WOODSTOCK – Changes in the McHenry County Board’s leadership will extend far beyond the election of a new chairwoman.

Under a tentative plan hashed out Friday, all but one of the board’s 11 standing committees will have new chairmen. A Committee on Committees spent about 21⁄2 hours assigning the board’s 24 members to the groups in which much of county government’s work takes place.

If the assignments are not changed by new board Chairwoman Tina Hill, R-Woodstock, at least two committees will be chaired by freshman board members, to some extent out of necessity – more than one-third of the board is new. And in another first, one of the County Board’s two Democrats will head a committee.