Savage-Williams to head D202 board again

Pat Savage-Williams first became president of the Evanston Township High School/District 202 Board of Education in 2015.

Many board members have come and gone since then, but one thing has been constant: Every year during board reoganization in May, Savage-Williams has been named by her colleagues to lead the seven-member panel, whomever those colleagues may have been.

On Monday night, Savage-Williams was unanimously named president for the ninth straight time.

(Board leadership positions are determined yearly by the board itself. The voters pick board members for four-year terms. Savage-Williams was first elected in 2013).

The board also chose Monique Parsons to continue as vice-president.

This was the first board meeting for the one new member elected last month, Leah Piekarz, a former ETHS counselor. (Incumbent members Parsons, Elizabeth Rolewicz, and Mirah Anti were also returned to the board by the voters).

Board members also said farewell and good luck to Stephanie Teterycz, who decided not to run for re-election in April. Savage-Williams praised Teterycz, saying “you’ve always put the students first.”

And speaking of students, Nicole Yao was also sworn in for her second, one-year term as the school board’s non-voting student member.

Yao, who will be a senior next year, was overwhelmingly re-elected by her fellow students, getting more votes than did the five other candidates combined.

That type of landslide offers a valuable lesson in politics at any level: the advantage of incumbency, along with name recognition, can help tremendously in a field race where there are multiple contenders.