Makeup of boards to change

Of the several area surrounding school districts, only three will be holding school board elections on Tuesday.

At Tri-County R-7 in Jamesport, there are four candidates vying for two open seats. Among them are Stephanie Eckert, incumbent, who is finishing up her second term on the board. Others seeking a seat on the R-7 panel are Heath Cook, David Bequette and Luke Skinner. District officials say Ron Ledesma, who is finishing up his first term on the board, has not refiled because he is leaving the area.


Five people are seeking four seats on the Dwight Grade School District 232 Board of Education. The candidates are incumbents Ron Colebank, Stacey Connolly, Tim Harris and Steve Tock. The fifth candidate is challenger Marc Ellis.
Five persons are also seeking four seats on the Dwight Township High School Board. The incumbent candidates are Amy Hansen, Paul Ferrari, Kathy Perry and Gerald Earing. The challenger seeking a seat is Brian Perschnick.
Voters in the Odell Community Consolidated School District will be choosing four board members from a field of six candidates.
Seeking the posts are Jeff LaBorence, Mary A. Hilleary, Mark K. Johnson, Shari Hoegger, Lana Hoegger and Kevin Olson.
In the Tri-Point School District voters will be asked to choose four persons out of a field of six candidates.
The candidates are Lloyd Vaughn, Carl Smicker, Amy Fecht, Jeff Roach, Dewaine Haag and Cherie Smolkovich.
Pontiac school board members in Districts 90 and in 429 will have some new and old candidates vying for four-year terms on their respective boards.
District 429 board has only has one board member — Dale Larkin — seeking re-election this year. Board members Josh Thompson and Allen Finkenbinder are not seeking re-election.
Two candidates who are seeking their first term on the board are Adeana Fox and Dan Krueger.
In District 90, board president Scott Bauknecht and Dale Hoke are not seeking re-election. However, board members Robby Rich and Ron Schultz are vying for another term.
Carla Chandler and Roger Corrigan are challenging for seats.
Five candidates will be looking to fill three seats on the Prairie Central Community Unit School District 8 board.
The incumbents are Patricia Haberkorn and Brett Johnson. The other three vying for a seat are Mark Slagel, Jason Dotterer and Jeff Austman. Retiring from the board are board president Roger Brown and board secretary Dan Froelich.
Austman is a native of Forrest. His wife is Kate and they have three children. He has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture.
Dotterer moved from Ohio to the area when he was 7 years old and was a Prairie Central graduate in 1996. He married the former Lynn Steidinger and they have four children.
Slagel is from Strawn and has been married to wife Suzanne for 17 years. They have four children. Slagel is a Fairbury native and farmed in the area for about 10 years. He worked for Bachtold Brothers for 10 years and, in 1988, moved to Strawn. He owns and operates Slagel Manufacturing Inc.; is the chief of the Strawn Fire Department and was vice president of the Livingston County Mutual Aid Association.
Haberkorn is from Chatsworth and has been married to her husband, Lenny, for 23 years. They have four children. She is a registered nurse and is the Health Services director at Futures, Inc. in Pontiac.
Johnson is of Chenoa who served on the Chenoa School Board for about four years. He has been married to his wife, Sara, for 22 years and they have four children. Johnson is a native of Princeton and joined the Marines Corp after graduating. He attended Illinois Valley Community College and is a 1988 graduate of Illinois State University. He has worked at State Farm since 1989.
(Doris L. White contributed to this story)