Board of Education Candidates Endorsed

The Lake Forest Caucus Committee met on Tuesday evening for its 2012 Annual Meeting where it endorsed candidates for the Lake Forest Elementary School District 67 and Lake Forest High School District 115.

The following candidates for Lake Forest Elementary School District 67 were endorsed: Mike Borkowski, Beth Clemmensen, Jeff Folker and Robert Lemke.

The following candidates for Lake Forest High School District 115 were endorsed: John Powers, Steve Reimer, Dave Schreiber.

No current members of either school board are running for re-election, with the exception of Todd Burgener, who is a member of the District 115 School Board. However, because he is a resident of Lake Bluff, the Lake Forest Caucus does not endorse him. Instead, he is endorsed by the Lake Bluff School Caucus.

“Our Caucus President, Gary Peet, was informed by Lake Bluff School Caucus President, Kathy Blahunka, that Todd Burgener is endorsed currently and was endorsed four years ago by the Lake Bluff School Caucus,” Lake Forest Caucus Communications Head Beth Laufenberg said.

“We have traditionally listed the candidate slated by the Lake Bluff School Caucus on our materials,” she said. “However, Mr. Burgener did not go through our candidate selection process because we, as the Lake Forest Caucus, only identify, recruit and slate candidates who are registered voters in Lake Forest.”

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The process for selecting candidates began in almost a year ago when the School Board Search Committee was formed. The committee surveyed over 400 residents regarding the qualities they deemed important to quality service on the school board, including independence, honesty, integrity, transparency, time commitment, familiarity with the school system, the districts’ strengths and opportunities, communication skills, sound business/financial experience, strong academic credentials, dedication to community service and prior board or committee experience.

The committee identified or was approached by over 150 Lake Forest residents, with twenty-five residents submitting applications. Twenty-one candidates were selected for an initial round of interviews. Eight candidates were interviewed by the Caucus Committee for a final interview to fill the four open positions for District 67 and five candidates were interviewed to fill the three open positions for District 115. 

The Lake Forest Caucus is a non-partisan, no-agenda organization that was formed in the 1930s to help improve the caliber of volunteers that served in election positions throughout the city. The Caucus Committee is made of 42 members of the community, elected by the public and subjected to term limits.

 Those interested in running for either school board can still run without the caucus’ nomination. Nomination papers can be attained here and must be filed between Dec. 17 and Dec. 24. 

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