Katy Boehm will fill the role her mother once held on the Leyden High School District 212 Board of Education.
The Leyden High School District 212 School Board swore her in at its Nov. 13 meeting. For Boehm, it’s something of a return to her roots, as a graduate of the high school and then as a longtime color guard coach. But then, she’s also taking the seat of Sandra Boehm, her mother, who was a longtime board member.
She’s continuing a family legacy of service.
Her mother died in October and in an obituary, her husband, Kenneth Boehm, said the elder Boehm joined the board because of her family.
“She wanted to give back because the high school was so good to our daughters,” he said
Now, Katy Boehm will fulfill her mother’s legacy. Not that she’s a stranger to the boardroom.
“I have been taking my mom to School Board meetings for the last two-and-a-half-years now,” Boehm explained. “She was sick leading up to her passing, so that’s one of the things we did together.”
Even as her mother’s health declined, she loved the school district and the board meetings. Boehm said serving on that board had become an important part of her life.
“Getting onto the school board kind of happened at the perfect time,” Boehm said. “She was going through a rough patch and it brought a little bit of light to her life.”
The younger Boehm and her sisters all went through Leyden, and the elder Boehm enjoyed hearing about student achievements. Her mother never got tired of hearing what the kids were doing, Boehm said.
“She was really proud of all the work the kids were doing,” Boehm said. At the monthly meetings, student groups would often come in and give the board updates on various club or group or sports activities. Those were highlights.
“They would tell about their experiences, whether it be a service trip or a sport or a competition or just a class,” said Boehm. “She would light up when she would hear about what it is they were doing.”
Boehm shares her mother’s interest in education. By day, she is a librarian at Scott Elementary School in Melrose Park — one of the high school’s feeder schools, and she’d been a coach for the high school’s color guard for years. More recently, she volunteered last year to help organize Leyden’s 100th anniversary celebrations.
But she said it was her time spent in board meetings with her mother that really gave her an understanding of boardroom politics and community issues. So far, with one board meeting down, she’s looking forward to the rest of her mother’s term, which expires in the spring of 2027. Beyond that, she’s thinking she might run herself.
But that’s far in the future. For now, she’s just happy to serve and continue her mother’s legacy.
“I’m just really excited to serve the community in a different way,” she said. “Ever since I stopped with color guard, I’m excited to serve the School Board.”
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
