In the latest leadership shake-up at East Aurora School District, board president Annette Johnson was ousted from her role as president by fellow board member Juan Sifuentes at a board meeting Monday.
At the same meeting, the board swore in Johnson, who won reelection on April 1, along with two challengers – Mayra Reyes and Vannia Valencia – who defeated incumbent board members Bruce Schubert and Theodia Gillespie during the election.
Following the swearing in of the new members, the board sought nominations and voted on the board’s leadership. Sifuentes nominated himself for president first, followed by Johnson nominating herself. Sifuentes secured a majority of votes, including the two new board members. Johnson, and board members Judd Lofchie and Brian Moreno, voted against his appointment.
Johnson subsequently nominated herself as the board’s vice president, but failed to secure a majority of the votes, with Sifuentes, board member Saul Olivas and new board members Reyes and Valencia voting against her.
Olivas nominated himself as board vice president and was voted in.
Lofchie was elected secretary in a unanimous vote by the board.
Before the votes came to pass, however, Johnson made a case for her remaining president of the board, noting the significant leadership changes going on in the district.
“The district has had some change, but history, history is a good thing,” Johnson said, suggesting her experience as president makes her best suited to guide the board through these changes and uncertain times. Johnson has sat on the board for 16 years, according to past reporting
East Aurora is indeed in a transitional stage with regards to its leadership. In January, board member Alex Arroyo stepped down to take a position on the Kane County Board, and was replaced by Moreno. In March, Robert Halverson was approved as the district’s new superintendent, as Jennifer Norrell prepares to leave for a job as superintendent of Homewood-Flossmoor High School District 233 in the south suburbs. And, in April, two incumbent board members were ousted in favor of challengers.
Becky Roireau, the district’s teachers union president, urged the board to retain Johnson as president during the meeting’s public comment period.
Johnson offers the “stability and experience that we all need,” Roireau said. “I have witnessed first-hand her efforts to rebuild trust.”
Now, Johnson will continue on at the board as a member, but she’s critical about how the leadership change transpired. She claims Sifuentes did not indicate his intention to nominate himself during a conversation on Sunday. Sifuentes says otherwise.
“That is not a very collaborative move,” Johnson said, “and we’ve been talking about collaboration.”
That voters went for two new board candidates in the April election might suggest a penchant for changes in the district, a trend occurring more broadly in the city of Aurora.
“Change has been happening all over the city of Aurora in general,” Sifuentes told The Beacon-News on Tuesday. “I don’t know if it’s … something bigger, or just more local to the city of Aurora.”
But Johnson sees it differently.
“The district did not want change,” she told The Beacon-News on Tuesday, “because I was the top vote-getter (in the April 1 election).”
Johnson said she had intended for board member Saul Olivas to take over as the board vice president on Monday, and Sifuentes as the board secretary. She said she was planning to step down from president in two years, and would’ve supported Olivas as the next board president.
Sifuentes said this was a moment of opportunity for him.
“She’s (Johnson) accomplished a lot under her leadership,” he said, but noted that he had been considering a run for board president and, with two years left in his second term, worried if he lost reelection he wouldn’t get the opportunity to serve as president.
He said he believes he’s the first Hispanic board president in the district’s history (the district said they were unable to confirm that with the district’s history).
“Representation, for me, does matter,” Sifuentes said on Tuesday. “I want them (students) to be able to say, ‘Well, maybe I can do that someday.’”
Sifuentes previously threw his hat in the ring to be a Kane County Board member, but said running for another political office in the future isn’t in the cards, at least until he retires from his full-time job.
Johnson said she had hoped to lead the board through Halverson’s transition, a new teachers union contract next year and the construction of the district’s new career technical center, which a district spokesperson said is set to open in fall 2027.
Now, Sifuentes will lead the board through those transitions and projects. He said Tuesday that his top priorities include the career center’s opening, student achievement and community engagement and fiscal responsibility during a time of federal funding uncertainty.
Johnson, for her part, said she also plans to advocate for the district pulling back on its spending given the federal situation.
The board will take on these projects and weather any challenges with a new leadership team, including new board members Reyes and Valencia. Reyes is a graduate of East Aurora High School and has children in the district, according to the district website. Valencia is a licensed clinical social worker.
But, as these new members took their seats, Halverson and the board at Monday’s meeting also honored and shared memories about the two members departing from their roles.
Gillespie, according to the district, filled the board seat left vacant in 2024 by Dan Barreiro, who resigned as he stepped down to become the 1st Ward alderman on the Aurora City Council. Schubert served on the board for the past eight years, and on Monday left the board with a lesson for the future.
“What I have found and what I learned over all these years is that the school districts in any community are really one of the primary bloodlines that feed the health and ills of any community,” Schubert said at Monday’s meeting. “And so if the schools are strong and healthy, that usually is reflective of the overall community.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
