Crotty, Romberg, Weeks and DelCiello in Naperville 203

Residents can take heart in the fact that, among 10 candidates on the ballot, all have done their homework, and all appear to be top-notch candidates for four seats.

The group offers a wide array of backgrounds and approaches to the job, but we recommend incumbents Susan Crotty and Jackie Romberg for re-election and challengers Dave Weeks and Michael DelCiello.

It's hard to argue the bottom line in District 203 - it produces some of the suburbs' best student achievement with a very reasonable cost-per-pupil spending. Crotty recognizes this in citing academic excellence balanced with fiscal responsibility as her top priorities.

Romberg, too, clearly recognizes the need to be fiscally prudent in a district with stagnant or declining revenues as growth levels off. To be sure, some challenges await the next school board - teachers negotiations are scheduled to start in less than a year.

Relations between the teachers union and district have been less than stellar, given the history of strikes, near-strikes and oft-contentious negotiations. We think Weeks, a longtime resident, recognizes this as well as any candidate in the field and recommends finding a way to ease the "always adversarial" negotiations process.

We also like the philosophy he would bring to the board, letting the educators educate, but providing the leadership and direction educators need. For the fourth spot, we like DelCiello, a businessman whose familiarity with finance and the budgeting process is a real plus.

(He actually filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the district's financials so he could totally immerse himself in the numbers.) Other candidates in the field include Nancy Drapalik, Jim Dennison, Steve Deutsch, Lynn Hodak, Patricia Mathewson and Merle Siefken. All of them impress with their knowledge and sincerity to move the district forward; we don't think there's a bad choice among this group.