum said his family has always been invested in education. His father was a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his mother was a high school teacher.

After graduating from ETHS in 1974, Baum headed east to Harvard University for his undergraduate degree. Four years later, he returned to his home area to earn a law degree at the University of Chicago.

“I’ve always had a strong passion for social justice,” Baum said. “Becoming a lawyer seemed a way to pursue that.”

But Baum had another passion — politics.

Lange remembers when Baum was Evanston’s only high school student working on local campaigns as a precinct worker.

Baum’s political passion eventually led him to run for the Illinois House of Representatives in the 1990 Democratic primary against current U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. He lost but was not deterred from his political aspirations.

Lange said many residents also pushed Baum to run for alderman of Evanston’s Eighth Ward, where he lived, because he was so invested in local issues.

But once Baum moved out of the ward, he found tackling school issues to be the perfect avenue for his political interests.

Baum has been married to his wife, Bonnie, for 12 years. Together, they have four children, ranging from a preschooler to a second-grader. Having children in Evanston’s schools has made him take special notice of education issues, Baum said.

His unpaid position as a board member is another way to thank Evanston, he said.

“I’m very deeply invested in this community ? it is a lot of who I am,” Baum said.

Baum’s family moved to Evanston in 1966.

He said he remembers the city as a conservative, middle-class city.

“Evanston has changed since I was a small child,” he said. “It was a Republican community with almost no restaurants. In the last few years, it has changed to a sophisticated, commercialized community.”

Now he is ready to “give back” to that community, he said ? especially to its school system.