Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series of candidate profiles for the District 65 board election.

Maria Opdycke, the vice president of clinical operations at telehealth network Foodsmart, is vying for one of four open seats on the Evanston/Skokie District 65 Board of Education.

The mother of three District 65 students said she wants to use her financial management background to carry out the board’s current debt-reduction initiatives in a way that emphasizes community engagement. 

“My ability to understand, execute and operate large, complex, highly-regulated organizations is very applicable to what the school board needs right now,” Opdycke said. 

Opdycke has led the financial operations of numerous health-adjacent businesses. After graduating from Miami University (of Ohio) with a degree in economics, Opdycke earned her MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. 

Opdycke spoke to The Daily about her vision for District 65 if elected. 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

The Daily: What went into your decision to run for school board? 

Opdycke: Financial sustainability is very important to me. Upon seeing the decline of the financial situation and the board’s neglect of financial sustainability, I knew I had to step in. My skills and experience are well-suited to the issues that we have to deal with.

The Daily: Out of everything you want to accomplish as a board member, what is your first goal during your term?

Opdycke: I want to make sure that we have a very complete picture of the financial situation that the school district is in and that we have communicated that in full to the community.

The Daily: And how do you plan on getting that complete picture?

Opdycke: Asking the appropriate questions of the administration and potentially getting a forensic audit completed. 

The Daily: The district is currently beginning to implement financial cuts from Phase 2 of its Structural Deficit Reduction Plan. The next phase, Phase 3, includes school consolidations. As a board member, what are your priorities when it comes to navigating these consolidations and Phase 3 as a whole?

Opdycke: My priority is transparency and community engagement. It’s critical for us to think of our district holistically and ensure that the community is aligned with our goals and understands how we are making the decisions that we’re making. And to get public feedback, because the closing of neighborhood schools has very widespread impacts for the communities that they serve. 

The Daily: One thing several community members have spoken about, especially in regards to the closing of Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, is a lack of communication and transparency from the board. How do you plan to address this gap? 

Opdycke: Community meetings with each individual school community and invite the neighborhood at large, not just the individuals that go to the school, to make sure that there’s enough opportunity for community feedback. And then engage the stakeholders within each of those communities to make sure that all of the voices can be heard. 

The Daily: On your campaign website you talked about incorporating “equity initiatives in more ambitious instruction.” Could you explain what this means and why it’s important?

Opdycke: The educational achievement of students in District 65 has been declining over the last several years. We’ve seen some growth in the achievement of minority students, but it is not at all adequate for what we need to achieve, and I think the centralized approach to choosing curriculum and implementing standards-based grading has had an impact on the teachers’ ability to extend into real-world events. 

I’d like to see us really focus on a curriculum for students at all grade levels that allow them to stretch and achieve the highest level of understanding that they can.

The Daily: On your website, you also said that there were many opportunities to “right size” the district financially. Do you have any specific opportunities in mind? 

Opdycke: The administrator-to-student ratio. I think that has largely been rectified in the first round of cuts, but making sure that those resources are being used efficiently and that we are sticking to our budget. Obviously the school consolidation is a big piece of that right-sizing, but one of the things I’d like to see is that the principals work with the finance team at the central office to do a bottoms-up budget for each of the school buildings.

Email: sophiebaker2028@u.northwestern.edu 

Related Stories:

— Q&A: D65 candidate Randy Steckman talks deferred maintenance, school stability

— Q&A: D65 candidate Chris Van Nostrand shares academic rigor, clear communication goals 

— Q&A: D202 board member Gretchen Livingston reflects on tenure, future of ETHS