April 29, 2020
Dear Members of the Joseph Sears School Community,
The Kenilworth Board of Education held a Special Board Meeting on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, to discuss a vacancy on the school board. Mrs. Suzanne Nelson formally resigned from her position.
The Board would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mrs. Nelson for her seven years of service. She took on her Board duties with dedication and grace, and has been a hard-working contributor and leader. Since 2013, she has done her best to honor the community needs of our school and has kept the students at the forefront of her decision-making. In her active leadership as a judicious steward for Kenilworth, she assisted in negotiating teacher contracts, refining the strategic plan, and addressing building improvements. She also led the development of our new administrative structure and the administrator searches this year. She has served as Board Vice President, Chair of the Personnel Committee, and also had roles on the Communications and Education Committees over the years. Mrs. Nelson has always worked collaboratively with stakeholders to help deliver an exceptional education to our students. We wish her and her family well and we look forward to her continued contributions to the community in new ways.
Per state guidelines and district policy, the Board has 60 days to fill the vacancy. The Board has several options for how to fill the now-vacant board seat:
- Directly appoint a candidate to the position
- Undertake an internal search and interview process before making an appointment
- Allow the Kenilworth Citizens’ Advisory Committee (KCAC) to interview candidates and present their selection for board consideration.
The Board collectively weighed all three options and decided to ask the KCAC to interview candidates in order to recommend a candidate for board consideration.
The KCAC is a non-partisan committee composed of representatives from more than 20 community organizations. The purpose of the KCAC is to suggest and introduce candidates for village leadership and governance positions, and any village board may request assistance from the KCAC to fill a vacancy that arises during the term of a board member.
Allowing the KCAC to facilitate the Board’s search to fill the vacant position will ensure a fair and transparent selection process inclusive of a wide range of candidates. As a Board, we trust the KCAC will run a thorough and efficient search process that will provide our district with a highly qualified candidate for consideration.
The KCAC has begun their search for school board candidates and will continue their search in the coming weeks. For more information or to express an interest in being a candidate, please visit their website at
www.KCAC-60043.org or contact Katie White, KCAC President, at 847-361-2234 or
katiedoldwhite@yahoo.com.
Sincerely,
Kenilworth School District No. 38 Board of Education
