Evanston Township High School’s board of education on Monday night re-elected Pat Savage-Williams and Monique Parsons as board president and vice president, respectively.
Savage-Williams has served as president since May 2015, and the upcoming one-year term will be her ninth consecutive year leading the eight-person ETHS District 202 school board. Parsons, president and CEO of the McGaw YMCA, was also elected to the board for the first time in 2015.
“We couldn’t ask for better leadership from Pat and Monique, and why stop a great thing?” said Pat Maunsell, a board member, after nominating Parsons for vice president. “Thank you for all you do for the board and the community.”
Meanwhile, Monday also marked the end of Stephanie Teterycz’s sole four-year tenure on the board and the beginning of Leah Piekarz’s first four-year term. Piekarz was the only non-incumbent to win a spot on the ETHS board in April’s election, while Teterycz decided not to run again.
Teterycz, who works as director of operations for a chemistry lab at Northwestern, said her daughter graduated from ETHS two years ago. She expressed gratitude for her time on the board.
“I can’t even quantify how much I’ve learned from all of you, and how much I’m taking away with me,” she said Monday night. “I hope to stay in conversation with all of you because we all have a lot more learning and dialogue to engage in with one another, so thanks for everything.”
Piekarz, who retired last year after more than two decades as a counselor at ETHS, officially took Teterycz’s seat on the board during Monday’s meeting. With the new board sworn in, members unanimously picked Savage-Williams and Parsons as their leaders.
Nicole Yao, an ETHS junior who served as the student representative on the board for the last year, won in a landslide vote by her peers. She’s the first student in a long time to retain the position for two straight years, said Savage-Williams, who works as a special education coordinator at New Trier.
“We’re always listening to your report because you provide that information to us, you provide that liaison communication to us,” she told Yao. “In a sense, you’re our link to the students.”