D219 School Board approves censure, pushes for removal of chronically absent member

A sheet of paper taped to the headrest of an otherwise empty chair spoke volumes Tuesday inside the Niles Township High School District 219 Board of Education chambers.

Depicted on the paper was the face of a board member with the word “MISSING” in big red letters above his head. 

“Have you seen this Board Member? Yea, us neither,” the paper said. “Last seen at Board Meeting on Dec. 2, 2025… He only shows up 25% of the time… PLEASE CALL 847-Where Is He?”

The gimmick referenced long-standing School Board member David Ko, who reportedly has been absent from 39 of the past 59 board sessions since he was last elected to the body in May 2023. 

When the board’s meeting began on March 10, the paper remained the only thing in the chair.

The D219 Board voted unanimously during a Jan. 27 special meeting — one Ko did not attend — to censure Ko for a “Willful Failure to Perform Official Duties” in light of “an ongoing and significant pattern of non-attendance” and his apparent refusal to address those absences.

The board’s resolution formally requested that the North Cook Intermediate Service Center, which acts as the area’s regional office of education, exercise its authority to remove Ko from his seat. Ko’s term is otherwise set to expire in the spring of 2027. 

But the NCISC denied D219’s request.

April Jordan, executive director of the NCISC, said in a Feb. 18 letter to D219 that the law provides regional superintendents the power to remove board members for willful failure to perform official duties, but “it has only been done in very limited situations.”

“At this time, this office acknowledges that the Board Member’s attendance and involvement is poor, however, the overall impact to the Board of Education’s functionality as a whole is low. … It is not the direction and/or desire of this office absent more egregious and/or criminal conduct to override the voice/vote of the local constituents.” 

D219 Board President Amber Wood said on Tuesday that she was “astounded” by the NCISC’s decision and the example it sets, particularly as attendance rates for staff and students in the district are “some of the lowest in decades.”

“The ISC has effectively made it clear that attendance is optional and a board member’s duty to address their absences is also optional,” Wood said.

“Why should the expectation for board members be set at such a low standard? Well I will tell you now here at D219 they are not. I am personally embarrassed that this is the ISC’s April Jordan’s response,” Wood continued.

The Record attempted to contact Ko via email and in person at a chiropractor and acupuncture clinic he reportedly operates in Skokie, but Ko has not communicated with The Record. 

‘A history of poor attendance’

The D219 board first appointed Ko to fill a vacancy on the body in 2013, said Takumi Iseda, D219’s director of communications, in an email. 

He completed that term in 2015, then was elected to the board five consecutive times (2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023). Ko was board president from 2017 to 2021, Iseda said.

According to D219’s censure resolution, “Ko has a history of poor attendance at Board meetings dating back to 2021”, but his “attendance and refusal to address his absences has substantially worsened beginning in May 2023.”

The censure resolution states Ko had a 30% attendance rate for board meetings in the 2023-’24 school year, a 17% attendance rate for the meetings in the ’24-’25 school year and a 5% attendance rate so far this school year.

That means Ko has only been marked present at the board’s June meeting this school year — he was either late or absent to all 18 other board meetings or commission meetings this school year. 

The resolution states Ko “has provided no excuse for these absences and has refused to address his attendance issues.”

‘Disappointed that it has come to this’

The censure resolution also included nine emails Wood reportedly sent to Ko between May 7, 2025, and January 2, 2026. In those emails, Wood repeatedly asked Ko to share his preference for committee assignments, discuss his attendance and participate in meetings. 

In a Dec. 1, 2025 email to Ko, Wood cited the district’s Board Policy 2:80-E, which states D219 board members must “prepare for, attend and actively participate” in meetings as part of their “fiduciary duty” and a failure to do so may lead to a censure or referral for removal. 

“I have noted to you a few times that when we choose to run for office, we do not always anticipate that our lives will shift and change once we are in office,” Wood wrote on Dec. 1. “I have asked you to fully commit to continuing on the Board to please attend and participate.”

Wood added that if Ko did not respond to that email by Dec. 31, she would call for a special meeting to vote on a censure in January. After Wood sent Ko a reminder on Dec. 15, Wood wrote to him again on Jan. 2 that she was “disappointed that it has come to this.”

The censure clarifies that it does not intend to limit Ko’s rights as an elected board member or infringe on his constitutionally protected speech. 

‘A matter of governance integrity’

After the NCISC denied D219’s request to remove Ko, Wood asked Jordan to reconsider the decision in a Feb. 23 email, writing that “this is not only a chronic absentee issue.” 

The board is required by statute to have seven members but Ko has effectively created an irremediable vacancy that places more burden on other board members in committees, makes tie votes possible and “undermines the value of having the representation of the community,” Wood wrote.

Jordan reaffirmed the NCISC’s decision in a Feb. 27 email to Wood, writing that “Ko has been present at Board meetings every 5th or 6th occasion, which demonstrates some level of engagement.” 

In an email to The Record, Wood said that she plans to continue her conversation with Jordan by providing her continuous updates on the issue of Ko’s attendance, and Wood will continue to offer the NCISC “the opportunity to intervene.”

During the Tuesday D219 regular board meeting, Wood said she intends to attend NCISC’s April 22 board meeting. Board members Ken Durr and Lindley Wisnewski echoed Wood’s disappointment with the NCISC and the need to push back on their decision.

“This is not a personal grievance; it is a matter of governance integrity,” Durr said.

“When an elected official willfully and consistently fails to attend more than 60% of the meetings, ignoring every attempt at counsel and outreach, they are effectively disenfranchising the voters who expect a full seven-member body to deliberate on their behalf.”

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