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In a Photo Finish, It Looks Like Stith, Nowak and McCormick for Geneva School Board
Six candidates compete for three seats—and it's super close at the end. Unoffically, incumbents Mary Stith and Kelly Nowak will be joined by Mike McCormick.
This election is about as close as it can get.
Unofficially, incumbents Mary Stith and Kelly Nowak will be joined by attorney Mike McCormick on the Geneva School Board.
You can read the chart below for yourself. McCormick edged incumbent Leslie Juby by 37 votes and George Jackowiec by 75 votes.
Since these are unofficial totals, we'll have to wait for a final canvassing to say these three are the winners.
If these totals stand, voters ended up picking two from Column A and one from Column B. Many people grouped Juby, another incumbent, with fiscal watchdogs Jackowiec and McCormick and saw Cabeen as leaning closer in philosophy and outlook to board members Nowak and Stith.
"It was very, very close, obviously, and I’m grateful," Stith said Tuesday night.
"Honestly, it hasn’t been a nice campaign. It's been very hard. with all this negative stuff. I feel for all the candidates. It’s just hard to put yourself out there these days."
But as she has many times before, Stith immediately turned to the positive, saying she is looking forward to a special meeting of the School Board at 5 p.m. Wednesday to discuss acceptance of a $450,000 anonymous donation for improvements of Burgess Field.
"I’m so excited about that," she said.
"To me, our schools have only gotten better in the years we’ve been in Geneva," she said. "Now we've got another four years of hard work, and hopefully the economy will get better."
Whether the economy improves quickly or years from now, Stith says her experience has helped prepare her for the challenge.
"It's not like there haven’t been hard decisions already," she said. "I feel a little bit like I've been there. I’m glad there will be new people on the board, but it's also good to have people who have done it before."
| Candidate | Votes | % of Votes | Winner |
| Robert L. Cabeen | 625 | 7.24 | No |
| Leslie N. Juby | 1,342 | 15.55 | No |
| George Jackowiec | 1,304 | 15.11 | No |
| Mary Lynn Stith | 1,514 | 17.55 | Yes |
| Kelly B. Nowak | 1,401 | 16.24 | Yes |
| Michael T. McCormick | 1,379 | 15.98 | Yes |
This information is courtesy of the Kane County clerk's website.
George Jackowiec
5:35 am on Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Congratulations to all Geneva winners! Also great effort to all of those people who put in lots of effort in what they believe in!! I know I have a much greater appreciation for our democratic process and I am very happy I had a chance to participate.
Mike McCormick
8:02 am on Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Thank you to all of you who voted yesterday and a special thanks to those who helped on my grassroots campaign. George Leslie and Larry, you ran a great race. I was honored to run with you. Mary and Kelly I look forward to working with you and the other board members. Lets get to work!
chuck carroll
9:50 am on Wednesday, April 6, 2011
It is reasuring that Genevans continued the long tradition of students first in the school district. There were some good questons raised by the opposition, and while they were not persuasive enough to make me change my vote, it is a point of view that is needed.
The tradition of increasing soon-to-retire teacher and administrator’s salaries so that the State paid retirement is increased needs to stop. While Genevans specifically do not pay the increase in retirement for our teachers the whole State does this and the whole State pays for it. Why didn’t 304 at a minimum stay within the State guidelines?
304 does almost everything right, transportation, facility development and management and most importantly the quality of the education they deliver. Thank you Mary and Kelly. Mike you have a great backgoround and we all expect to benefit from your efforts.