In an unusual election that will see at least two school board members elected who aren’t even on the ballot, Summit Hill School District 161candidates pondered boosting community involvement during a sparsely attended forum Wednesday night at Walker Intermediate School in Tinley Park.
“I wish there was some way that this board could get to the people who are not here tonight, to get the people to come and get them involved,” candidate Patricia Martin said. “Because you always hear, and I read it in the paper, that the people complain about this, they complain about that, but where are those people?”
Fewer than two dozen audience members, many of them district staff, turned out to hear from write-in candidates Martin and George Leonard and board member Stacey Borgens, who’s seeking re-election to a second term. A third write-in candidate, Mark Zilinskas, did not attend the event, which was sponsored by the teachers union, Summit Hill Local Council 604.
With three seats up in the April 7 election, at least two write-in candidates will join the board.
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Board president Sean Doyle, a board member since 2003, and Jennifer Werner, who was appointed in 2013, decided against staying on the board of the district that serves areas of Frankfort, Frankfort Square, Mokena and Tinley Park.
Candidates were asked about their vision for the school system, expectations of board members and their relationship with the community.
“The school board has to listen to the community and has to understand the community’s concerns and their wants,” Leonard said. “But then they also have to be able to make tough decisions.”
Borgens, a Frankfort mother of three who owns a security company with her husband, offered a similar take.
“I have to do what’s best for all of the children, not just the three that live in my house,” she said. “There’s over 3,200 (students) in this district. As a board member, I have to look at the entire scope of things, not just my personal view.”
Leonard, a physical education teacher and head basketball coach at Rich East High School in Park Forest, lives in Frankfort. He has a third grader at Indian Trail School and a daughter who will be in kindergarten next year.
Martin retired last year from New Lenox District 122, where she was a speech pathologist and teachers union representative. She lives in Mokena and has three adult children who attended Summit Hill schools.
None of the three candidates laid out detailed initiatives for the district, with both newcomers saying they’d need time to get up to speed.
Leonard said he would see it as his job to support the vision of the superintendent. Martin touted the importance of special education programs, which she said greatly benefited her daughter. And Borgens cited her experience on the board team that negotiated the last teacher contract.
All three agreed that the board will have to grapple with more state mandates and fewer state and federal dollars.
“Money. Money. Money. That’s the current issue,” Martin said. “And now we have some new people in (state offices) who are probably going to take away some of the money we’re already getting.”
Zilinskas, a real estate broker from Tinley Park, said he couldn’t attend the forum because of a “personal matter.” All four of his children have attended District 161 schools, and his youngest son is in seventh grade.
Zilinskas said he volunteers as a catechist at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Tinley Park and previously ran for the District 161 board. When he saw only one candidate on the ballot for three open seats, he decided to run as a write-in candidate out of a “sense of duty to the community.”
Patrick Guinane is a freelance reporter.