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SPRINGFIELD â Like many parents in the summer of 2020, Donna Skelton was curious as to how her local school district, Ball-Chatham, would navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall.
She and her husband Terry are working parents of two children, 10-year-old Adrianne and 8-year-old Addison. After spending the spring of 2020 working through the district s online learning, she awaited the plan for returning kids full-time to the classroom. Chatham was looking at several different things, Skelton said. They weren t set on something, it kept changing (and) everybody was trying to figure out something that worked.
Eventually, the Ball-Chatham School Board decided to begin the 2020-21 school year with a hybrid model where students would attend in-person for half the day on certain days. However, the Skelton children would still have had to do some virtual learning, an option that wasn t the best for the family.
Like many parents in the summer of 2020, Donna Skelton was curious as to how her local school district, Ball-Chatham, would navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall.
She and her husband Terry are working parents of two children, 10-year-old Adrianne and 8-year-old Addison. After spending the spring of 2020 working through the district s online learning, she awaited the plan for returning kids full-time to the classroom. Chatham was looking at several different things, Skelton said. They weren t set on something, it kept changing (and) everybody was trying to figure out something that worked.
Eventually, the Ball-Chatham School Board decided to begin the 2020-21 school year with a hybrid model where students would attend in-person for half the day on certain days. However, the Skelton children would still have had to do some virtual learning, an option that wasn t the best for the family.
With 74.44% of precincts reporting, Laura Calderon, 42, was leading the way in the Ball-Chatham school board election.
The executive director of the Illinois Public Transportation Association and president of the Ball-Chatham Educational Foundation board has 874 of the 4,241 votes that have been tallied for one of the six candidates vying for four seats on the district’s board of education.
Tiffani Saunders (756), Andrea Rediger (733) and Ann Strahle (723) round out the top-four vote-getters so far in the race.
Ball-Chatham School Board President William Brewer (635) the lone incumbent in the race and Sherri Winters (520) were trailing.
Each of the four seats in the Sangamon County consolidated general election carry a four-year term.
By WMAY Newsroom
Photo Credit: Facebook / Raina Kolba
Challenger Buffy Lael-Wolf has won the race in Springfield school board subdistrict 5, defeating incumbent Tiffany Mathis, who was seeking election to a full term after being appointed to the seat in 2019.
Mathis was one of the most outspoken advocates for getting students back into classrooms more quickly during the pandemic, while Lael-Wolf recommended a more cautious approach. Lael-Wolf received the endorsement of the Springfield Education Association.
In the other contested Springfield school board race, another SEA-endorsed candidate, Erica Austin, easily defeated challengers Tom Shafer and Michael Washington to win the open subdistrict 6 seat being vacated by Judith Johnson. Austin won more than 69% of the vote, compared to 17% for Shafer and 11% for Washington.