Incumbents hold lead in heated District 211 board race

Four incumbents who often are split on the issues held leads Tuesday night in the 10-person race for four seats on the Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board of education, unofficial results showed.

With all 135 precincts reporting, Kimberly Cavill had 9,535 votes; Steven Rosenblum, 9,393; Peter Dombrowski, 9,200; and Mark Cramer, 8,519.

Among the other candidates, Michelle Barron had 8,322 votes; Jane Russell had 7,878; Barbara Velez had 7,395; Susan Saam had 7,337; Meenal Dewan had 1,593; and Aiden Branss had 1,381.

Two candidates who'd dropped out but remained on the ballot may have had some impact on the final results, as Joan Sherrill received 1,249 votes and Angela Geitner had 896.

Potential majority control of the board by its more progressive or more conservative members was on the ballot, as the 10 candidates vied for the four available seats.

But the makeup of the seven-member board looks like it will stay exactly as before.

While the candidates addressed a variety of issues during the campaign, they found themselves divided into groups by the supporters they found, as well as their stances on the district's adoption of the state's newly expanded comprehensive sex education curriculum.

Cavill and Rosenblum, along with newcomers Barron and Russell, were supported by the district's teachers union and a local political action committee called Palatine Supports Public Schools.

Cramer and Dombrowski, along with new candidates Saam and Velez, were critical of the district's decision to adopt the new sex ed curriculum. They were supported by a local conservative group called Citizens For Kids Education (C4KE).

Recent Palatine High School grad Branss and district parent Dewan expressed support for the revised sex ed curriculum but defined themselves by their independence from the other candidates.