Palatine Dist. 15 school board has pick of 26 applicants for vacancy

The Palatine Township Elementary District 15 school board faces a time crunch to choose a new member after getting flooded with more than two dozen applications for a vacant seat on the panel.

The board has to sort through the résumés of all 26 hopefuls, do interviews and name their pick by the end of Feb. 17. Or, the task goes to Bruce Brown, the regional superintendent of north Cook County schools.

"We're under some time constraints, but I am prepared to go the regional superintendent if necessary," board President Peggy Babcock said.

Whoever decides, a district 15 resident will serve the remaining two years left in Richard Bokor's term until April 2017. The board's vice president and a former Fremd High School teacher died from colon cancer Jan. 4.

Whittling down the list to a group of front-runners is difficult enough. But complicating things more is a new power dynamic on the board. Bokor was part of a four-member majority - along with Babcock, James Ekeberg and David Seiffert - that tended to side with administrators.

The minority faction - Scott Herr, Manjula Sriram and Gerard Iannuzzelli - ran as a slate in the 2011 election and often challenge fiscal proposals, including the deficit spending in the new budget.

"We just have to work our way through the process and hope we can reach a consensus on this," Babcock said. "It's going to be very difficult because it's a 3-3 board right now, too."

Babcock said she wants all board members to be involved in behind-closed-door interviews. If they do agree on Bokor's replacement, the board would make their appointment in open session.

"Certainly it's possible it could become a deadlock," Herr said. "However, I think we need to work collectively to keep the decision local among the six board members who remain."

Bokor's unexpected death left a "huge void" on the board, Babcock said. Voters won't get to elect his successor because the vacancy happened with fewer than 868 days left in his term, a timeline set by Illinois School Code.

"My goal is to find someone to take Mr. Bokor's spot with the same objectives and goals," said Babcock, who campaigned with him. "He was all about education. That's what I am looking for."

There are some prominent names among the hopefuls, including two board members ousted by voters and previous leaders of neighboring school districts.

Gerald Chapman, a former Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 superintendent, chaired the District 15 school board until 2011, when he, and the rest of an incumbent slate, was defeated by challengers Herr, Sriram and Iannuzzelli.

Another applicant, Laura Crane, lost her re-election bid in 2005 after sitting on the board since the mid-1980s. Matt Lyons is making another try at the office after narrowly falling to incumbents in the 2013 election.

Also is in the mix are Joshua Perry - one of seven candidates running for three four-year seats on the board in April - and Ed Rafferty, a retired Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 superintendent.