Winners In NP D117 Board Race: Election 2023 Results

PALOS HILLS-HICKORY HILLS, IL — With all 17 precincts in North Palos Dist. 117 reporting, five appear headed for a seat at the table in a seven-way race.

Cook County polls closed at 7 p.m. Early voting and vote-by-mail ballots are included in the total. Provisional ballots and late arriving vote-by-mail ballots are not included, according to the Cook County Clerk's Office. All results are unofficial.

Top vote-getters for an unexpired 2-year term included incumbent Tom Kostes with 1,137 votes (38.89%) and John Gawel, with 924 votes (31.60%). Anna Majchrowski trailed with 863 votes (29.59%).

Incumbent Debbie Chafee appears to headed back for a second term, garnering 1,096 votes (24.70%). Lauren Potokar won 1,000 votes (22.54), and Sandy Szczygiel finished with 828 votes (18.66%).

Incumbent Debbie Chafee, of Hickory Hills, is a CPA, with 25 years in the financial services industry, working in application development and data analytics. Prior to joining the school board, Chafee was involved in helping rewrite the state school funding formula.

“I worked with state legislators for 3 years on a more comprehensive school funding formula that includes regional cost differences, funding for academic interventions and funding for English Language Learner programs,” Chafee said in her Patch candidate questionnaire. “Instead of losing our state education funding, our annual state education funding has increased by 10 million dollars a year. We also advocated for a Property Tax Relief Grant that is part of the new Evidence Based school funding formula.”

Challenger John Gawel, of Palos Hills, is running for his first term on the Dist. 117 school board. A Palos Hills native, he has been a special education teacher for 21 years. He is the parent of an eighth-grader at Conrady Junior High, and a Stagg High School sophomore who went through the NP Dist. 117 system.

“At this present time, the most pressing issue is to extend kindergarten services for all students,” Gawel said. “I would earnestly support the district in pursuing all feasibility aspects to making this a reality within the soonest time frame possible.”

Incumbent Lauren Potokar, of Hickory Hills, is a business owner. She was appointed to fill a vacancy on the NP Dist. 117 school board in 2021. She is currently president of the Glen Oaks School PTA, and prior to that, the Dorn School PTA.

"If I am elected to this position, the accomplishment that would make my term a success
would be having District 117 offer full-day kindergarten," Potokar said. "My children would have thrived in a full-day environment for Kindergarten. Implementing a full-day kindergarten would
be very beneficial to the children of District 117 and would make the great education
children get in our district, even better."