New board member eager to contribute to District 116's progress

Scott Jewitt, who was sworn in to the Round Lake Area Unit School District 116 board Monday night, said he thinks the district is on an upward trajectory, and he is glad to be part of it.

Jewitt, an area manager for the Northern Illinois Food Bank, will fill the seat left by Lori Berdenis, who resigned the board last month for personal reasons.

Board member Annette Negrete McGinley asked Jewitt last month if he'd be interested in applying for the position. McGinley said she's known the Jewitt family since their daughters were on the same youth cheerleader team and thought he'd be suited to serve on the board.

"He has the same heart and passion for kids and the community that we want in our board members," McGinley said.

Jewitt said he never considered running for the school board, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He cited Round Lake High School's recent designation by U.S. News & World Report as one of the country's top high schools earlier this year as an example of the district's getting the reputation he's long felt it deserved.

"I find myself more and more correcting people's perception of the school district," Jewitt said.

Beth Kiewicz, the principal of Ellis Elementary, got to know Jewitt because his son attended her school.

"They were both very involved parents; they were always thinking of all the kids and not just their own," Kiewicz said.

She said he will have a positive impact on the board.

Jewitt will serve the rest of Berdenis' 4-year term, which she won in 2015. He said before he was sworn in that he hadn't given any thought to whether he'd run for a 4-year term of his own in 2019.

"I didn't take this lightly," Jewitt said. "I don't see this as a short-term assignment."