Candidates zoom to fill openings on local school boards
The Dec. 14-21 filing period for the consolidated election of April 6, 2021, produced plenty of competition for openings on area school boards.
For example, 11 candidates filed petitions to be placed on the ballot for the Glenbrook High Schools District 225 board's four openings.
A couple districts - Northbrook/Glenview School District 30 and Glenview Community Consolidated School District 34 - need only to replace three of their seven board members. Nearly all others in the area have four board members whose terms expire in April. In Northbrook School District 27, five seats are available.
In many cases there will be competition. This is good.
"As somebody who's been in public education my entire life, and someone who's sat on the (District 34) board almost four years, I am encouraged that people are interested to give of their time and put their name out there to serve on a public board for their community," said Katie Jones, who taught finance and child development at Glenbrook North 11 years and is running as an independent for reelection in District 34.
"In years past we didn't have many people that would run or people that even paid attention. So I am actually happy to see that people are getting involved. I wish more elections had 11 people running for four seats," she said.
On the other hand Avoca School District 37 had only three candidates file for its four spots, according to the Cook County Clerk's Office.
Avoca is not the norm here.
Along with the 11 candidates who will contend for District 225, eight will vie for the four seats in West Northfield School District 31, and six for four slots with the New Trier Township High School District 203 board.
It's possibly a Zoom effect, Jones suggested.
"I don't think people cared about school boards as they do now in light of a multitude of factors. Obviously, COVID highlighted a lot of it simply because people were watching the meetings," she said.
Courtesy of the Cook County Clerk's Office, following are the people who've filed for the April 6, 2021, consolidated election for seats on the boards of education of selected school districts.
Glenbrook High Schools District 225 Board (4 seats available): Bruce Doughty, Matt O'Hara, Michelle Seguin, Carol Schmidt, Mai Lin Noffke, Albert "Bo" Herbst III, Paul Kelly, Sonia Kim, Peter Glowacki, Penelope Burke, David Hochberg.
Northbrook School District 27 board (5 seats available): Martha Dittmar Carlos (2 years), Melissa Robin Copeland, Daniel Terrien, Matthew Basinger, Gali Oren-Amit.
Northbrook School District 28 board (4 seats available): Matthew Cassidy, DeShawn Clayton Arms, Jennifer Gallinson, Shweta Jinkala.
Northbrook/Glenview School District 30 board (3 seats available): Stephanie Yohannan, Jeffrey Zuercher, Keith Karchmar.
West Northfield School District 31 board (4 seats available): Darrin Stern, Jeffrey Steres, Allison Slade Rothstein, Meredith Estes, Laura Greenberg, Robert Hammer, Nicholas Parfitt, Matthew Dapin.
Glenview Community Consolidated School District 34 board (3 seats available): Katie Jones, Jim Baumstark, James Dolan, Diane Stefani.
Avoca School District 37 (4 seats available): Gil Gibori, Ami Desai Das, Cecilia Dunn.
New Trier Township High School District 203 board (4 seats available): Keith Dronen, Kimberly Alcantara, Avik Kumar Das, Sally Tomlinson, Julie Cho, Chad Prodromos.
East Maine School District 63 board (4 seats available): Krystal Zec, Sheila Urban, Alexandra Brook, Walter Gluzkin.
Park Ridge-Niles Community Consolidated School District 64 board (4 seats available): Phyllis Lubinski, Nicole Woitowich, Rebecca Little, Gareth Kennedy.
Maine Township High School District 207 board (4 seats available): Aurora Austriaco, Linda Coyle, Jin Lee, Carla Owen, Ashley Kilburg.
Glencoe School District 35 board (4 seats available): Enna Allen, Marcus Gale, Kelly Prout Glauberman, Joshua Markus.