Voters to school board members: Stick around

While voters sent many suburban mayors packing this week, they asked many local school board members to stay a while.

In contrast to the village presidents who were ousted Tuesday, incumbents on area school boards fared well.

• In Elgin Area School District U-46, all three incumbents who wanted to hold onto their seats did.

• In Community Unit District 300, two incumbents were elected along with a former board member.

• In Huntley Unit District 158, voters returned three incumbents out of four seeking re-election; the reason all four couldn't win is because two incumbents were fighting over one, 2-year term.

• In Central Community Unit School District 301, both incumbents seeking another term won re-election.

• In Crystal Lake High School District 155, four incumbents beat the sole challenger.

• In Cary Elementary District 26, voters returned three incumbents.

The results came as Americans express rage and frustration over the state of the economy, just months after an election cycle that was all about change and only two years after voters knocked out incumbents in U-46, District 300 and District 158.

But local political watchers said the economy was not a major issue in school board races and that the factors that led people to vote for change in 2007 and 2008 were absent in the latest round of polling.

"I don't think it was the economy. I think people were comfortable," said Mary Fioretti, former District 300 school board president. "When people are content, they don't vote."

Fioretti lost her re-election bid in 2007 after a campaign in which District 300's 2006 tax increase was a central issue.

The distance from divisive issues - like referendums in District 300 and District 158 and former U-46 Superintendent Connie Neale's contract - may have helped incumbents.

"The anger (over) Connie Neale, there really wasn't enough in this election to bring out an anti-incumbent vote," Elgin Teachers' Association President Tim Davis said.

And District 158 school board member Tony Quagliano said, of the diminished effect of the district's 2004 tax, "It was four really long years ago, and a lot has happened positively subsequent to that."

Conservative activist and education reform advocate Jack Roeser attributed the results to incumbent advantage. Without independent financial backing, Roeser said, it's difficult for challengers.

"Somebody's got to get involved to help these people. The resources of the establishment are immense," Roeser said. "It's a matter of money and power."

But State Rep. Mike Tryon suggested some challengers and reform-oriented candidates may have hurt themselves by running negative campaigns against incumbents.

"I do think that that has a tendency to backfire," Tryon said. "I think (voters) don't want to focus on the past right now. They want to know what you're going to do in the future to make the economic times get better for taxpayers."

Of course, it's possible that what happens on Wall Street and in the Capitol have little to do with votes cast in local school board races.

James Russell, a spokesman for the Illinois Association of School Boards, said school board elections across the state bucked trends like Barack Obama's call for change during the 2008 election.

"You have to measure each district by its own culture and its own path," Russell said. "Lots of circumstances factor into this. How well this board works together or not. How the leadership from the administration carries over. And those are indirect factors that influence (the outcome)."