Election 2024: Sycamore school board referendum to appear on November ballot

SYCAMORE – Sycamore voters will be asked on their November election ballots to decide whether anyone in the district can run for a spot on the Sycamore School District 427 Board, regardless of the township in which they reside.

District 427 Superintendent Steve Wilder said a statewide policy prohibits any more than three board members living within a single township inside district boundaries from serving on the Sycamore school board, and the board is unable to change that policy.

Voters could spur that change, however.

“What the board can do is put that on the ballot to get feedback from the voters in terms of whether or not the voters would like the board members to be elected at large, meaning you could have board members, as many board members as the public would like, from any given township,” Wilder said. “I think it’s unlikely you’d get seven from Sycamore Township or seven from Cortland Township, but in theory, if the board approves the resolution tonight and it’s on the ballot and the voters approve it, that technically could happen.”

It’s the second referendum that Sycamore voters can expect on their ballots this year. The Sycamore City Council also approved a referendum for the City Clerk’s Office. The referendum will ask voters to determine whether they prefer the position to remain elected or to be an appointed role selected by the city manager and approved by the City Council.

[ Sycamore City Clerk referendum will be on November ballot ]

Wilder said the majority of students reside within Sycamore and Cortland townships.

The board approved the resolution Tuesday night in a 5-0 vote, paving the way for voters to decide through a referendum in the Nov. 5 general election if board members can be elected at large.

School board member James Chyllo was the first to say that he supported the idea.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer to let the people decide because it’s been a concern,” Chyllo said. “Because in theory, you could have 10 people running for a school board position, and one of them could walk on themselves because of how the township thing plays out, and it gets super complicated trying to explain that [to] anybody in the public who asks.”

During the last election, not enough candidates ran to fill all the available seats on the Sycamore school board.

Board member Christian Copple was appointed to the board during a special meeting June 13, 2023, after a seat on the board was left vacant when not enough people ran in the April 4, 2023, local election.

If approved by the voters in a November referendum, the proposed policy change would go into effect for the April 2025 election, when some of the board’s seats will be up for election.

Board President Jim Dombek and board member Eric Jones were not present for Tuesday night’s meeting. None of the five board members present expressed serious concerns about putting the referendum on the next ballot, however.

Board member Beth Marie Evans asked Wilder why the policy, which comes from the state, exists.

“My understanding is that the thinking was – and let’s use Sycamore as an example – if all seven board members were elected from Sycamore Township or from Cortland Township, the lesser-populated townships kind of on the fringes of the district, it just doesn’t give them a fair shot at representation. I think that’s the rationale,” Wilder said in response. “And this has been in the school code for decades.”

Evans concurred with Wilder but still wanted to ask voters to decide.

“It might be there for that reason, but again, people should be able to vote on it, I guess,” Evans said.

Many school districts in Illinois allow candidates to run at large, but some community unit and consolidated districts require proportional representation for townships and urban and rural areas, according to the Illinois Association of School Boards.

Copple, a lawyer, voted to put the referendum on the ballot but said he wasn’t a fan of the language used. Wilder told him that he was unwilling to change the language school district lawyers had crafted.

“I think it needs to go to the people at this point,” Copple said. “I’m with putting it to them, but in the notice of election, page three of the resolution, it includes what would likely go on the ballot, and that’s the language I have problems with, I take issue with, because it’s not – it doesn’t give a broad enough explanation of it.

“It’s kind of legalese a little bit, to a certain extent, and I don’t think that the voters generally are receptive to that.”