David Giuliani

David Giuliani covers the friction points where local school policy, politics and community values collide, paying close attention to how decisions by boards and administrators play out for students, parents and teachers across the western suburbs. His reporting for Patch focuses on school governance, curriculum disputes, and the budgeting and contract choices that shape daily life in public education.

School boards under scrutiny and residency disputes

Giuliani follows school boards closely, especially when they confront questions about who is entitled to attend a district’s schools and on what terms. In one Elmhurst story, he reports on a board responding to concerns about the residency of five students and the steps the district takes when enrollment eligibility is challenged, treating residency enforcement as a public accountability issue rather than an administrative detail. He returns often to boardroom deliberations, documenting how members weigh compliance, fairness and public perception when families’ status is questioned.

Across his coverage, he treats school boards as the primary arena where local power is exercised over education, capturing both the formal votes and the informal pressures that shape outcomes. His stories spell out who raised an issue, how other members responded, and what action followed, giving readers a clear picture of how governance works in practice. He treats these meetings as a running narrative about how communities police access to their schools.

Curriculum, race and ideological conflict in classrooms

A recurring thread in Giuliani’s work is conflict over what is taught in high school classrooms and how it is framed. In a story on a York High School class that students describe as one-sided, he centers students who say they feel they must “surrender their genuine opinions” to secure good grades, using their quotes to show how ideological pressure can be experienced inside a single course. His framing emphasizes specific classroom practices and student language rather than abstract debate.

He also covers disputes about race-related content and how it is labeled. In Elmhurst, he reports on a resident who points to a wall display at York High School as an example of what he calls critical race theory, treating the complaint, the display itself, and the school’s broader context as a concrete case rather than a generic culture-war talking point. At Lyons Township High School, he reports on board consideration of books dealing with race and poverty, outlining which titles are under review and why they are drawing attention. Across these stories he documents how national arguments about race and equity filter down into specific hallway displays, reading lists and board agendas.

Leadership changes, contracts and the cost of staffing schools

Giuliani regularly tracks the people and contracts that keep schools running, from principals to teachers and support staff. In the Elmhurst piece on a school losing its principal to another district, he details the incoming leader’s background and experience across Illinois and Minnesota, treating the move as part of a broader pattern of leadership mobility between districts. His descriptions of principals’ years of service and prior roles give readers context for how experienced administrators circulate through local schools.

He also reports on how staffing decisions intersect with budgets. In coverage of Lyons Township High School, he notes that dozens of teachers received raises tied to additional education they completed, quantifying the impact on the district’s budget and showing how professional development translates into real dollar increases. In another Lyons Township story, he explains how an unusual jump in health insurance costs forces the high school to reconsider its options, presenting benefits spending as a central constraint on school finances rather than a background line item. These pieces highlight his habit of connecting personnel moves and compensation policies to the fiscal pressures facing districts.

School culture, children’s books and the broader education ecosystem

Beyond board fights and budgets, Giuliani covers the culture around schools: the books students encounter and the way local authors and parents shape that environment. He has written about a children’s novel set in an Elmhurst school known for its “weird” staircases, using the story to tie literature to a specific campus and to the imaginative life of its students. In La Grange, he profiles a resident whose children’s book earns recognition on a national list, presenting the honor as a point of local pride and a window into what young readers are finding on their shelves.

This focus on school-related books and stories complements his harder-edged reporting by showing how narratives about childhood, identity and place circulate alongside policy debates. Together, his coverage sketches an education ecosystem that runs from board votes and contract terms to the stories children read and the symbols they see in their hallways.

Local politics intersecting with education

Giuliani’s education reporting frequently overlaps with his broader coverage of local government and politics, especially in DuPage County. In one piece on the county board, he details tensions between the board chair and a member who accuses him of sounding “more like Trump,” using the exchange to illustrate how partisan and gender dynamics shape decision-making. While not solely about schools, this type of story situates education issues within a wider political climate that includes county-level funding, party competition and personality clashes.

By tracking both school-specific disputes and the political environment around them, Giuliani presents education as one of the main stages where local political rifts are expressed. His work for the masthead consistently links the classroom and the boardroom to the broader currents running through suburban civic life.