Kennedy, Lucke, Hoff win Dist. 70 seats

Libertyville Elementary District 70 residents gave a vote of confidence to their school board in Tuesday's election, sending incumbent Christopher Kennedy back for a third term.

With all precincts reporting, Kennedy led the pack with 867 votes for three open spots, unofficial results showed.

Next were newcomers Linda Lucke, a retired District 70 teacher, with 605 votes and Greta Hoff, a special-education teacher, with 617. Candidates Amy Williams and Cheryl Carrol received 542 and 446 votes, respectively.

"It feels good," Kennedy said. He called the results "a reflection of good management of taxpayer dollars and all the work we've done to ensure kids get a first-rate education."

Although state budget cuts could be on the horizon, District 70 is well-positioned to bear them, Kennedy said. "We've paid for a lot of projects in terms of infrastructure so we've gotten a lot of the building work done ahead of time. We've got a lot of capital projects done over the last couple of years."

Incumbents Jennifer Lund and Maryann Ovassapian chose not to run for re-election.

District 70 has a balanced budget, a hefty cash reserve and a teacher contract that runs through 2018. Future challenges include implementing full-day kindergarten in 2015-16.

"If the state cuts funding, obviously we won't like it, but we're in a pretty good condition relative to almost everybody else," Kennedy said.

• Daily Herald Staff Writer Mick Zawislak contributed to this report.