Schools
Record Number of Candidates File in this Year's District 200 Contest
Fifteen residents will vie for four seats in April; one is an incumbent, another is a former teacher.
Fifteen people, a number of whom have never held public office before, will be vying for four seats on the Oak Park River Forest District 200 school board this spring.
According to the list of candidates who filed their statements of candidacy by 5 p.m. Wednesday, the only incumbent to file for re-election is Terry Finnegan, who will be seeking his second term on the board.
Three other sitting school board members - Dietra Millard, Amy McCormack McCormack and Valerie Fischer - all decided not to seek re-election. Fisher stepped in to complete the term of Jacques Conway, who resigned last year with two years remaining on his term.
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One candidate, Eric Davis, opted out of running for another term as Oak Park Township trustee and decided instead to seek a seat on the high school board.
At least one candidate comes in with considerable experience in the system. Steve Gevinson taught in the English department for 32 years at OPRF; he served eight of those years as its division head.
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The entire field includes:
- Jackie Moore
- Jeff Weissglass
- Thomas F. Cofsky
- Steven Gevinson
- Steven R. Nations
- Beatrice Fung
- Barb Langer
- Paula Halpin
- Robert M. Gale
- Melanie McQueen
- David Perkovich
- Eric E. Davis
- Julie MacCarthy
- John B. Bokum Jr.
- Terry Finnegan
In what could be considered a surprise, the race for Elementary District 97's three seats will be uncontested. Incumbent Jim Gates is running for his second term. Amy Felton will run for her first term outright. She replaced former school board member Jennifer Reddy who resigned midway through her first term.The lone newcomer is Graham Brisbane, who unless there are any write-ins, will replace Peter Barber, who is running for Oak Park trustee.
In River Forest five people will run for four slots on the Elementary District 90 school board. They include incumbents Patrick Meyer, David Latham and Roman Ebert plus newcomers Teresa Peavey and Anne Gottlieb.
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