Brief
Newly elected District 91 school board member John Tricoci was sworn into office on Monday night along with incumbents Frank Mott and Sean Blaylock at a specially convened meeting at district headquarters.
Tricoci replaced Rafael Rosa, who was narrowly defeated by 374 votes in the April 5 election. Tricoci was the top vote-getter with 1,660 votes.
Rosa had been appointed to fill longtime board member Glenn Garlisch’s vacated seat last June, following Garlisch’s resignation and moving out of Forest Park.
“The board chose very wisely,” said Lois Bugajsky, a veteran board member, in reference to Rosa’s appointment. “I hope you consider rejoining us.”
“I’d like to say welcome … you’ve got a lot of work to do,” Joan White, another board member, told Tricoci, who has no professional experience in education but has attended all of the board’s meetings since the beginning of the year. Rosa graduated from Cornell University, is the vice president of education for the Chicago Academy of Sciences and runs educational programming at the Academy’s Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Cavallo said he is “confident” about Tricoci’s ability to serve.
Mott and Blaylock also retained their respective positions as president and vice president following a board vote. Blaylock and White voted “nay” on Mott’s nomination.
“I love Frank Mott, but Sean does great things,” White said, adding that she only voted “nay” to give another board member a chance at the presidency.
“Frank’s nomination is fabulous though,” she added.
Board member Mary Turek replaced Mary Winn Connor as board secretary.
