Kankakee School Board seeking appointee to fill vacancy

KANKAKEE — The Kankakee School Board is looking to appoint someone to fill the vacancy left by the death of one of its members, Deb Johnston, but the person might only fill the seat for three months.

The seven-member board is down to six after Johnston, who served since 2019 and was about halfway through her second term, died Nov. 16.

Johnston’s term was slated to expire in 2027.

On Monday, the board approved a schedule for the appointment of a new member to fill the Johnston vacancy.

Applications for the appointment are now available in the office of the superintendent at Lincoln Cultural Center, 240 Warren Ave.

They are due by Dec. 20.

After the application period, the board will schedule interviews with any interested and eligible candidates.

The board has a period of 60 days to fill the vacancy, with a deadline of Jan. 16.

If the board does not make the appointment in that timeframe, the duty of selecting someone would then fall to the regional office of education.

For an appointee to continue serving on the board, they would have to run for the position in the next upcoming election.

In this case, the next election is the April 1, 2025, consolidated election.

Because the state legislature changed the date nominating papers were due for the April election — moving it up a month from mid December to mid November — any candidates interested in filling Johnston’s seat can no longer file for their name to appear on the ballot.

They would therefore have to run as write-in candidates.

“Unfortunately, Ms. Johnston died at a very inconvenient time, not only for all of us, but for this process,” board President Chris Bohlen said.

Four board members — Jess Gathing, Mary Archie, Tracy Verrett and Darrell Williams — have terms that expire in 2025.

Seven candidates have filed to run for those four seats, including Gathing, Verrett and Williams as well as newcomers Susan Lopez, Dajon Casiel, Reginald Bell and Kathy Yancy Smith. Those elected to fill their seats will serve four-year terms.

The filling of Johnston’s board position will be done with a two-year term, and it will appear as a separate question on the same ballot.

Paperwork to run as a write-in candidate is due to the Kankakee County Clerk’s office by the end of January.

Bohlen said the appointee would serve until the swearing in of the newly elected board members toward the end of April.

The appointee may serve for just the three months, or the person may choose to run as a write-in candidate in the hopes of being elected to serve a two-year term.

“We’re going to need somebody who’s willing to take what potentially might be a three-month appointment,” Bohlen said. “We’d like to have somebody that has had experience with the district and has lots of knowledge about the district so they can hit the ground running for at least that short period of time.”

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