Will County Gazette

Thomas J. McGowan cites COVID-19 as the reason that pushed him to launch a campaign to run for a vacancy in the Minooka Community Consolidated School District (CCSD).

“It was my son’s first experience with school and all he knew was masking and remote learning,” McGowan told the Will County Gazette. “I addressed the school and they continued to enforce the policies and that prompted me to speak up.”

He said he noticed other angry parents speaking up about that and “other ways that parents are being disregarded,” and said he couldn’t sit by and watch the school district push values that aren’t in line with what parents expect.

As an employee at a railyard, McGowan doesn’t have much of a political background. “But I'm a parent concerned about my kid and others that want to make a difference,” he said. “The biggest things I'd like to change include changing the way there's always a scapegoat, something to take responsibility away from the people that can do something. I'd like to see more accountability.”  

A posting on his Facebook page lists the platform that he, Jennifer Monson, and Brian Pohlman – the slate of conservative candidates for Minooka CCSD 201– are running on parental rights, students’ rights, keeping education in the schools, no indoctrination and holding schools accountable. The election is on April 4.

Minooka CCSD 201 has 4,493 students in seven schools. The district headquarters is in Minooka. The school system employs around 278 teachers. The student-to-teacher ratio is 16 to 1.  

McGowan has two children, ages 7 and 10, “and they're the reason I'm getting involved,” he said. “We have to make things better.”