For a job that pays nothing and comes with a lot of potential headaches and controversy, there is no shortage of people who want to be on the Evanston/Skokie District 65 Board of Education.
Thirteen people have applied to fill the position formerly held by Marquese Weatherspoon, who resigned unexpectedly last month.
Weatherspoon herself was an appointee to an empty slot, and was on the board only about a year.
District 65 provided the names of the applicants in response to a request from Evanston Now, but declined to provide any biographical information.
We’ve added information that we were able to locate online that appears to relate to the named individuals.
Update 9/11/22: The story has been updated to include additional information provided by District 65 in response to our FOIA request after the original story was posted.
- Erin Booker is an early childhood educator and real estate broker who owns a home at 415 Dempster St.
- Chanelle Brown works as a visual merchandising lead at Target and lives at 911 Greenleaf St.
- Joan Chiao has a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University. She lists her job on Linkedin as assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern University and lives at 95 Williamsburg Road in Skokie.
- Robert Easter has an MBA from Northwestern University and is on the Finance Committee of the Evanston Community Foundation and on the board of Lending for Evanston and Northwestern Development. He lives at 1727 Oak Ave.
- Jo Ann Flores-Deter works for the Ravinia Festival, has a background in arts education and owns a home at 1729 Darrow Ave.
- Tammytha Johnson has an MBA from North Park University, works for AON insurance, is a former board member of Foundation 65 and owns a home at 1717 McDaniel Ave.
- Jenna Morgan has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern, works as an executive assistant for a law firm and owns a home at 416 Keeney St.
- Sharon Riley Morris is a teacher assistant at KinderCare and holds a bachelor’s degree in public health from the University of Minnesota Duluth.
- Christine Percheski is an associate professor of sociology at Northwestern and owns a home at 2708 Prairie Ave. in Evanston.
- Tracy Olasimbo is family engagement coordinator at the Evanston Public Library and chairs the board of Chicago Volunteer Doulas where school board member Anya Tanyavutti is executive director.
- Omar G. Salem is issues director with the Illinois Federation of Teachers and an English teacher at Niles North High School. He has a master’s degree from National Louis University and is pursuing an MBA at Concordia University. He’s a member of the City of Evanston’s Equity and Empowerment Commission and a real estate agent and owns a home at 2005 Maple Ave.
- Henry Wilkins is operations financial manager at SC Johnson and leads a STEM school advocacy group.
- Mya Wilkins has an MBA from Northwestern and is executive director of marketing research at JPMorgan Chase. She and Henry Wilkins own a home at 8625 Central Park Ave. in Skokie.
The person named by the current board will have the advantage of incumbency if he or she chooses to run for a full term in the next election, but won’t have time to build up much of a record before that election arrives next April.
All the applicants for appointment to the board said they plan to run in next April’s election, except Percheski, who answered, “Most likely no.”
The fact that the Board would offer no real information about the nominees other than their names is another appalling example of their toxic culture. They operate as though they are accountable to no one, not even the capos in their Facebook mob.
Vote them all out.
Good to see so many hats being thrown in the ring. Hopefully some of them will run in April.
Vote them out! Math scores are atrocious. The culture is toxic! We are about to lose middle school languages (Spanish, French). Vote them out! Vote them out! Vote them out!
Thank you Bill, Jeff, and Evanston Now for bringing transparency to the process.
I don’t know any of these folks, but judging from what is compiled here you can make a list of people who have resumes that show they are qualified and possibly independent:
Chiao, Easter, Percheski, M. Wilkins.
Given the Board’s predilections, I think we can say that those four will likely not be chosen. The board is probably disappointed they didn’t have any educational consultants apply since group-think seems to be their biggest priority.
Is Tanyavutti going to recuse herself from the selection process? Olasimbo presents a massive conflict of interest, and based on their past behavior, stands out at 99% likely to be picked.