The lone contested race for the Springfield
School Board features two North Side residents with professional
backgrounds in science and records of community service. Both vow
to work as advocates for the most troubled schools in District 186.
Even the candidates, Erin Conley and Brad
Mills, admit that there isn’t much to distinguish them.
“There’s no need for a
debate,” Mills says. “Our platforms are similar; our
goals are the same.”
As a result, the aim for each nominee has been
simply to knock on as many doors and shake as many hands as
possible before Tuesday.
That’s no easy feat.
Subdistrict 2 is the most geographically vast
of the board’s seven. It extends north-south from beyond the
airport to Mason Street and east-west from Hazlett Lane to Granger
Drive.
“I really should have a
pedometer,” Conley says.
The two candidates are vying for the open seat
left by Tom Blasko, who is stepping down from the school board
after 16 years.
Both Conley and Mills — who have each
raised roughly $5,000 for the contest — promise to be
accessible to constituents and emphasize the importance of building
maintenance and school safety.
“We’ve seen some catastrophes
happen in schools that we don’t want to ever see in District
186,” says Mills, who advocates having a uniformed security
guard at every public high school.
Though the winner will represent the entire school
district, both candidates say that they will keep a special focus on
the performance of North End schools, which include Addams, Enos,
Fairview, McClernand, Ridgely, and Wilcox elementary schools.
“These schools need extra attention
because they have very high poverty and mobility rates,” says
Conley, who wants to increase mentoring and tutoring programs
throughout the district.
Conley, 33, was born in St. Louis and grew up
in Peoria, where she attended a Catholic high school. She earned a
bachelor’s degree in plant biology from Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale and moved to Springfield nearly eight
years ago.
Conley has worked for five years as a rules
coordinator for the Illinois Pollution Control Board. She also
serves as vice president of the Lincoln Park Neighborhood
Association. Two of her three children attend public schools.
This marks Conley’s first bid for
elective office, though she helped ex-husband Joe Keck in his unsuccessful campaigns for the school
board and mayor’s office.
Mills, 45, is a Springfield native and graduate of Lanphier High School. He attended Lincoln
Land Community College, then graduated from Penn State
University’s College of Technology.
He has worked for nine years as a stationary
engineer for the Illinois secretary of state. He is also a past
member of Knights of Columbus Council 4175, as well as a former
board member of the social-service agency MERCY Communities. All
four of his children have attended public schools.
This marks the second time Mills has run for
elective office. A longtime precinct worker, he once made an
unsuccessful bid for precinct committeeman.
The school-board position is unpaid and
nonpartisan, though that has not deterred local party officials
from getting involved.
Conley, a Democrat, has received the backing
of Democratic leaders such as Mayor Tim Davlin, who hosted a recent
fundraiser for her at Chantilly Lace.
Mills, a Republican, has received support from
local Republican Party leaders. Earlier this month Mills gained the
endorsement of the Springfield Education Association, the local
teachers’ union.
Sangamon County Democratic Party Chairman
Patrick “Tim” Timoney says that precinct workers from
both parties will be “out in full force” for the
election, which, he predicts, will draw fewer than 25 percent of
registered voters to the polls.
Two incumbent board members will also be on
the April 5 ballot: Melinda LaBarre (subdistrict 4) and Judy
Johnson (subdistrict 6) are running unopposed.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2005.
