District 211's Davis won't be in 8-candidate election field

Whether the driving factor is taxes, test scores or all of the above, there's a renewed interest in the Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 school board election.

Unlike 2009, when incumbent board members ran for re-election without opposition, eight candidates have filed to run for the four open seats in the April 5 election. Two of them are incumbents, but Lynn Davis and Debra Strauss are calling it quits after their terms are up next spring.

“I hope the four that do get elected enjoy it as much as I did,” Davis said Tuesday, who will have given 12 years to the board when she steps down. She said her priorities have changed and it's time to move on.

Strauss will also have 12 years in when she retires.

“I've loved working with the superintendents and the administrators over the years,” Strauss said. “Twelve years is a lot of time to spend with the board. I just felt it was time for me to move on.”

Both Davis and Strauss said they are supportive of the direction the school district is headed.

Board Vice President George Brandt will run and so will Richard Gerber, who was appointed to fill Theresa Tracy's partial term following her death in September.

It doesn't appear yet that any board members will run together as a slate. There's still the candidate objection period which could knock off names from the ballot. That period ends on Dec. 28.

“At this point it's far too early to even think about that,” Brandt said.

District 211 usually brings out a healthy field of candidates. The 2007 election featured eight candidates for four seats; and the 2005 election had nine candidates for three seats.

For the April 5 election, former board member Charles Fritz is also running, as are Roman Golash, Bryan Neal, Bill Robertson and Mucia Burke.

Robertson, an assistant principal at Jefferson High School in Rockford, is happy with the big field.

“It's just a good indication as far as how many people are interested in the community and interested in our youth,” he said.

The candidates, except Burke, have either served on the board or applied for one of the two vacancies that have opened in the past two years. The board appointed Tracy in February 2009 following the death of Susan Kenley-Rupnow, who was also a longtime Hoffman Estates village trustee.

Taxes within District 211 remain a hot topic, even more so since the 2005 voter-approved tax increase, which district officials said was necessary to save extracurricular activities and avoid deep cuts.

But despite the tax chatter, none of the candidates questioned Tuesday said they are motivated to run on an anti-tax agenda.

“Those making the most noise didn't put their names in to run,” Brandt said.

Neal said that he's heard from many residents who are concerned about taxes in the community, but that didn't provide his motivation to run. The turning point for him was when only three candidates ran for the three spots last year, he said.

Neal said he's not interested in running on a slate with other candidates.

“It's not likely, I don't really foresee that, that's not why I'm running,” Neal said. “I plan on running on my own ideas and my own stance.”

District 211, with an enrollment of more than 12,700 students, is the state's largest high school district and consists of Conant, Fremd, Hoffman Estates, Palatine and Schaumburg high schools.