Trio of incumbents lead in Arlington Heights District 25

In a race of candidates deeply divided over schooling through the COVID-19 pandemic, voters in Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 seemed to favor diversity of opinion by electing four candidates with mixed views of the district's actions.

Unofficial results late Tuesday show incumbents Anisha Ismail Patel, Gina Faso and Rich Olejniczak headed to apparent victory. Joining them will be newcomer Greg Scapillato.

With all 44 precincts reporting, the vote totals showed Patel with 4,398 votes (17.35%), Scapillato with 3,786 votes (14.93%), Faso with 3,662 votes (14.44%) and Olejniczak with 3,392 votes (13.38%).

The tally doesn't include all the votes cast in the race. Ballots postmarked by Tuesday that arrive at election offices by April 20 will be counted, as will provisional ballots.

Olejniczak ran with Faso as part of a four-person slate focused on getting students back into the classroom. Their running mates, Katie Rausch and Todd Witherow were in sixth and seventh place in the eight-candidate field.

Patel was loosely aligned with a group of newcomers that included Scapillato and advocated that the district listen to current health guidelines in its approach to the pandemic. Deborah Tranter and Melisa Andrews were part of that group, but were fifth and eighth place in the unofficial vote totals.