Eileen Maloney: D95 School Board Candidate

Name: Eileen Maloney         

Age: 48
Family: married to Bill Pemstein with three boys ages 14, 12 and 10.
Education: J.D. from DePaul College of Law and BA from DePaul University.  Also I have various insurance designations from American Institute of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters.
Occupation: Vice-President of Laws & Regulations and Public Policy Support at Zurich North America
Previous Elected or Appointed Offices (please include years of service): none

Other community involvement:   I have volunteered for the American Heart Association and am on the Indoor Air Quality Committees for several schools in district 95.  I have also volunteered for Flames football and Lake Zurich Baseball and Softball Association 

Position sought: D95 School Board Member

Campaign E-mail address:emaloney21@gmail.com

Website  http://eileenmaloney.com/

Why are you running? 

I am running for School Board because I believe we must improve facility maintenance.. We must address these issues now and continually to achieve an optimal learning environment for our children.

In addition, it is important that we continue to ensure fiscal stability while searching for ways to be more efficient with the public’s tax dollars. This includes avoiding lawsuits with our contractors, a task for which my background and expertise in construction defect litigation and risk management has made me uniquely qualified.

Finally, as we make the shift to common core standards, we must ensure the staff has the support they need to maintain a high standard of excellence. We should also be proactively educating the community during this time of change so that everyone involved has a thorough understanding of what is happening.

I believe that my strengths compliment the skill sets of others already on the board, and with your support I will work with my fellow Board Members to continue to move our school district forward.

In what ways would the school district benefit from your service? 

In my professional career I have been involved in all aspects of Construction Defect Litigation including Architect and Engineers claims and I have defended asbestos personal injury lawsuits.  I have been in risk management roles where we have worked with contractors to minimize and control their risk of loss.  To put some perspective around my experience I want to give you some facts about my employer, Zurich North America:

• We are the largest construction insurer in North America with over 50,000 customers
• The incident rate for our customers is 25% lower than the industry average
• 88 of the Engineering News-Record top 100 contractors are currently Zurich customers

I am immersed on a regular basis with managing the risks of construction accounts.

Whereas I believe our school board has done a good job managing our finances, lawsuits with our contractors and facilities maintenance issues have been some of our biggest challenges. 

My experience and expertise are an excellent complement to those skill sets already on the board.  These biggest challenges to our school district are my strength and that is why I want to serve you on the school board.

 What is the biggest challenge the school district faces and what should be done to address it? 

The State’s pension crisis and the status of the General State Aid are two complicating factors in our continued quest to maintain control over our finances.  Our short term outlook is good, however, long term we simply do not know what we are facing. Our biggest challenge is to navigate those challenges and maintain the quality of education that we have come to know in Lake Zurich all while bringing our facilities to where they should be.

 What do you think the district does well? 

Our current Board has done a good job maintaining the fiscal integrity of the district.  We have however, done that on the backs of our facilities. We have neglected our heating and ventilation systems throughout the district and our students and teachers  are paying the price with poor temperature control and poor ventilation.

 What should be some of the school district’s priorities over the next four years? 

The school board should focus on maintaining the fiscal integrity of the district.  Our heating and ventilation systems throughout the district are not what they should be.  Our students and teachers are experiencing stress with poor temperature control and poor ventilation.  We should also focus on technology.

 What else would you like voters to know? 

I have been regularly attending school board meetings for nearly three years and am very familiar with all issues that have come before the board.  I have been actively involved in all three of my children’s schools. I have a freshman at Lake Zurich High School, A 7th grader at Middle School South and a 4th grader at Isaac Fox.  I have been instrumental in starting the Indoor Air Quality Committees throughout district 95 and represented the district in Washington D.C. in the 2010 EPA Tools for Schools Symposium.