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| Three Join Galesburg School Board |
Two new faces with one thing in common will soon begin their service on the Galesburg School Board.
Thomas Coclasure and Molly Palmer were elected Tuesday to the two open seats on the District 205 Board representing inside Galesburg Township, fending off challenges from fellow candidates Faye Schulz, a retired teacher, and Kathryn Timmons, a substitute teacher who works with the Galesburg Community Foundation.
Palmer tells WGIL it's hard to say what about her platform helped propel her to victory.
"The margins of victory were pretty small, you know we had a lot of good candidates this go round, that's good for the community and you know it may just be a function of one of the platforms that I ran on is that it would be good to have a couple parents with children in the district on the board."
Coclasure tells WGIL he has some high aspirations for what he wants to accomplish.
"It's really important that we look at the dropout rate that the city has at this point and how we can combat that at an early age, how we can get help to those kids who don't have the help at home."
Palmer, meanwhile, would like to see a sort of non-remedial summer school be formed.
The two are replacing longtime District-205 board members Deborah Harrison and Doctor Carl Strauch, and both say they know they have big important shoes to fill when the take their oaths next month.
Incumbent Mike Panther was able to retain his seat on the District-205 board, in our unofficial count, for his seat representing outside Galesburg Township. Panther was the top vote-getter among the four candidates for two open seats.
In second place and getting a seat on the board is businesswoman and educator Natalie Kessler, who defeated incumbent Gloria Osborn.
Kessler tells WGIL she's got a lot of ideas she'd love to start implementing.
"Building the schools, building the curriculum that we have, so I'm really excited about moving forward and I do have some plans or things that I would like to institute I think along with the other newly elected school board members that we could really start to move in a direction that's going to make Galesburg a viable community and a viable school district for the future."
Kessler runs Masters Educational Services in Galesburg, and also is a certified teacher, and believes that expertise will serve her well on the District 205 board.
Panther was out of the country Tuesday and unavailable for comment. |
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| 04 06 11 by Newsroom |
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