Dist. 207 voters stay with incumbents

Sean Sullivan, Donna Pellar-Ryden and Joann Braam were endorsed by the teachers association for re-election to the Maine Township High School District 207 board.

Tonight, Sullivan remarked, they got the voters’ endorsement as well.

With 121 of 123 precincts reporting at this hour, the three incumbent members of the school board lead former board member Marijo Bustos and newcomer Eric Poders for the three seats on the board.

Sullivan leads all candidates with 4,581 votes while Pellar-Ryden and Braam follow with 4,165 and 4,001 votes respectively, according to unofficial Cook County totals.

Poders trails with 2,611 votes while Bustos has 2,053.

Sullivan said he is excited to be returning to serve with Pellar-Ryden and Braam once more.

“All three of us got the endorsement from the (Maine) teachers association,” he said. “Now we got the endorsement from the voters because I think they appreciate all the hard work we’re putting in and I greatly appreciate that.”

The biggest, and most contentious issue for the district in recent history was the decision a year ago to lay off 130 employees, including 75 teachers.

Poders, of Morton Grove, was the only one of the five candidates who didn’t agree with the board’s decision to go ahead with the layoffs — part of $15 million in cuts made in March 2010 to plug a projected $19 million deficit in 2010-11 budget.

The other four candidates said the layoffs were the right thing to do for the district’s future because the district couldn’t continue to eat into its reserves.

Braam, of Des Plaines, said she was disappointed the teachers union didn’t agree to reopen contract negotiations to save some jobs.

The union would have had to agree to forego a 3.2 percent salary increase for the 2010-11 academic year, while still receiving step pay increases based on experience and a 3.5 percent wage increase in the 2011-12 school year. The move could have saved about 40 to 45 of the 75 teaching jobs that were eliminated.

The school board will tackle the issue of raises and benefits again when negotiations on the next teachers’ contracts begin in the 2011-2012 school year.

Sullivan, of Park Ridge, the current board president, said he would prefer a three-year contract rather than the typical five years.