Recent District 205 school board member Vickie Banks passed away earlier this week at the age of 70.
Banks was a former Galesburg teacher, DCFS investigator, and in later years a vocal advocate for students and teachers including 2 years on the Galesburg District 205 School Board.
She taught 3rd grade at Cooke and King elementary in Galesburg before moving to Mesa, AZ where she taught kindergarten on the Gila River Indian Reservation.
Banks was the top vote-getter when she was elected to her one term on the school board, before resigned in August 2019 due to health reasons.
A 1968 graduate of Galesburg High School, Banks also held Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Western Illinois University.
She’s survived by a daughter, two stepdaughters, 8 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
Banks spearheaded a petition before she was elected that collected over 1,000 signatures, to urge restoring six days of school missed during the 2014 teacher’s strike.
The six days were never made up and she said at the time it was “more important for (board members) to punish the teachers than it was to restore the six days of school for the kids.”
She was a proponent of recording or live streaming board meetings to be posted online so the community could see the meeting’s proceedings, something that was adopted in her tenure and continues.
A memorial service will be at 11 AM on Saturday, July 31, 2021, at the First Church of the Nazarene.
