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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — With 95% of the vote counted in the Champaign School Board elections, four candidates have emerged as the leaders to fill four open seats on the board.
Those candidates, in order of vote percentage, are Elizabeth “Betsy” Holder (18%), incumbent board president Amy Armstrong (17%), Jamar Brown (16%) and Mark Thies (14%). Also included in the rankings are Jeffrey Brownfield (13%), Albert Zwettler (11%) and Mark Holm (10%).
Current school board member Heather Vazquez said she is excited to work with the people the community chooses to serve on the board. She knows that there is important work that needs to be done and there will be key votes on their agendas right away.
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Cynthia Bruno, a parent with children in the district. said the people serving on the board need to think about the future of the kids and the schools in the district. She feels that schools impact everyone in town, not just the students learning inside, the parents at home and the teachers running the classrooms.
“I really believe schools are the heartbeat of a community,” Bruno said. “Because everything that is decided about a child’s path academically also sets them up for what their life is going to be like post school and what this community is going to be like.”
Bruno knows this is especially important after seeing the “change not chaos” discussion in the fall. Those talks brought both students and parents forward to voice how they felt about the schools of choice process and how the school board was handling potential changes about where kids would be learning next year.
