Wood Dale Dist. 7 board candidate survives challenge

Kajanda Love is once again a Wood Dale Elementary District 7 school board candidate.

The mother of three was on the verge of being thrown off the April 7 ballot because her address is listed outside the school district's boundaries, according to the DuPage County Election Commission's records.

But all was not as it appeared. The majority of the candidate's property lies within the Addision Elementary District 4 taxing district, but the house itself actually sits in District 7, said DuPage Election Commission Assistant Executive Director Doreen Nelson. Love, a guard for the DuPage County Forest Preserve District, lives in a district-owned house on the site. Her family has lived there for the past five years.

Love came home this weekend from a trip to Idaho where she was helping promote a Special Olympics event only to learn she was being removed from the ballot and that her children might have to move to different schools.

"You can imagine how devastated I was," she said. "I and my children are Wood Dale residents, Wood Dale volunteers and contributors to our community."

The house is at the very southern tip of the school district's boundary. District 7 Superintendent John Corbett said children who live at the guard house always go to school in his district and thought the boundaries had been changed without his knowledge when he read that Love had been removed from the ballot because of a residency issue.

Love is one of seven candidates vying for four 4-year terms on the District 7 board. Other candidates include incumbents Christine Caliendo, Carl Lange, Susan Crady and Merilyn Daniels as well as challengers Joseph Petrella and Billy Milano.