Will County Gazette

Raj Pillai thinks it's time the Plainfield School District 202 board adopted a new attitude.

"We have to take a step back and look at what a board of directors does in a school district," Pillai, now running for a spot on the school board as one of a slate of four candidates, said during a March appearance on Chicago's Morning Answer. "The students and the parents, they're the ones that pay the taxes, and if they elect us, our responsibility is to them. What we want to do differently is take the voices of those parents and bring it into the decisions that are made."

Pillai, who recently took part in a Reopen Illinois school rally in Naperville, said the Parent for Choice slate of Richard Todd, Annie Klupshas and Nick Giannasi is just the crew for the job.

"I'm running with some of the greatest people I've ever met," he said. "Parents for Choice started as two or three parents; now we're more than a thousand. We're all under a common cause to reopen schools five days a week. Right now, I think the districts generally are going into five days, but they're only doing half days."

Pillai said he believes the board's job is to make sure it gives parents what they want for their children.

"A survey was taken where 72% of parents wanted kids back in school for some form of in-person learning, yet the board didn't decide that," he said. "They didn't release the results of that survey until later. Parents know what's best for their children, and that's kind of where our philosophy starts."