Lake Bluff School District 65 is searching for a new member, following the resignation of Christine Letchinger.
Letchinger, who was elected to the school board in 2013 and had been serving as board secretary, resigned effective April 8 due to personal reasons.
“There is an illness in the family,” Letchinger said. “(The position) is time-consuming and it would not be fair to the residents and the school district. I did not believe I was devoting enough attention.”
Prior to joining the school board, Letchinger had served on the village board from 1999 to 2013, the last eight of those years as village board president.
“Christine was a great asset to the board,” said District 65 President Mark Barry. “She brought years of village board experience and was a great contributor to board decisions and discussions and she will be sorely missed.”
In a letter to the community announcing Letchinger’s departure, Barry explained that the six other members of the board will appoint a new member to serve through the end of her term in 2017. He cited the Illinois School code, which holds that a special election is not necessary if there are fewer than 868 days left in the person’s term.
Barry said the board is accepting applications from qualified candidates within the district boundaries. Applications must be turned in to the District 65 office by 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 29.
“The board will meet on April 30 to screen and evaluate applications and narrow that down to three or four candidates we will evaluate on May 7,” he said.
The person selected will also be eligible to run for a full term in the next municipal election in 2017.
District 65 is composed of Lake Bluff Elementary School and Lake Bluff Middle School. According to the District website, there are 858 students enrolled this school year.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
