Two newcomers join two incumbents on District 57 board

Two newcomers will join two incumbents on the Mount Prospect Elementary District 57 school board, according to Tuesday's unofficial results.

The top vote-getters for four available 4-year seats on the board were Vicki Chung with 1,477 votes, incumbent Eileen Kowalczyk with 1,202, Brian Maye with 1,109, and incumbent Gerald McCluskey with 1,006. Gwynne Ryan had 990 and John Dyer tallied 648.

All candidates said they were aware of mounting financial pressures on the district and generally supported a plan for a tax-hike referendum in March 2018. Perhaps their greatest differences concerned how the general public should be brought up to speed on the same information as well as how they could each individually contribute to that effort.

Kowalczyk and McCluskey felt that as incumbents, they would have no learning curve. Chung said she was already relatively well-informed as treasurer of the Westbrook School PTA. Maye is an attorney who said he was inspired by a District 57 forum last fall to believe that he had skills that could contribute positively to the district.