Incumbents re-elected in Gurnee Dist. 56

Incumbents carried the day Tuesday in the race for four seats on the Gurnee Elementary School District 56 board of education.

With all 20 precincts reporting, incumbents Brian Weir, Stuart Merkel, Becky Kotsinis and Tim Roegner held off challenger Maria Colunga to win four-year terms on the board.

According to unofficial vote totals, Weir lead with 949 votes, Merkel finished second with 899 votes, Kotsinis had 853 votes and Roegner had 784 votes.

Colunga, making her first run for the board, finished fourth with 688 votes, about 16.4 percent of the total votes cast.

Colunga worked to rally Hispanic voters behind the district’s referendum to build a replacement school for the flood-prone Gurnee Grade School and sought to represent the Hispanic community on the board.

Weir stressed his background of more than 30 years in the construction industry, while Merkel vowed to be an advocate for classroom technology. Roegner, a department head in Vernon Hills District 128, said he would use his experience in teacher contract talks to benefit District 56.