After voters choose different direction for Huntley School District 158 board, members select new president

Paul Troy – the longest-serving member on the Huntley School District 158 Board – has been elected to serve as the board’s president following a shift on the board in the April 1 election.

Troy, a board member since 2009, was reelected last month along with fellow incumbent Sean Cratty, while newcomers Andrew Fekete and Rich Bobby and former board member Melissa Maiorino also were sworn in Tuesday evening after their ballot-box victories.

Board members Andy Bittman and Laura Murray were the board’s president and vice president, respectively, heading into Tuesday’s meeting.

“Andy’s leadership has been second to none,” Murray said, adding that Bittman led with “unwavering integrity, not emotion.”

Murray said Bittman was “instrumental” in the current teachers union contract and that his leadership was “central” to hiring Superintendent Jessica Lombard.

“If we change course now, we risk undoing the progress we’ve made,” Murray said. She said a “no” vote would indicate disagreement with the district’s direction, which she said “many of us strongly support.”

Bittman, who seconded his own nomination, and Murray were the only “yes” votes – not enough to reinstall Bittman as president.

Troy was then nominated for president. Troy abstained, Murray and Bittman voted “no,” and the rest of the board voted “yes.” Cratty was elected vice president in another vote opposed by Bittman and Murray. Maiorino, who was back on the board after losing reelection in 2023, was elected secretary. All of the board except Maiorino, who abstained, voted for her.

Outgoing board members Anthony Quagliano and Michael Thompson didn’t run for reelection, and Dana Wiley lost to Fekete in her bid to finish her term.

Maiorino was on the board from 2019 to 2023 but was voted out when a slate consisting of Bittman, Murray, Thompson and Gina Galligar took over the board’s majority. That slate ran on issues including lowering the tax rate, emphasizing test scores and removing what they felt was political content from classrooms. Many of the members of that slate had opposed COVID-19-era restrictions such as mask mandates.

In that board’s first meeting in 2023, minutes after being sworn in, Bittman was appointed president, Murray vice president and Galligar secretary.

That board also waded into a number of culture war issues, including whether to accept a library grant tied to Illinois’ anti-book ban law. Despite campaigning on lower taxes, the slate joined the rest of the board to take the maximum increase on the property tax levy twice, although the board also voted to abate some dollars.

The board members who won in this year’s election had the backing of the teachers union and a grassroots group called “Candidates for All Kids” that sought a different direction for the board.

Voters in Grafton Township, which has a lot of overlap with the school district, also flipped the township board blue in the April 1 election, with Democrats taking control of that board for the first time in recent memory. Cratty was the only Republican to win a trustee seat on the township board.