Petition filing for school board and most municipal races begins Monday

Petition filing begins Monday morning for candidates running in the April 4 election for seats on most suburban municipal boards and all school district, library district, park district or township boards.

The filing period continues through next Monday, Dec. 19.

Suburbs with mayoral seats up for election next year include Buffalo Grove, Downers Grove, Elgin, Lincolnshire, Lindenhurst, Naperville, Oak Brook, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg and Wheaton.

Filing already has taken place in the few suburbs that were eligible for a Feb. 28 primary. Those include Elgin, Naperville, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Palatine and Aurora.

Most candidates can file nominating petitions at the administrative or clerk's offices of the local government in which they are running. However, candidates for school board seats must file at the county clerk's office in the county where the school district is headquartered.

For school board hopefuls in suburban Cook County, the clerk's office is opening three satellite locations today, in addition to the main office at 69 W. Washington St. in Chicago. Those locations are Old Orchard Country Club, 700 W. Rand Road in Mount Prospect; the Elections Operations Center, 1330 S. 54th Ave. in Cicero; and the Orland Park Civic Center, 14750 Ravinia Ave. in Orland Park.

Agencies and community groups that want to put referendums on the April ballot have until Jan. 3 to file petitions. The deadline for local governments to pass resolutions calling for referendums is Jan. 17.