School board president — also a District 219 employee — sold $100,000 in apparel to schools ‘without being fully transparent’

A Niles Township High School District 219 paraprofessional was recently suspended after school officials determined he failed to disclose his financial stake in companies the district contracted for $38,000 in T-shirts.

The paraprofessional, Matthew Holbrook, is a 20-year member and the president of the Niles Elementary School District 71 Board of Education, which also purchased more than $69,000 worth of shirts from Holbrook’s company, according to records that were first reported by The Pioneer Press.

As result of his business contracts, Holbrook’s companies allegedly gained $108,520 in public funds from the two school districts over the course of the past four years. 

“As previously stated, the District did purchase apparel items from a vendor associated with a Board member,” D71’s Superintendent John Kosirog said in an email to The Record. 

“Upon review, the District determined that this arrangement did not align with Board policy. The practice has been discontinued, and no further purchases will be made,” Kosirog said.

District 219, which operates Niles North and West high schools, delivered a written reprimand to Holbrook on Nov. 4 that states an internal audit flagged Holbrook’s financial stake in a vendor in 2024 and he was told to cease business with the district.

However, he reportedly registered a second company to continue selling T-shirts to D219.

The reprimand, obtained by The Record through a public-records request, states Holbrook will receive a three-day unpaid suspension and “any further violations of board policy or work rules will be grounds for dismissal.”

Public documents show Holbrook is a paraprofessional in District 219’s special-education department and is the head boys bowling coach for Niles North High School.

Holbrook did not immediately respond to The Record’s request for comment. 

A lack of full transparency

State filings show that Holbrook incorporated Color Your Own in Illinois in 2011. 

According to D219’s annual statements of affairs, the district paid Color Your Own $21,044 in fiscal year 2024 and $13,575 in fiscal year 2025. 

The Nov. 4 reprimand — signed by Ray Chung, D219’s executive director of human resources — states district staff gave Holbrook notice on Dec. 9, 2024, that an internal audit found he was an employee vendor and he must suspend business with the district “effective immediately.”

The December 2024 notice reportedly informed Holbrook of D219’s policy 4:60 on purchase and contracts, which states “no purchases shall be made as a result of favoritism.” 

Holbrook emailed D219 Superintendent Tom Moore on Jan. 16, 2025, to request a meeting to discuss objections to the district’s Dec. 9, 2024, email, the reprimand states.

On Jan. 31, Holbrook reportedly met with Jim Vreeland, D219’s assistant superintendent for business, and Sara Kowalski, D219’s director of finance and operations. During that meeting, Holbrook was informed again to no longer sell apparel to the district, the reprimand states.

State filings show that Holbrook incorporated Sports Team Apparel, out of Skokie, in May 2025. According to D219’s 2025 annual statements of affairs, the district paid Sports Team Apparel $4,270 in fiscal year 2025.

On Sept. 23, Holbrook attended a meeting with D219 staff in which he “acknowledged” he continued selling the “same merchandise” to the district through a different entity “without being fully transparent to employees and the District,” the Nov. 4 reprimand states. 

‘A substantial act of misconduct’

District 219 found that, despite formal notification to cease business with the district, Holbrook “sought to evade that directive by deceptively continuing to conduct business with the District under a changed name and through purported ownership involving” another person. 

The reprimand states that Holbrook referred D219 employees to a person named Cathy Barry at Sports Team Apparel without disclosing his ties to Barry. 

“Based on the investigation, the District has concluded that your disregard of the District directive and deception by continuing your side business with the District through another operation in which you had a direct interest and control constitutes a substantial act of misconduct and is a violation of Board policy,” the reprimand said. 

The reprimand states Holbrook violated D219 policy 5:120, which concerns employee ethics, as well as policy 4:60, which concerns purchase and contracts. 

The former policy states all D219 employees, as required by the state Governmental Ethics Act, must file a “statement of economic interests” if negotiating contracts worth $1,000 or greater. 

Likewise, the policy states “no school officer or teacher shall be interested in the sale, proceeds, or profits of any book, apparatus, or furniture used or to be used in any school with which such officer or teacher may be connected.”

The D219 board of education voted unanimously on Nov. 11 to approve Holbrook’s three-day suspension. Holbrook worked as a paraprofessional in D219’s special education department. 

D71 vendor history documents obtained by The Record through a Freedom of Information request show that the district paid Color Your Own $7,802 in the 2022 fiscal year, $21,649.80 in the 2023 fiscal year and $12,973 in the 2024 fiscal year. 

D71 then paid Color Your Own $18,306 in the 2025 fiscal year and $8,901 in the 2026 fiscal year.

Holbrook’s history with the districts

Holbrook was elected to become D71’s board president earlier this year after spending 20 years on the School Board. He was first elected in 2005 and has won reelection five times, most recently in April 2025, according to county election results.

For D219, Holbrook was approved as a substitute teacher for the 2014-’15 school year and as a “long term substitute” in the paraprofessional special education position beginning in fiscal year 2018.

In June 2018, the D219 board approved Holbrook as a part-time temporary athletic staff member, and in October of that year, it approved a stipend for Holbrook to be the assistant coach for Niles North boys bowling.

Holbrook became the bowling team’s head coach for this season, according to the North Star News.

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