Becky Perez, a school psychologist at Oak Park and River Forest High School, has announced her candidacy for District 97 school board in the April 1 election.

“I think at the end of the day, we may all look very differently as parents or guardians of children that attend our schools, but we all have the same mission, which is making our kids successful,” she said. 

Perez has worked at OPRF for two years as a psychologist and has six years of experience in District 97 at Washington Irving and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools. Her responsibilities included supporting English language learners in middle schools, leading evaluation teams and working with families to make decisions about special education services.

A parent of a second grader and a fourth grader currently attending Irving, Perez is also bilingual and a first-generation immigrant of Mexican parents, according to a candidate statement. “Similar to many newcomers in D97, Dr. Pérez’s family arrived in the 1980s in hopes of pursuing the American Dream,” the statement reads.

She emphasized social justice issues within both the D97 and D200 districts, and said schools should strive to make every student feel like they have a place within the building.

“The challenge is that when we’re looking at things like equity, it means that we give more effort, more attention [and] engage in more conversations, develop more policies around people that don’t have what they need to reach their full potential,” she said, adding, “that can be uncomfortable for people.”

Perez said that a big part of her decision to run for the D97 school board is to defend public education. Part of President-Elect Donald Trump’s plan for the upcoming four years is to defund the Department of Education. Perez said she wants to protect the Oak Park public school systems as much as possible. 

“I don’t want social justice curriculums to go away,” she said. “I want our kids to be critical thinkers. I want them to be able to have access to that information.”

Perez graduated from the University of Illinois at Bloomington in 2011 with a doctorate in school psychology. She also received a master’s degree in educational psychology and an undergraduate minor in educational policy. In her candidate statement, she pledged to use her clinical mental health training to “gain perspectives from all stakeholders, collaborate with board members and employ reflective practices.”

She started off her career at HeadStart, a government-funded program to support early childhood education, and has been working in public education ever since.

District 97 includes eight elementary schools and two middle schools. The board consists of seven seats, three of which are up for reelection in 2025. Board members serve four-year terms. Perez is running against incumbents Venus Hurd Johnson and Nancy Ross Dribin, as well as Ashley Lenz, Twyla Blackmond Larnell and Vincent Gay.

If elected, Perez would be responsible for connecting with community members and adopting new curriculums, which is an important task as certain reading curriculums have been up for question in the district during the past couple of years. She would also be a part of conversations regarding budgets, training and staffing, among other issues. 

Perez’ coworkers have admirable words to share about her. Kristen Sudnik, another school psychologist at OPRF, described Perez as “flexible, understanding and compassionate.” 

Carolyn Ojikutu, a school counselor, is on the same people support services team and has weekly, if not daily, interactions with Dr. Perez. She described Perez as a strong candidate because of her experience as an active member of her community, an involved parent and an educator in both D97 and the high school that many D97 students will eventually attend. 

Perez “wants to make a difference in all of the areas that she is a part of,” Ojikutu said.