District 203 Incumbents Retain Seats

The celebration was under way at as the three incumbents in the race for Board of Education were celebrating retaining their seats for four more years.

Voters have re-elected Mike Jaensch, Terry Fielden and Suzyn Price to another terms on the board of education. Price has the most experience of any of the members and will be serving her third term on the board.

At Front Street Cantina, Fielden, Jaensch and Price were in full celebration mode. Price received the most votes of any of the three candidates. Bethany Weeks and Jay Fisher were running to try and unseat at least two of the three incumbents.

Fielden said he felt really good about the win.

“I am pleased to have another four years to serve,” he said. “I put a lot of hard work into my service and the voters believe in my integrity and honesty.”

Turnout in the election was not strong with many precincts reporting 10 percent of voters casting ballots.

Fielden attributed the low voter turnout in part to the fact that voters were happy with the way things were going and happy with the school district and the board members.

Now that he’s been re-elected Jaensch, currently board president, said the board needs to continue building upon its accomplishments; working to continue integrating technology into the curriculum, being competitive globally, keeping standards high while raising the bar.

“I think more than anything it’s the community saying we’ve done a good job over the last four years and they want us to continue to do that four another four years,” Jaensch said about the re-election of the three incumbents.

Price said that it was good to have competition during the race, because running for office “shouldn’t be a cakewalk.”

She also said that turnout was low but that it was an indicator of how people felt about what the district and board was doing. She said, however, that doesn’t mean the district can "rest on its laurels," it needs to keep improving.

Moving forward, Price said the district needs to finish up its construction projects, make sure that other buildings get needed updates and that the board continues working to improve special education and science, technology, engineering and math education (STEM).

“I hope we continue to improve and provide a great education for our kids,” she said. “I hope we continue to be the reason people want to move to Naperville.”

To the voters, Price said: “Thank you for voting.”