Evanston residents will head to the polls today to determine the Evanston Township High School/District 202 school board members.

Four candidates are running for three open seats on the D202 school board. Current members Jonathan Baum and Mark Metz declined to run for reelection, and Monique Parsons’ term ended. The candidates include incumbent Parsons, Slaney Palmer, Elizabeth Rolewicz, Stephanie Teterycz.

Governed by seven locally-elected members, the board is charged with hiring a superintendent, setting educational goals for the schools and ensuring that the superintendent and district staff pursue those goals

Monique Parsons

Parson has spent most of her life in Evanston. A graduate of Evanston/Skokie public schools, Parsons relocated to Minnesota for college, but decided to move back to her hometown to raise her son. Since moving back to Evanston, she has worked with various non-profit organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, the YWCA of Evanston/Northshore and the McGaw YMCA, where she is CEO.

Since 2015, Parsons has served on the District 202 school board as a member and became vice president in 2017. According to her campaign website, Parsons wants to work toward an equitable education, promote a school culture of well being, provide fiscal transparency and accountability and strengthen community engagements and partnerships.

Slaney Palmer

After working in education in Jamaica, Palmer moved to Chicago, where he continued his studies. He received a bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in education from Loyola University Chicago and currently teaches history at Highland Park High School. On his campaign website, he says he wants to bring his knowledge of both Jamaican and American educational systems to the school board. He told the Chicago Tribune that he is running for the school board to “ensure all parents of students are getting the best bang for their buck.”

According to his campaign website, Palmer’s priorities include high student achievement — particularly for black and minority students — fiscal accountability to ensure all students are being prioritized and equitable distribution of resources.

Elizabeth Rolewicz

Rolewicz told the Daily in February she was tired of seeing the same issues come up over and over again as a resident, parent and advocate, so she decided to run for the school board. She is running on the platform of addressing the inequities of education. In addition, some of her priorities include expanding certificate programs and dual enrollment at Oakton Community College, creating baseline evaluations for special needs students and strengthening community partnerships.

The graphic designer has worked on several organizations within the community including the PTA Equity project, Back on Their Feet, Chicagoland Foster Parents support network, the D65 African American, Black and Caribbean parent group and Evanston CASE.

Stephanie Teterycz

Teterycz has spent her career in higher education at Northwestern. As the director of NU’s Summer Session and college preparation programs, she has led educational programming for students all over the country including ETHS and Chicago Public Schools.

In addition to working with NU’s summer programming, she is also the co-founder of Making Evanston Equitable Together, an organization that has delivered hundreds of Black Lives Matter yard signs in Evanston and seeks to build a more inclusive community. She has also helped to organize Navigating Diversity, a parent education series through the D65 PTA Council.

She told the Chicago Tribune she is running because she wants to put into practice her work on identity and equity. As an Evanston resident and the single mother of an ETHS student, Teterycz wants to prioritize an equitable education, well-being of students, fiscal responsibility and community partnerships.

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