A former member of the Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 Board of Education is rejoining the board to fill a vacancy that was created last month.
The school board on Feb. 28 voted to appoint Larry Ryles to complete the term of Rebecca Little, who resigned from the board on Feb. 8, citing “personal circumstances.”
Ryles served on the District 64 School Board from 2017 to 2021. He was one of nine candidates interested in filling the vacancy to be interviewed by the school board on Feb. 28.
Ryles, who submitted a brief, hand-written application to the board president on Feb. 10, was the first of the candidates to be interviewed.
“My heart is still with this district,” he said when asked of his interest in rejoining the board. “I love the children in this district. The children gave all of that time purpose, and I’ll seek out every opportunity to serve the children, the taxpayers and the parents.”
Ryles said he would bring “stability” to the board and joining would be an “easy transition.”
Ryles currently serves on the Park Ridge Planning and Zoning Commission, from which he said he will be stepping down, and he ran for mayor of Park Ridge in 2013. He will serve on the District 64 board until the April 2023 election.
Ryles did not run for a second term on the District 64 board in 2021.
Other applicants who interviewed for the vacant school board seat were Rebecca Heneghan, a pharmacist and president of the Lincoln Middle School Parent-Teacher Organization; Terry Cameron, who previously served on the board; George Kouros, an attorney who does not currently have children in the school district; Matthew Doubleday, a consultant to a financial corporation; Emily Norris, an attorney; Rick Farmer, a retired attorney and husband of a former District 64 administrator; and Bosko Bjegovic, a District 219 soccer coach with a background in data operations.
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