Three candidates who ran and lost in this spring’s school board elections and a vocal critic of Lyons Township High School’s attempted sale of its Willow Springs property are among the 14 applicants for the vacant position on the LTHS school board that the LTHS school board interviewed on June 26 in closed session.
The school board will appoint someone to serve out the two remaining years of Julie Swinehart’s term at a special meeting on July 5 at 6 p.m. Swinehart resigned last month.
The former candidates who applied are David Herndon, Tim Vlcek and Justin Clark. Herndon finished fourth in last spring’s school board election, Vlcek finished fifth and Clark finished seventh.
All the applicants were given 10 minutes on June 26 to answer the same five questions. Superintendent Brian Waterman reportedly sat in on the interviews.
Clark, an assistant principal for building operations at Richards High School, said that he too applied to fill the vacancy because he still has the passion to serve on the school board. Clark’s son will be freshman at LTHS in the fall.
Whiting, the owner of an engineering company that specializes in machine design, said his knowledge would bring diversity of thought to the school board. But Whiting, who denounced the school board’s attempt to sell its land in Willow Springs to an industrial firm, acknowledged that he is probably a long shot to be appointed to the school board.
“I don’t think I have a realistic chance, but I think they could use diversity on their board,” Whiting said.
The other applicants are former District 102 school board member Leah Werab; current District 101 school board member Brett Lettiere, who is the Humanities Department chairman at Argo High School; Timothy King, a partner in the law firm of Chico & Nunes and the former general counsel of the Chicago Park District; lawyer and former FBI agent James Williams; project manager Elvia Nava; Anthony Arendt, the commercial technology liaison for the Defense Innovation Unit, a part of the Defense Department; Sofia Teresa Duran, an alumna of LTHS and the former president of the bilingual parent advisory committee of LaGrange School District 102; real estate broker Ericka Taylor; attorney Greg Norgle; and Shawn Kennedy, a financial advisor and former member of Indian Head Park Village Board.
