Andrew Pigozzi, Tracy Quattrocki, Jerome Summers and Kim Weaver won seats on the District 65 School Board in the April 7 election. The fifth candidate, Christopher Hawker, was 230 votes shy of capturing a seat on the Board.
According to Cook County Election Department, the unofficial results are:
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Quattrocki – 6,719 votes
Ms. Quattrocki, the recipient of the most votes by a wide margin, has a Ph.D in Renaissance studies from Yale University, and has taught at the university level. She was formerly president of Dewey¡¦s PTA and active in literacy programs at Dewey. She has four children, one in pre-school, two at Dewey and one at Nichols.
Ms. Weaver, who received the second highest number of votes, has a Bachelor of Science degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and is an account executive for Energy Systems Group. She works with school districts to provide energy-efficient solutions. She was co-chair of the Evanston campaign for State Representative Julie Hamos, has served as a member of the board of the The Total Child Center, and been involved in other civic activities. She has one child at ETHS.
Mssrs. Summers and Pigozzi will retain their positions on the School Board, with Mr. Summers obtaining only 32 votes more than Mr. Pigozzi.
Mr. Summers obtained a Bachelors of Science degree from Alabama A&M University, and describes his current occupation as a horticulturalist, generalist and entrepreneur. He currently serves as vice president of the School Board, and has served as chair of the Board¡¦s finance committee.
Mr. Pigozzi holds a master¡¦s degree in architecture from the University of Illinois, and in his role as an architect has designed, renovated and developed long-range facility plans for more than 40 schools. He is a member of the School Board¡¦s finance and green committees. He has two children at Nichols Middle School.
As usual, there was a relatively low turnout for the School Board elections. A total of 26,033 votes were cast in the election by voters in Evanston and that part of Skokie that is within School District 65. The number of persons who voted for School Board candidates is not available, but it is much less than the number of votes that were cast because each voter was entitled to vote for four candidates.
In the April 7 elections, 10,307 persons, or 21 percent of the registered voters, cast a vote for a mayoral candidate. If each of those persons had cast four votes for School Board members, there would have been 41,228 votes cast for School Board members, plus some additional votes from voters in the Skokie portion of the School District. Only 26,033 votes, however, were cast for School Board members.
The voter turnout varied substantially by ward, with a high of 5,684 votes cast in the Sixth ward to a low of 1,434 cast in the Fifth ward.
On May 4, a special reorganization meeting of the School Board is scheduled to swear in the new members of the Board and to pay tribute to outgoing Board members Mary Erickson and Mary Rita Luecke.