Whereas some DuPage County college boards are going begging for candidates in subsequent yr’s election, the marketing campaign in Downers Grove’s Group Excessive College District 99 guarantees to be vigorous, with six candidates — together with one with a well-recognized title — going after three open seats.
Kara Casten, an insurance coverage government who’s the spouse of Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, has fashioned a slate with tax legal professional Don Renner, who was on the board from 2015 to 2019, and buyer expertise skilled Ken Dawson.
Casten mentioned her resolution to run was impressed partially by the reminiscence of her daughter Gwen, who died in June from what the DuPage County coroner referred to as a sudden cardiac arrhythmia. Gwen Casten had graduated from Downers Grove North two weeks earlier.
“We’re so grateful for the alternatives she had, the recollections now we have of highschool,” Casten mentioned. “I wish to step up and assist advocate for the voices that aren’t heard as loudly in our neighborhood and guarantee each scholar in District 99 is included, welcomed, and given the identical alternatives as each different scholar.”
The nonetheless anonymous slate will face two district mother and father who’re working a joint race for the April 4 election. Keep-at-home mother Barbara Allen and well being care administrator Dana Cox mentioned their precedence shall be getting teachers again on monitor after the challenges of the pandemic years.
“Actually fairness is vital,” Allen mentioned. “It’s one of many high (points) that’s on the entrance of all of our minds, to make sure all college students are getting equal entry. However we have to be cautious that we’re not dropping focus and retaining it on good public schooling.”
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The sixth candidate, engineer Chris Erickson, is working a solo race. He mentioned he’s involved with declining standardized check scores.
“So lots of my neighbors, they began within the metropolis and moved out to the suburbs,” he mentioned. “Whenever you’re choosing a suburb, typically occasions you’re doing that for the colleges. That’s why I wish to become involved — to ask some questions and ensure (teachers are) getting the due consideration.”
District 99 is centered in Downers Grove however its boundaries embody components of Bolingbrook, Darien, Lisle, Oak Brook and Westmont. Whereas the Illinois State Board of Schooling charges each of its excessive faculties “commendable,” the second-highest designation, there are variations: Downers Grove North is extra prosperous and fewer racially various than Downers Grove South, based on state information.
Casten famous that the district’s voters handed a $136 million constructing enchancment referendum proposal 4 years in the past through which fairness was a part of the gross sales pitch: Downers Grove South, for instance, acquired a brand new performing arts auditorium.
“All of us wish to be certain that all of our college students … obtain the help, steerage and sources they want, to allow them to create their very own path and achieve success in life,” Dawson mentioned.
As in different cities, Downers Grove noticed loads of discontent over scholar masking coverage throughout the peak of the pandemic. When a choose in February dominated that Gov. J.B. Pritzker overstepped his bounds in mandating the apply, Cox and Allen joined dozens of others asking District 99 to finish it.
“Please make masks non-compulsory,” Cox mentioned in a public remark. “Many children will nonetheless put on them, however you should permit the selection. Denying college students their civil rights is towards the regulation.”
The board ended up voting 6-1 to make masks non-compulsory in late February, however Cox mentioned the lasting impression was that “the neighborhood wasn’t being heard.”
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The district additionally made information when some mother and father challenged the graphic novel “Gender Queer.” Directors defended its inclusion within the excessive faculties’ library collections, however Allen objected at a June board assembly, saying that by making the guide out there to college students, the district was selling sexual exercise and promiscuity.
“This isn’t about inclusivity,” she mentioned. “This isn’t about giving college students protected areas. No sexually specific supplies must be supplied by our faculties no matter sexual orientation, interval.”
Board members unanimously voted to maintain the guide within the faculties’ libraries. In an interview with the Tribune, Allen mentioned the problem didn’t determine into her resolution to run for the board.
“It’s time for our neighborhood to heal,” she mentioned. “I really feel strongly that that’s behind us and we’re specializing in our future.”
She and Cox mentioned they’re extra fascinated by addressing check scores and a brand new hybrid “block schedule” that lengthens class intervals on some days.
Renner mentioned he goals to maintain politics out of board discussions, although he allowed some voters may suppose the slate is being influenced by Sean Casten.
“It might be naive for me to hitch a slate with Kara and never perceive that thatassumption shall be made,” he mentioned. “I’ve been a Republican my complete life. I’m probably not affiliated with that political get together over the past 4 years beneath its management, however I feel the three of us come from very completely different political backgrounds.”
jkeilman@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @JohnKeilman
