Percy, Spencer to run on slate for U-46 board race

A pair of Elgin Area School District U-46 board candidates are running together on a slate.

Dale Spencer, a board member since 2005, will run with challenger Gary Percy in a pairing backed by U-46 political action committee Citizens for 3Rs.

Percy, of Elgin, has served on the district's Citizens Advisory Committee for the past five years. His two daughters attend Lincoln Elementary in Elgin.

Spencer, of Bartlett, is a mortgage consultant and member of Bartlett's Chamber of Commerce.

Citizens for 3Rs previously backed a slate of candidates Amy Kerber and Maria Bidelman in the 2007 school board election. Both won.

The group, founded in 2004, focuses on electing candidates that "will ask probing questions and really represent the people of the 11 communities (in the district)," said 3R's treasurer Angela Ackmann of Elgin.

Spencer calls himself, Percy, Bidelman and Kerber "cut from the same cloth," and "with the same ideas and like-mindedness."

Percy and Spencer say fiscal responsibility, equity among all students and accountability of leadership will be a strong themes of their campaign. They also hope to renew U-46's relationship with the village of Bartlett, which has made several efforts to disconnect from the state's second-largest school district.

"Whether (disconnection) happens or not, it is so far down the line," Spencer said. "We need to mend those fences and have an open ear."