2 incumbents, retired teacher to sit on IVCC board

Two incumbents are poised to return to the Illinois Valley Community College Board of Trustees, to be joined by a retired criminal justice instructor.

Incumbent trustees Jay McCracken and Angela Stevenson built seemingly insurmountable leads – unofficial totals of 8,585 and 7,751, respectively – within the college’s eight-county district.

Joining them will be Rebecca Donna, whose unofficial total of 6,605 gave her a lead of more than 1,000 votes or more over each of the remaining five contenders.

“Wow! We are so honored that our voters in the IVCC District turned out and supported us,” Stevenson and McCracken said in a joint statement, as they ran as a slate. “We’re thankful they took the time and did their research on the candidates running. We gave this campaign our best shot. As we’ve said before: We have no agenda other than we simply want the best for IVCC and our community.”

Each credited their supporters and fellow board member Bill Hunt, who appeared mathematically out of the running for the third and final seat, and outgoing college president Jerry Corcoran.

“We believe in Dr. Corcoran’s legacy. We believe that Dr. Tracy Morris will build on his legacy, and we are excited for what she will bring to the College.

Rounding out the field were (again, unofficially) Teresa Schmidt with 5,582 votes, Hunt with 4,852, Crystal Loughran with 4,248, Lori Ganey with 3,856 and Julie Ajster with 3,235. Final numbers will be updated when DeKalb County figures are available.

Ottawa school board races

Lori Kimes (2,591 votes), Brenden Donahue (2,191) and Mary Ganiere (2,160) lead the four-way race for three seats on the Ottawa Elementary School Board. Stephen Omolecki garnered 1,662 votes, according to unofficial results.

In the Ottawa High School Board race for three seats, Sarah Makeever-Shumway received 4,028 votes, John Levy 3,633, Shawn Collins 2,551 and Joshua Mammen 2,118 in unofficial totals.

Streator school board races

Ashley Heider, Thomas Krieger and Tanya Jacobs each garnered more than 1,000 votes in unofficial results for the three-seat race for Streator Elementary School Board, while write-in candidate Kyle Tutt tallied 53 votes.

The two challengers in the six-candidate race for four seats on the Streator High School Board were the odd ones out in unofficial vote totals Tuesday. Board members Steve Biroschik, Earl Woeltje, Eric Hoffmeyer and Steven Hoekstra each tallied more than 1,000 votes compared to Michael Holcomb’s 941 and Riley Haynes’ 730.

Jeremy Adams, Alison Wissen and Chad Gilkerson hold a lead for three seats on the Woodland School Board. Brad Boldt trails Gilkerson by 40 votes for the final seat, according to unofficial totals.

La Salle school board race

Madonna Duncan, Mallory Ploch, Stacie Sines are in position to win the three seats on the La Salle Elementary School Board. Kristina Stachowiak-Husband trails Ploch by 227 votes for the third seat, according to unofficial totals.

Oglesby school board race

Laura Hein and Anthony “Tony” Strand both registered more than 700 votes, while only seven votes separates Amanda Harty and Jonathan “Shap” Shapiro, with Hardy holding a thin margin for the third seat on the Oglesby Elementary School Board. The vote totals are unofficial.