The Cook County Officers Electoral Board removed Evanston resident Anita Opdycke from the April Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education ballot Thursday. 

The board — made up of the county clerk, clerk of the circuit court and county state’s attorney — reviewed three objections to District 65 candidates, all filed by Evanston resident Neal Weingarden. 

The objection against Opdycke stated she did not submit her statement of candidacy with the other paperwork required to run. The electoral board sustained Weingarden’s objection. 

His other objections were against Skokie resident Brandon Utter for not being registered to vote at his home address and Peter Bogira for not filing his statement of economic interests by the filing deadline. The electoral board overruled these objections because Utter’s voting address was within District 65 boundaries and Bogira filed his statement on time. 

Separately on Thursday, candidate Ezra Shevick announced he was dropping out of the race.

District 65 board members Donna Wang Su, Soo La Kim, Biz Lindsay-Ryan and Joey Hailpern are not running for re-election, leaving 15 candidates to vie for four open seats on the District 65 Board of Education in the April 1 consolidated election. 

Here are the remaining candidates for the District 65 Board of Education:

Andrew Wymer: Wymer is a professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. He has lived in Evanston for a decade and has two children in District 65. He previously served on the Oakton Elementary School’s PTA executive board. He currently chairs the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee on the Evanston/North Shore NAACP executive board. 

Christian Sorensen: Sorensen is a District 65 and Evanston Township High School District 202 alumnus. He currently works in the office of state Rep. Tracy Katz Muhl (D-Northbrook). He has served as Katz Muhl’s and state Rep. Robyn Gabel’s (D-Evanston) campaign manager since 2023. He also owns Patronage Meats, which sells wagyu beef.

Brandon Utter: Utter is a mental health pharmacist for the Department of Veterans Affairs and served nine years in the Army National Guard. Utter, a Skokie resident, serves on the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies PTA. Two of his children attend Bessie Rhodes. 

Chris Van Nostrand: Van Nostrand is a strength and conditioning coach and founder of Strength Wise Barbell. He has a background in higher education marketing and admissions with previous jobs at Northwestern and University of California, Berkeley. Both his children attend District 65 schools. 

Christopher DeNardo: DeNardo, an Evanston native, is a personal trainer at McGaw YMCA. He has also worked as a gym teacher, substitute teacher and in finance at Northwestern University. DeNardo’s two children attend Bessie Rhodes. 

Dan Kastilahn: Kastilahn, who attended Evanston schools for grade school, has experience in commercial real estate finance, most recently as a senior vice president at Morningstar DBRS. Kastilahn moved back to Evanston with his family in 2021. His daughter attends Lincolnwood Elementary, and his son will start there next school year. 

Lionel Gentle: Gentle is the founder of Our Unseen Roots and Our Unseen Dads, media channels that respectively highlight the voices of Black women and Black fathers. He has served as the PTA president at Kingsley Elementary School and as a mentor for the Fellowship of African American Men, a non-profit that hosts basketball and cheerleading programs for middle school students. Gentle has two children, an Evanston Township High School graduate and a Bessie Rhodes student. 

Dan Lyonsmith: Lyonsmith works in the U.S. Department of Labor as the Midwest regional director for employment and training administration. He has previously worked in workforce development at the state government level. Lyonsmith attended Evanston public schools from fifth grade onward. He has two children in District 65 and one in District 202. 

Nichole Pinkard: Pinkard is a professor of learning sciences at NU. She is also the founder of Digital Youth Network, a research lab that aims to create more equitable systems for youth, and Digital Youth Divas, a program to engage middle school-aged girls in STEAM activities. Pinkard is a guardian of former District 65 students.

Peter Bogira: Bogira is a principal account executive at Roku who attended Evanston public schools and moved back to the city in 2020. Bogira has two children at Kingsley Elementary and one who will start in the fall. 

Pat Anderson: Anderson is a freelance diversity, equity and inclusion facilitator. Previously, she worked in District 65 for 35 years as a physical therapist in the Special Services Department. Anderson began her time with the district as a student and has since been a parent and grandparent of students in District 65. 

Randall Steckman: Stockman is an associate at engineering firm Grumman/Butkus Associates. He works in commercial construction, focusing on systems design. He has worked in Evanston for 10 years and lived in the city for four years. Steckman’s daughter is a student at Oakton Elementary.

Maria Opdycke: Opdycke is the vice president of clinical operations at Foodsmart, a telenutrition organization. She has served as PTA co-president at Dewey Elementary School. Opdycke has three children, all of whom are in or graduated from District 65 schools. 

Heather Vezner: Vezner worked in quality assurance, retiring in 2024. Most recently, she worked at Astellas Pharma for 13 years. Vezner has lived in Skokie for over a decade. Both her stepdaughters attended Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Fine Arts School. 

Kimberly Fair: A principal strategist at Fair Strategies, Fair has previously worked as a policy manager for the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation and the Chicagoland conservation manager for the Illinois Environmental Council. 

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X: @anavi_52

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