April’s election for four seats on the Evanston/Skokie District 65 school board will be fully open, as none of the four incumbents with expiring terms filed to run for reelection.
By the time the filing period closed at 5 p.m. Monday, 17 candidates had thrown their hats into the ring, all aiming for a seat on the board as the struggling district attempts to dig out of a dire financial crisis.
District 65 and Evanston Township High School District 202 will each elect four of their seven board members in the Consolidated General Election on April 1, 2025. (Municipal races in Evanston and Skokie will also be on the ballot.) The school districts’ other three board seats will be up for election in April 2027.
Ahead of Monday’s deadline for candidates to submit paperwork to the Cook County Clerk’s Office, most of the incumbents with expiring terms had already indicated their plans. On the ETHS side, board President Pat Savage-Williams and members Mirah Anti and Pat Maunsell filed for reelection last week. At District 65, board members Donna Wang Su, Soo La Kim and Biz Lindsay-Ryan had each told the RoundTable by Thursday evening that they would not be running for new terms.
This left District 65’s Joey Hailpern and ETHS’ Gretchen Livingston as the final unknowns. They did not respond to the RoundTable’s requests for comment last week. In the end, neither incumbent filed to run, leaving a single open seat at ETHS and a completely open race at District 65.
Clear but crowded field at District 65
Hailpern told the RoundTable in September that he was “still deciding” whether to run, just as the earliest challengers began announcing their campaigns. He was first elected to the board in 2017 and currently serves as the Finance Committee chair and the delegate to the Illinois Association of School Boards. Hailpern did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
His absence leaves the four seats fully open for competition and a field of no fewer than 17 candidates who filed nomination paperwork with the county clerk’s office. While some of these candidates may withdraw or be knocked off by objections prior to the Jan. 23 ballot certification deadline, the outsized field is a clear indication of a desire for new leadership as the district weathers multiple crises, from its overall budget deficit to the debate over the closure of the Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies.
The RoundTable attempted to reach every new candidate for comment Monday, and searched online for public information about their backgrounds. Here are the District 65 candidates listed in the order they submitted their paperwork:
- Andrew Wymer, professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, a resident of Evanston’s Ninth Ward and a parent at Oakton Elementary School.
- Christian Sorensen, a district office staffer for state Rep. Tracy Katz Muhl (D-57th), a resident of Evanston’s Fourth Ward and an incoming parent at Washington Elementary School.
- Brandon Utter, a mental health specialty pharmacist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, resident of Skokie’s Second Trustee District and a parent at Bessie Rhodes.
- Heather Vezner, a resident of Skokie’s Second Trustee District.
- Ezra Shevick, co-owner of mattress and accessory producer Sleep On Latex, resident of Evanston’s Fourth Ward and a parent at Washington Elementary School.
- Chris Van Nostrand, personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach for the Chicago Union ultimate Frisbee team, resident of Evanston’s Sixth Ward and a parent at Lincolnwood Elementary School and Haven Middle School.
- Christopher DeNardo, personal trainer at the McGaw YMCA and stay-at-home father, a resident of Skokie’s Second Trustee District and a parent at Bessie Rhodes.
- Dan Kastilahn, senior vice president of CMBS at Morningstar DBRS, resident of Evanston’s Third Ward and a parent at Lincolnwood Elementary School.
- Lionel Gentle, a youth mentor at F.A.A.M. and creator of the podcasts Our Unseen Roots and Our Unseen Dads, a resident of Evanston’s Second Ward and a parent at Bessie Rhodes with an ETHS graduate.
- Daniel Lyonsmith, a Midwest regional director at the U.S. Department of Labor, resident of Evanston’s Ninth Ward and a parent at Washington, Nichols Middle School and ETHS.
- Nichole Pinkard, a professor at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy and resident of Evanston’s Fifth Ward.
- Anita Opdycke, vice president of Press Ganey and board member of Rush University, a resident of Evanston’s Seventh Ward and a parent at Kingsley Elementary School.
- Peter Bogira, principal marketing account executive at Roku, a resident of Evanston’s Sixth Ward and parent at Kingsley Elementary School.
- Patricia Anderson, former physical therapist at District 65 and current diversity, equity and inclusion facilitator, and resident of Evanston’s Ninth Ward.
- Randall Steckman, project manager at Grumman Butkus Associates and resident of Evanston’s Ninth Ward.
- Maria Forres Opdycke, vice president of clinical operations at Foodsmart and a resident of Evanston’s Second Ward.
- Kimberly Fair, a self-employed government relations consultant and resident of Evanston’s Second Ward.
Wymer, Sorenson and Utter were in line before the filing period opened at 8 a.m. Nov. 12, and so qualify for the lottery to determine who will be listed first on the ballot. Anderson, Steckman, Forres Opdycke and Fair filed their paperwork in the period’s final hour of 4 to 5 p.m. Monday, and so qualify for the lottery to determine who will be listed in the final ballot spot.
The lotteries, required under state law to equalize the potential slight advantage held by those at the top or bottom of the list, will be held for all suburban school board races on Nov. 25. Other than those spots determined by the lotteries, candidates will be listed on the ballot in the order they submitted their paperwork.
Livingston out, Martin in
At ETHS, the ballot is far quieter; four school board candidates have filed to run for the four seats up for new terms. Nevertheless, the board will still change with the departure of Gretchen Livingston, who did not file to run for reelection.
Livingston is the board’s longest-serving member, having first been elected in 2009. She will have served 16 years by the end of her current term, including two years as board president from 2013 to 2015. She did not respond to the RoundTable’s request for comment Monday evening.
Filling out the ballot for the fourth seat instead is John Martin, a District 65 parent, tax manager and previous candidate for the District 65 school board in 2023, placing fourth in a three-seat race with 419 fewer votes than current board president Sergio Hernandez.
“ETHS is a thriving school with a rich history and tradition,” Martin wrote in a text to the RoundTable. “I believe strongly in service and community involvement, and want to see ETHS continue on the path it’s on to continued success.”
Barring a competitive write-in opponent or removal from the ballot via objection, Martin appears to have a clear path to victory along with incumbents Savage-Williams, Anti and Maunsell.
Residents living within the districts can object to candidates’ petitions and other paperwork through Nov. 25, and can file to run as a write-in candidate through Jan. 30. Both districts include the entirety of Evanston and the portion of Skokie bounded by Golf Road, Crawford Avenue, Greenleaf Street and McCormick Boulevard.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional candidate information received Tuesday.
All four District 65 incumbents leaving board; 17 challengers file is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.