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Endorsements: Kazmier, Ficke-Bradford, Geier, Shackleton for Barrington Unit District 220 school board

The good news for Barrington Area Unit District 220 voters is they have a good mix of candidates to choose from for the school board on April 4. In fact, six candidates are vying for four 4-year seats, all with a goal of continuing the quality education for which Barrington schools are known.

How to do that is where some of the differences lie. One issue - school start times - has fueled some debate on how the board prioritizes its spending and communicates its decisions.

Three incumbents are running for re-election: Penelope "Penny" Kazmier, Sandra Ficke-Bradford and Christopher Geier. Kazmier, seeking her fourth term, and Ficke-Bradford, seeking her third, both voted in favor of changing the start times for the district's students - later for high school and middle school and earlier for elementary. They defend the decision based on studies that show older students need more sleep. Geier, seeking his second term, voted against the measure, in part because of the added cost to change busing at a time when state funding of schools is in doubt.

Each of the incumbents put much thought into their decision and while they may have come to different conclusions, it's clear that they want to do what they think is best for the district. With a long-term strategy in the offing on what to do with the district's aging buildings, having seasoned board members like these three making decisions will be important. Kazmier, Ficke-Bradford and Geier are all endorsed, though we encourage Geier to be more sensitive to issues regarding transgender students if any come before the board.

That leaves one board position open as incumbent Wendy Farley is not seeking re-election.

All of the challengers - Christopher A. Karam, Gavin Newman and Michael Shackleton - have children attending Barrington schools and two, Newman and Shackleton, attended Barrington schools themselves. Karam's wife also grew up in Barrington. So the dedication and knowledge from the grass roots is there.

But we like Shackleton's take on the issues, background in finance (which Karam and Newman share, as well) and his broad volunteer activities both within and outside the district as a step above the rest.

A seventh candidate - Anissa Cyjhaniuk - has dropped out but her name will still appear on the ballot.

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