Palatine Dist. 15 board president: Let regional superintendent decide who fills vacant seat

This story has been clarified to accurately reflect the status of board member James Eklberg when elected in 2013.

A polarized Palatine Township Elementary District 15 school board failed to appoint a new member out of a field of now 27 applicants Wednesday, effectively transferring the decision to the regional superintendent of schools.

Two sides on the board overseeing the 12,000-student district blame each other for making little headway into naming a successor to Richard Bokor, the board's vice president who died from colon cancer more than a month ago. The panel collected resumes - the 27th recently turned up as spam in the board secretary's email - but interviewed no one and couldn't agree on a process to pick the front-runners.

As their deadline approaches next week, one side - Gerard Iannuzzelli, Manjula Sriram and Scott Herr - announced its choice for the 2-year post on Wednesday: Matt Lyons, who was 159 votes shy of winning a full, 4-year term on the board in the April 2013 election. Lyons trailed incumbents Bokor, Peggy Babcock and David Seiffert as well as James Ekeberg, a former board member who lost in the 2011 election.

The latter three voted against appointing Lyons, who works for a Chicago trading firm, and the measure fizzled 3-3. With the majority up for grabs, Babcock said, choosing Lyons would have given the other faction voting power on the board.

Herr, however, called Lyons an independent thinker who has already proven his commitment to the district by running a campaign. He said the board should factor in the 2013 election results since voters won't get to decide who fills Bokor's place on the board. That's because the vacancy opened up with fewer than 868 days left in Bokor's term, a timeline set by Illinois School Code.

"Being on the ballot is a four-month interview by voters, which is dramatically better than the 20-minute interview by board members," Herr said.

But Babcock, Seiffert and Ekeberg offered no alternative to Lyons. Babcock called for letting the clock run out on their deadline.

Then the task would fall to Bruce Brown, the regional superintendent, who would start reviewing applicants Feb. 18.

"Anyone that we would have recommended, I will guarantee you, by what you saw this evening, would have been turned down," said Babcock, the board's president. "There is no point in putting another candidate through any kind of humiliation that wasn't going to go anywhere."

The dispute surfaced in late January, when Babcock suggested each board member rank his or her five favorites with the No. 1 choice getting the most points.

The five names with the highest scores would move on to interviews before the full board, but Babcock said she was flexible on whom to meet.

Herr, Sriram and Iannuzzelli objected with that process, in part because it didn't include input from the rest of the board.

They asked for a meeting to discuss the selection, but Babcock refused to do so until Ekeberg, who was recovering from major surgery, could attend.

The entire board met Wednesday, and members have no immediate plans to meet again until after the deadline.

"It's embarrassing that we as a district can't make this decision, and we have to depend on an outside force to make it," Sriram said.

Brown has asked for the 27 resumes, but he's not limited to that pool, only to district residents who are over 18. He would get a month to decide who serves on the board until April 2017.

"I don't want any more infighting, acrimony," Babcock said. "Let's let the regional superintendent make this decision, and I'm willing to live with whatever he may come up with."w