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Winkle loses Batavia race

Batavia school Trustee Matt Winkle lost his bid to retain his seat Tuesday.

Instead, Cathy Dremel joins the board.

Board Vice President Kathleen Roberts received the most votes, with 16.38 percent of the 1,858 ballots cast, according to unofficial counts. Second was Batavia Bulldogs Booster Club leader Gregg Hodge, with 16 percent, then Dremel with 15 percent.

Winkle was fourth, with 14.48 percent, and Patti Kozlowski received 14.14 percent.

Winkle has served on the board since November 2006, when he was appointed to a vacancy. He was then elected in 2007. Roberts has been a trustee since 1991.

Hodge, a Batavia electrical division crew leader, served on the district’s facilities commission. Dremel, a stay-at-home mother, volunteers in the schools.

Roberts is a retired advertising executive. Kozlowski also is retired, having been a teacher and administrator in West Chicago public schools.

Winkle is a member of the board’s finance committee. The committee recently recommended that the board not extend its payments on debt it owes for building campaigns going back to the 1990s, including the $75 million voters agreed to borrow in 2007. That latest borrowing was to expand Batavia High and Rotolo Middle schools and fix up several elementary schools. Winkle said it was not right to burden future taxpayers, including today’s Batavia schoolchildren, in exchange for lower payments now. Instead, the committee called for cuts in operating spending now to reduce the amount the district is pulling out of reserves.