Center Cass Union Faltered In Election

DARIEN, IL – The teachers union did not do so well in the recent election in Center Cass School District 66.

That's in contrast to other districts. For instance, union-endorsed candidates in the Lyons Township High School and Elmhurst School District 205 races all prevailed.

In Center Cass, five candidates ran for three available positions on the board.

In the election, the teachers union supported Tiffany Watson, the top vote getter, and Nicoletta Giancola-Shanks and Edson "Tripp" Burton III, who both lost. The other winners were Megan DuPass and Doug Wiley.

In November, a bare majority of Center Cass voters approved a nearly 20 percent hike in the district's part of the property tax bill.

Tensions have lingered since before the November election, in which both sides have regularly accused the other of lying about school issues.

The Stronger Center Cass 66 political committee raised $16,996 in the months before the election, according to its quarterly report. Of that money, $12,000, or 70 percent, came from the political arm of the Illinois Education Association, the parent of the Center Cass teachers union.

As of March 31, Stronger 66 had not spent nearly 40 percent of its money.

Wiley and DuPass formed the Support School Board District 66 Candidates committee, also known as Unite District 66. It raised $2,876, less than a fifth of the competition.

The Stronger 66 committee also backed Rachel Lazich, who ran for the Darien City Council's Ward 6 seat against incumbent Eric Gustafson.

Gustafson prevailed with 381 votes to Lazich's 361.

Gustafson was a vocal opponent of the Center Cass tax increase. Because of that position, tax hike supporters promised an opponent for Gustafson.

The Stronger 66 committee's chairwoman, Elizabeth Uribe, has said the money spent for Lazich happened by the time the union donated March 23.

Gustafson did not file a financial report. Candidates only need to submit such information if they raise or spend $5,000 in a calendar year.