May 18, 2024
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Educational Excellence for D99 slate wins big in school board race

Casten, Dawson, Renner victorious in six-way contest

By Bob Rakow
Campaign signs line a street in Downers Grove for the Consolidated Election on Tuesday, April 3, 2023.

Campaign signs line a street in Downers Grove for the Consolidated Election on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. (Sandy Bressner – sbressner@shawmedia.com)

A slate of candidates that ran as Educational Excellence for D99 was successful Tuesday night in the race for three seats on the Community High School District 99 School Board.

Kara Casten, Ken Dawson and Don Renner were the top three finishers in the six-way race.

Casten, the wife of U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, was the lead vote-getter, garnering 8,628 votes with 100% of the votes tabulated, according to unofficial results from the DuPage County Clerk’s office.

Dawson followed with 7,406 votes and Renner was third with 7,271 votes, according to unofficial results.

Barbara Allen and Dana Cox, who ran as a slate, appeared unsuccessful in their bid for seats on the board. Allen collected 5,547 votes. Cox picked up 5,492 votes, according to unofficial results.

Christopher Erickson garnered 5,073 votes, according to unofficial results.

Dawson, Casten and Renner had the backing of the Downers Grove Education Association. They said during the campaign that they would rely on their diverse backgrounds to create a welcoming environment that puts educational excellence first.

The trio will replace Nancy Kupka, Michael Davenport and Joanna Vazquez-Drexler, who chose not to seek reelection to the board.

This will be Renner’s second term on the board after serving from 2015-19.

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