This story is a part of The Central Times’ coverage of the 2023 Board of Education election. The election will take place on April 4. For more information, click here.

Joe Kozminski is one of five candidates running for a seat on District 203’s Board of Educationin the 2023 Consolidated DuPage County elections. Kozminski is one of two incumbents running for re-election, the other being Kristine Gericke.

Kozminski has served as a physics professor at Lewis University in Romeoville for over 18 years and has been the department chair for over 10 years. He is also involved in various STEM outreach programs with K-12 students through the university. Additionally, Kozminski serves in committee leadership roles in American Association of Physics Teachers and Advanced Lab Physics Association. 

Kozminski initially applied to fill a vacant seat on the Board of Education in 2018. Although he was not chosen for the position, he decided to run for election in 2019 and won. 

“When I started digging into the data and saw some large achievement gaps in a high-performing district,” Kozminski said. “It really showed there is work to be done, and I thought I could contribute with my background in education and science.”

Kozminski wants to look at previous successes of the board to inform future decisions. 

“We’ve started doing some really good things like rolling out the CEP, getting recognition for the SEL programming in the district, and rolling out things like MTSS where we can look at the progress of every student individually and start making more individualized plans,” Kozminski said. “I’d say it’s still a work in progress, and I want to start looking at the data and make sure that all the resources are in the right places.”

Kozminski also highlights two resolutions passed by the Board in his time. The first, which was adopted by the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB), implemented remote learning for election days. The second resolution would have provided funding for electric school buses. However, it was not adopted by the IASB. 

As a scientist, Kozminski wants to focus on data-driven decisions. He acknowledges that a few years were lost to the pandemic, and wants to prioritize data to make decisions.

“I think we need to see where we’re at and potentially shift some resources and some priorities based on data – not assumptions that everything is the same as before the pandemic,” he said.

As someone who has spent most of his career as an educator, Kozminski wants to make sure students are the focus of all decisions.

“My passion is education,” Kozminski said. “I’m in higher education, but we need a strong K-12 system in order to get kids ready for college and the workforce. We need strong preparation and we need to keep that top-quality education and make sure that all students are able to access the supports they need in whatever path is right for them.”

Click here for CT’s full conversation with Kozminski, or here for full coverage of the election.