Former Dist. 201 candidate fails to gain appointment

Over the past two years, Steve Deutsch twice has tried to win election to the Naperville Unit District 203 school board and was defeated both times.

Now he's been rejected again -- this time by board members who didn't list him among their eight finalists to fill a vacancy that opened in July.

And Deutsch is not happy.

"I'm just extremely disappointed," he said Tuesday. "I don't understand how someone can go through an election and a community vetting and it doesn't seem to count for anything in this process."

Deutsch was one of 24 people seeking to replace board member Jim Caulfield, who resigned last month with two years left on his term.

The six remaining board members broke into teams to interview the candidates and released their list of eight finalists this week. The hopefuls are scheduled to meet with the full board on Aug. 7 and an appointment could come that night.

The list features Shane Beard, Michael Cho, Jeff Couch, Nancy Drapalik, Karl Fry, Lynn Hodak, Patti Mathewson and Jackie Romberg -- none of whom sought any of three available board seats in the April election.

Deutsch, who campaigned unsuccessfully for the board in both 2005 and this spring, said his commitment to the electoral process and his skill set should have won him a place among the finalists.

"If they (the finalists) were so committed to the school district, why didn't they go through the election process?" he asked. "Why didn't they run in the election just three months ago?"

Deutsch said he believes the board and administrators encouraged certain candidates to apply and want to appoint someone who's "not too troublesome."

"It's an overly political process," he said. "Clearly there's a diversity of opinions in the community and that's not being reflected on the school board ... There are no questions being asked about future plans. They're looking for someone who's very compliant."

There are rumors, he said, that the board has an "inside candidate" and the interview process is a charade.

"That is absolutely not the case," board President Suzyn Price said Tuesday. "We invited people to apply through Talk203 (community e-mail) and in an open process and we received 24 applications from a wide variety of people. That we went to eight finalists is indicative of the quality of people we had ... It's going to be really difficult to choose."

Price said she has "a busy job and a family" and doesn't have the time or inclination to participate in charades.

Picking a board member isn't like a beauty contest, she said, where the first runner-up gets to take over if Miss America steps down.

Deutsch, she said, "is hurt and angry and he is lashing out."

Deutsch doesn't deny he's hurt. He's served on the district's facilities task force, he's attended board meetings and he's been endorsed in previous campaigns by newspaper editorial boards, as well as the Naperville Area Chamber Political Action Committee.

But he said he fears independent-thinking candidates no longer can serve on a school board that "is fueled by bare-knuckled, winner-take-all politics that don't belong in a school district."

He said his own interview with three board members, including Price, was "perfunctory."

"It just further diminishes District 203 as a community resource and builds factions, lowers the reputation of District 203 and the desirability of Naperville as a place to live," he wrote in an e-mail. Most important, he said, "(it) has a profoundly negative effect on trying to maximize the educational experience for all the public school students in Naperville."