Major change in race for ETHS school board

At least one non-incumbent will be elected to the Evanston Township/District 202 Board of Education in April, while another incumbent is basically guaranteed re-election, but only to a two-year term.

Stephanie Teterycz, who was first elected in 2019, has withdrawn from the race for another four-year term.

Teterycz had filed the necessary petition signatures to run again, but tells Evanston Now that “due to other demands on my time this spring, I have withdrawn from the race.”

Teterycz’s withdrawal leaves four candidates running for three available four-year terms on the board.

Two are incumbents, Monique Parsons and Elizabeth Rolewicz.

Two are non-incumbents, Leah Piekarz and Kristen Scotti.

A math teacher could tell you that means at least one non-incumbent will be joining the board. Or two, depending on how the results turn out.

In the meantime, another incumbent, Mirah Anti, is now running as a “valid” write-in candidate for just a two-year term.

Anti was appointed to fill an ETHS board vacancy in the summer of 2021. But that appointment is only for two years of what was a four-year position.

To fill out the rest of the term, Anti would have to run for the last two years, separate from the four-year races on the ballot.

Based on documents on the county clerk’s website, it appears that Anti filed petitions for a four-year term, then withdrew from that race, but the time had already passed to file signatures for the two-year slot.

So Anti filed as a write-in. The clerk’s office says Anti is the only person who filed a declaration of intent to run as a write-in candidate by the deadline, 61 days before the April election.

Under state law write-in votes for write-in candidates who don’t file a declaration of intent aren’t counted.

Anti would have been unopposed had she originally filed petitions for the two-year slot. Now, she’s still unopposed as the only verified write-in. So it appears she wins either way.

Anti tells Evanston Now that “I am now the write-in for the two-year term. While my campaign will not be as robust as the four-year term folks, I will still participate in the forums and candidate discussions.”