D-12 candidates brace for tough fiscal years

JOHNSBURG – All the candidates running for a spot on the District 12 school board agree that the sitting board has acted as fiscally conservative as possible. The challenge now: Get even more creative with funds.

“We need to expand our effort in seeking out any available funding, grants,” said Thomas Low, in a Northwest Herald candidate survey. Low, 52, is one of three board members up for re-election this spring.

He joins fellow board veterans Michael Wolf and Thomas Liston and challengers Patricia Syens, Virginia Pearl Schnur and Karen Baird in the April 7 election. The six are vying for four open positions.

From the taxpayers’ perspective, District 12 has a “tradition of fiscal responsibility,” Baird said.

“The school system has consistently provided a high level of education for our children, without the need for additional referendums and tax increases,” Baird said in her candidate survey.

She is a member of the Parent-Teacher Organization and a substitute teacher’s aide in the district. Baird, 41, hopes that experience will assist in maintaining the district’s reputation.

Schnur said it was critical for the district to secure the state funding it was promised.

“We need the state funds to maintain the many programs which can help our students grow and be upstanding citizens,” she wrote in her candidate survey. Schnur, 59, is a member of the Johnsburg Ordinance Committee.

Syens painted a bleak outlook for the district’s financial challenges.

“The current state aid does not provide adequate or equitable funding and the local taxpayers are already overburdened,” she said. She pledged to find “creative ways to avoid expenses and curtail spending.”

Syens is a former District 12 business manager and assistant superintendent. She spent 37 years in District 12, and works part time as the business manager at Alden-Hebron District 19.
She’s banking on that experience to help the district survive the tumultuous economy.

Wolf touted the coupling of his 10 years of experience on the board and his background as a certified public accountant and the head of Gurnee-based Paris Presents Inc. as helping him build the skills to help the district weather the economic storm.

“I understand the district’s finances thoroughly and I firmly believe that I can help the district address the issues we will be confronted with,” he said in his candidate survey.

Liston indicated that if elected, his next term wouldn’t be just about the dollar signs.

“Providing the best education for our children that we can is the single most important goal for society,” said Liston, 46. “What could possibly be more important ... ?”