CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — After a busy election week, the Champaign School District is shaping up to look very different with new leadership on the board.

Christy Arnold, Tony Bruno and Grace Kang won the vote for full four-year terms. Altogether, the three got more than 15,000 votes. For two-year spots on the board, Fatima Ahmed and Justin Michael Hendrix combined for 10,000 votes.

Now, some of the soon-to-be board members are opening up about what the future of the district holds.

“I think we’re going to make a great team, and I think we’re going to get a lot done,” Bruno said.

Of the seven seats on the board, five of them will soon be filled with fresh faces. Three of the soon-to-be school board members talked about what their vision is for the district moving forward.

“It was pretty clear that the community was voting for the people that directly were stating they wanted change, particularly in the Unit 4 leadership,” Arnold said.

“My goal was to make it functional,” Ahmed said. “My goal was to build trust back in the community.”

The Champaign School Board is going to look very different, very soon.

“What we saw here in this election is the community voted for change, and the community is going to get change,” Bruno said.

In 2024, Champaign Schools saw uncertainty in its leadership. Three board members resigned and cited overall board operation and a lack of productivity as the main reasons.

But Bruno said one of his goals is bringing back functioning leadership to the big table.

“The community can expect a new era of professionalism, transparency, decorum and change,” Bruno said.

And he’s not the only one. Fellow four-term winner Arnold said she shares Bruno’s goal.

“I think the first [goal] is change the dynamic on the board, have us be able to, you know, work together, collaborate better,” Arnold said. “[That] doesn’t mean that we’re going to agree on everything, but I think we need a level of professionalism.”

Ahmed is another new face and will have a two-year term on the board.

“Because our board was dysfunctional, we were not able to take actionable steps towards achieving these goals that we had laid out,” Ahmed said.

She believes the groundwork for some things, like the district’s strategic plan, has already been laid out. But now it’s on the new board to make sure it gets implemented effectively.

“I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done right away, and we want to make sure that we have a board that’s able to work together, that’s collaborating together,” Ahmed said. “And I want to be a voice on that board.”

But all three said changes could be needed beyond just the board. And Sheila Boozer’s superintendent position is one place that will be looked at.

“A fresh, new start is what we need,” Ahmed said. “It would take a lot to build back that trust if we keep Dr. Boozer.”

“I respect her, and while I’ve been critical of her decisions, I’ll keep an open mind going forward,” Bruno said.

“I think we need a change in leadership and that’ll be one of the first things I think we need to address,” Arnold said.

Bruno and Arnold said it’s undecided when the current board will officially seat the five new members. They all said they hope to learn more about when their positions will officially start, sooner rather than later.

Of the five new board members, the three who garnered the most votes were:

• Fatima Ahmed – 5,381 votes
• Christy Arnold – 5,286 votes
• Tony Bruno – 5,261 votes