North Cook News

Challenger Nicole Grimes appears on the verge of narrowly missing out in her run for the Stevenson High School District 125 school board.

With most precincts already accounted for, the Daily Herald reported Grimes (1,356 votes) trailed incumbents Fei Shang, Steve Frost and Gary Gorson by an average of less than 250 votes.

Barb Tolbert also seems to have lost her battle for one of three open seats that carry four-year terms with 1,334 votes.

Throughout the campaign, Grimes remained firm in expressing her desire to see students return to in-person learning on a full-time basis, leaving her clashing with others in the district.  

“I can tell you the unions have been very involved in the process,” she told the North Cook News about all the harassment that has reportedly come her way since she launched her campaign.

Overall, Grimes said she would give school officials no better than a B- grade for the way they have handled the COVID-19 crisis, lamenting that union officials have sometimes seemed to put their own interests ahead of those of students.

“I am running because the SHS board is urgently in need of fresh and diverse perspectives,” she told the Daily Herald. “All students and taxpayers will benefit from the free exchange of new ideas. For years it has felt as though Stevenson operates as its own independent entity with little input from stakeholders. Then, amid its largest crisis ever, the board would not engage its stakeholders nor gather input while almost every other peer high school spent their summer engaging their communities to develop pandemic response solutions.”