:quality(70):focal(544x204:554x214)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/GHPC6F36PRVXTXE5P4JSTTAAWA.jpg)
SYCAMORE – Almost three dozen DeKalb County residents filed by Monday’s deadline to run for a school board seat in eight different community school districts in this spring’s Consolidated Election.
Monday marked the last day for candidates to file their nominating petitions for independent and new political party candidates in municipalities. Candidates also filed paperwork to run for nonpartisan posts in township and municipal libraries, library districts, park districts, school boards, community college boards, regional boards of school trustees, fire protection districts and forest preserve districts.
In all, the 34 candidates who filed for a school board seat in DeKalb County as of 3 p.m. Monday included five people running for a seat on Genoa-Kingston School District 424′s school board, four in DeKalb School District 428 and two in Sycamore Community School District 427.
Beth Evans and Alexander Grados both filed to run for a seat on the Sycamore board. Neither Kris Wrenn, the board’s secretary, nor the board’s Vice President Steve Nelson, are planning to seek reelection.
Grados, a lifelong Sycamore resident who graduated from Sycamore High School, said he thinks communication with the school district’s stakeholders is an area for improvement. Grados said he thinks Sycamore’s school district would benefit from a clear strategic plan that lists a set of goals the community finds essential.
“During my campaign, I have heard from teachers, parents and students that social and emotional issues have increased in students coming out of COVID. To help solve these issues, I would like to help create a Board Committee that hears from parents, staff, and students to figure out what emotional issues students face and how we can better address them,” Grados wrote in an email to the Daily Chronicle.
Christopher Boyes, Steven Byers, Vanta Bynum, Samantha McDavid and Howard Solomon all filed to run for a DeKalb shool board seat.
Solomon previously was a member of the District 428 board from 2015-2019 and said he thought his experience could be useful on the board. Solomon, who said he has a doctorate in education, described himself as “somewhat pro-union” and “very liberal ... particularly toward education.” He said he would like to see academic departments be able to pick their own textbooks.
“There’s going to be some people who I’ll be talking to when we have some of the events where people expose their thoughts of you, and the one thing I’m not going to do is say let’s, ‘cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes’ because the more we do that the less we think about and devote to the future,” Solomon said.
The candidates seeking a seat on the Genoa-Kingston School District School Board included: Mark Bradac, David Cleveland, Melyssa Gustafson, Mary Hintzsche, Julie Ratliff and Max Wesner.
In Indian Creek Community School District, candidates Darryl Beach, Joshua Merchant, Jerry Olson and Mark Peterson filed paperwork to run for a board seat.
Six candidates filed papers to run for a seat on the Somonauk Community School District 432 School Board: Nicholas Deacon, Kurt Hohenberger, Blake Johnson, Elizabeth Kuhn, Anthony Rogowski and Erik Wold
Angela Hysjulien, Brian Kubisak, Ryan O’Neil and Lisa Saitta filed paperwork to run for a Sandwich Community School District 430 school board seat.
Meanwhile, Timothy Badal, Julianna Morsch and Debra White seek a seat on Hinckley-Big Rock Community School District 429′s school board.
Vying for a seat on Hiawatha Community School District 426′s school board are Carissa Brendle, Bronwyn Burgweger, Amanda Fisher and Nathan Watson.