Next District 30 board will oversee superintendent transition
Five candidates are vying for four 4-year terms on the Northbrook/Glenview District 30 school board on April 4.
They are incumbents Zivit Blonder and Ammar Rizki, Pamela Manicioto, Patrick Wang and Kevin Glowacz. Board President Nancy Artz and board member Daniel Levin did not seek reelection.
When the District 30 School Board Caucus interviewed candidates for slating in December, not all who appear on the ballot were represented.
Blonder, elected to the school board in 2019, did not participate in caucus interviews and was not slated by the caucus, which endorsed Manicioto, Wang and Rizki. Glowacz, a 37-year-old software engineer, is running independently.
Blonder, who was endorsed by the caucus in 2019, wasn't sure about it herself before the District 30 Caucus conducted its interviews. The caucus determined its slate on Dec. 7.
With one son headed to college this fall and another with one year left at Maple School, she felt perhaps she'd aged out of the board.
Blonder, who started volunteering with District 30 when her now-Glenbrook North senior was in kindergarten, reconsidered due to several reasons.
She said she felt "a little bit cheated," during her term on the board because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I thought I'd have four years of things that were interesting to me that I care about," she said, rather than, like school board members everywhere, needing to focus on that crisis.
Her main reason for running again was the Dec. 15 hiring of Emily Tammaru as the district's next superintendent, to succeed retiring Brian Wegley.
"To get to a point where I'm happy with where we are as a board, and then walk away knowing that there's going to be a huge transition (was unsatisfying)," Blonder said. "With two people coming off, I think that three or four would be too much while we're getting a new superintendent."
Rizki, a 47-year-old financial executive, agreed the hiring of Tammaru, who comes from District 89 in Glen Ellyn and starts in District 30 on July 1, brought a sense of excitement to the board.
"Through that process (Blonder) realized it was a pretty cool thing to have a new superintendent coming onto the board, and being part of that transition," said Rizki, also seeking a second term.
Manicioto, a stay-at-home parent, and Wang, a 40-year-old corporate banker, seek first terms along with Glowacz.
"I think it's good that voters should have a choice, so having five candidates for four slots allows for people in the district to choose the candidate that meets their needs or shows their thoughts the best," Glowacz said.