McHenry Times

Community Unit school district 300 says goodbye to some beloved board members, and hello to some new faces.

“It's become one of our responsibilities to make sure that we send off our board members appropriately after doing the impressive service that they've done,” Mike Williamson, president of the D300 Foundation, said. “And let's be honest. Joe Stevens and Leslie LaMarca have sat during what has got to have been the strangest, most difficult, most powerful, most traumatizing and in several ways most interesting period to be on the Board of Education in a long time.”

The board also uploaded a live stream of its public meeting to the district’s YouTube channel.

At their April 25th board of education meeting, members of the D300 community made some bittersweet goodbyes in an extended celebration of board members Joe Stevens and Leslie LaMarca. They were headed up by Williamson, who was allowed to break policy slightly and speak at the end of the meeting during the board member comment time instead of public comment, due to the topic and length of his speech, and former board president and member of 24 years, Ann Miller. Both of these very distinguished servants of the school district gushed about the tenures of Stevens and LaMarca, who had over two decades of service to the board between them.

The board also discussed its dual language program.

Ann Miller gave brief testimonies of her time spent working with the two, thanking LaMarca for her creation and curation of the food pantry available to students, and thanking Stevens for the wisdom and people skills he taught her over the years, all the way back to when he started on the board 17 years ago.

The board discussed paying approximately $7.4 million for various fees.

Williamson also praised the efforts of the departing board members, saying “what a powerful thing it is to see someone who truly knows how to lead through support” like how LaMarca supports the students and families through the food pantry because she saw how students weren’t able to engage and learn when they didn’t have some of those basic food and hygiene needs met. He shared several stories from the long time he spent with Stevens, some embarrassing stories about blankets in cold board rooms, and how they would fight over one policy and agree on the next, but mostly honoring Stevens for his dedication to public service.

The board will meet again at 6 p.m. on May 23 at 2550 Harnish Drive.

All of the remaining board members shared stories and well wishes for the leaving board members. Stevens and LaMarca were very grateful and promised to come back and talk with their colleagues. New board members Randi Gauthier and Olutola Makinde will take their places with terms that expire in 2027. David Scarpino moves forward as the board president.