D. 15's Carlson had son in private school, too

After criticizing her opponent for pulling his special-needs son out of Palatine Township Elementary District 15, school board member Nancy Carlson conceded one of her own children attended the same private school before she was elected in 2001.

Carlson's son attended Quest Academy in Palatine, also known as Creative Children's Academy, from 1994-1997. She said he was too young for public school and that Quest would accommodate him as a kindergartner.

Carlson said he stayed there because she was diagnosed with cancer of her ethmoid sinus, frontal sinus and skull base after his kindergarten year.

"We didn't want to remove him because he had an extremely ill mother," she said.

Her son, now a sophomore at Northwestern University, transferred to District 15's Marion Jordan School in third grade.

Earlier this week, Carlson called out fellow board member Tim Millar for enrolling his son, who has Asperger's syndrome, at Quest. She didn't mention her own son's Quest enrollment at the time.

"It's just hypocritical of her telling me I should work within the system when she went outside the system," Millar said.

Carlson also has a special-needs child. She said she chose to keep her autistic son in District 15 schools.

"As an elected official, I felt I had a duty to work out problems within the confines of the district," Carlson said.

Millar said he thinks it was inappropriate of Carlson to bring up the subject at all.

"You do what's best for each individual child," he said.

Millar and Carlson are both up for re-election Tuesday. Also vying for four board seats are Mark Bloom, Richard Bokor, Margaret "Peggy" Babcock, Vicki Wilson, Matthew Taylor and Steven Miller.