Apparent winners emerge as dust settles in unusually intense Lake County school board races; ‘Our community has some healing to do’
Typically low-turnout, nonpartisan school board elections took on a different tenor this spring, particularly in parts of northern and southwestern Lake County.
From Antioch District 34, where 13 candidates duked it out for six open seats, to Barrington — where a New York-based political action committee spent more than $13,000 backing seven candidates for the school, library and village board — voters mostly supported incumbents and their slates.
While some Lake County districts lacked enough candidates to fill all their open school board seats, campaign talking points in some races stemmed from fiercely raging national debates over books and sexual education, which followed sharp disagreement over masking requirements and school reopenings during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than a fifth of the 56,291 ballots counted in Lake County so far came from Barrington District 220, where board incumbents Leah Collister-Lazzari and Barry Altshuler, and top vote-getter Diana Clopton appear to have won three open seats over Katey Baldassano, Matt Sheriff and Leonard Munson.
Baldassano, who trailed Collister-Lazarri by 89 votes as of Wednesday, and Sheriff and Munson were backed by ACTION PAC, a political action committee with ties to state GOP figures.
Provisional and mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, April 4, will continue to be processed as they are received until April 18, when the results of the election are to be certified.
In a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon, Collister-Lazarri said unofficial results show, “There is great reason for optimism.”
The slate supported by ACTION PAC is staunchly opposed to adopting Illinois Senate Bill 0818 Comprehensive Sexual Education standards, and on its website laid out requests for the creation of an independent task force with parent representatives that would have sought “to uncover the ROOT CAUSE(s) of adult content materials being made available to students and 6th grade summer reading list(s),” specifically mentioning books such as “Gender Queer” and “Fighting Words.”
Those books are among several titles that have divided decision-makers in other suburban school districts, and have been targeted nationwide for removal by conservative activists and politicians.
Nearly the entire school board was up for grabs in Antioch District 34, where the District 34 United slate appears poised to win all six seats. The slate includes incumbent President Mary Beth Hulting and Vice President Lori Linck, as well as Tiffany Cappel, Kelly Beall, Josh Cornwell and Tamar Lasko.
Candidate Pam Adams, who posted on social media about being at the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, ran the closest on a slate of challengers who emphasized parental rights and raising questions about indoctrination of students via critical race theory, social emotional learning and certain books.
Adams is in fourth place with 932 votes, trailing Joshua Cornwell’s 1,215 votes, while husband-wife duo Kristen and Kevin Fielder follow with 772 and 756 votes, respectively.
Beall, who received 1,298 votes, is the top vote-getter.
Hulting told the News-Sun Wednesday that the “community has overwhelmingly spoken” in favor of moving on from, “finger-pointing, accusations and misinformation” directed at the current school board and district.
“I feel what worked to our advantage in this election was that we did not embed ourselves with online ‘back and forths,’ which on some forums only amped up the community divide,” Hulting wrote in a text. “We needed to be above that, and at times it was incredibly difficult not to be reactionary.
“Our job has and will continue to be about giving our D34 students the best education possible, affording them every opportunity we can to succeed,” she said. “Our community has some healing to do.”
Some of the candidates on the parental-rights slate rejected being labeled as a slate, but all six of those candidates shared some campaign materials. Paul Green, who finished with 306 votes, was independent from both slates.
Scott Shaffer ran the closest to Hulting, Linck and Cappel among the seven candidates vying for a four-year term, trailing Linck by about 300 votes as of Wednesday.
In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, Shaffer wrote that he hoped the, “community learned more about the issues,” encouraged younger parents to get involved and, similar to Hulting, said he is hopeful those issues will be, “addressed for positive change.”
“Incumbents should never run unopposed and should always be challenged as it is best for the community,” Shaffer’s post continued. “The status quo should never be acceptable and the boards need to strive for continuous improvement and have a clear definition of success in academics in order to prepare the children for the rigors of high school and beyond.”
In Lake Bluff District 65, incumbents Anne Hill and Andy Duran led the way, while Laura Breakstone appears to have won a seat over Laine Bennett, who trails by about 300 votes.
Incumbents Michael Conway, Joanne Osmond, Debbie Walsh and Joe Dunne appear to have won four seats in Lake Villa District 41, with Randy Harnicker placing fifth.
In Lincolnshire-Prairie View D103, incumbent Marissa Grossenbach was the top vote-getter, while Sanjay Keshav and Nana Agyeman are in position to win seats over Ning Zhang and Kathryn Hoskins, who trailed Agyeman by 45 votes as of Wednesday.
In Millburn District 24, where some school members have been embattled after making controversial remarks about feminine hygiene products in boys bathrooms, gender and sexuality, newcomers Lisa Wooster and John Ruggles apparently won two of three open seats. Write-in candidate Fred Skeppstrom is poised to win the third once those votes are reported by the Lake County Clerk’s Office.
Becki Matteson was the top vote-getter in Winthrop Harbor District 1, along with Alberto Segura and Darci Green, who apparently beat out fourth-place finisher Elizabeth McGinnis by 75 votes and was followed by Katherine Roane and Brenda Dickson.
