The Niles Township High School District 219 Board member whose repeated absences have drawn complaints for months from fellow district leadership has resigned, according to an update message sent out by the school’s administration.
Effective July 7, David Ko, who was re-elected to the D219 Board of Education in May 2023, is no longer an active member of the Board and the district is now accepting applications to fill the leadership position, the district wrote on July 13.
D219 serves students residing in Skokie, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove and Niles. Its schools include Niles North and Niles West High Schools.
According to D219, the Board is required to fill Ko’s vacancy within 60 calendar days of his resignation, which sets a Sept. 5 deadline for the district to find his replacement.
The appointed Board member will serve in the role until the next School Board election in April 2027.
Ko’s repeated lack of attendance and participation at prior meetings led the Board to censure him in January for “willful failure to perform official duties.” (According to the district document, Ko is stated to have been absent from 37 out of 57 total meetings since his re-election in May 2023).
According to D219 Board President Amber Wood, Ko was censured by leadership again in June.
Ko did not immediately respond to a Pioneer Press request for comment.
Internal documents provided in the district’s March 10 agenda materials state that Ko’s “poor attendance” at meetings date back even prior to his re-election, to 2021.
“Throughout this period, Member Ko has provided no excuse for these absences and has refused to address his attendance issues,” the document states. “Member Ko’s absences and his refusal to address the absences constitute willful misconduct.”
Ko was first appointed to the Board in 2013 to fill a vacancy and was again elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 and 2023.
Illinois state law prohibits a local school board from unilaterally removing one of its members without sign-off from the regional superintendent, a position currently held by April Jordan, the North Cook Intermediate Service Center (ISC) executive director.
ISC serves as the liaison between the Illinois State Board of Education and local school districts in northern Cook County.
Jordan rejected the Board’s pleas for Ko’s removal in a Feb. 18 letter addressed to D219 attorneys, Joseph Perkoski and Natalie Jakubowski.
“At this time, upon careful review and consideration, the Board’s request to invoke 105 ILCS 5/3-15.5 is respectfully denied,” Jordan wrote.
“While the law provides the power/discretion to regional superintendents to remove Board members for willful failure to perform official duties, it has only been done in very limited situations.”
Jordan added that while the ISC acknowledged Ko’s attendance and Board involvement to be “poor,” the overall impact of his behavior on District 219’s Board functionality “as a whole is low,” she said.
“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… under these circumstances, as well as the limited amount of time remaining on the term, the power of removal is best left to the voters and not to this office,” Jordan wrote.
D219 President Amber Wood wrote back to Jordan in an email dated Feb. 23 rebuffing the decision, writing that Ko’s lack of attendance was not only a “chronic absentee issue” but that a “board member cannot fulfill any of their fiduciary duties if they refuse to attend meetings.”
In response to a request for comment regarding Ko’s resignation, Wood said, “We, the D219 Board, are excited to welcome a new Board member to kick off the 2026-27 school year.”
Anyone interested in applying to fill the remainder of Ko’s term has until July 31 to submit a formal application. Information is available on the district’s website.
The Board will review applications and conduct interviews of qualified candidates in August, according to the district.
It will then vote to appoint the new member by Sept. 5, administrators confirmed.
Per Illinois School Board Policy 2:40, a Board member must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years of age, a resident of Illinois and District 219 for at least one year “immediately preceding the appointment,” in addition to being a registered voter.
