There will be some new faces on the Lake Forest District 67 school board next year with the announcement that two incumbents will not seek new terms.
Board members Carl Kirar and Emily Bernahl have disclosed they will not be candidates in the April 2025 municipal elections.
Kirar noted his children are getting older and he wants to “transition” out of the elementary school board.
“That was the primary reason for me to apply to be a board member, and it is the primary reason that I chose not to run for re-election,” he said in an interview.
Kirar was appointed to the board in 2020, and was elected on his own in 2021. He pointed to the school board’s work during the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak as a top achievement.
“What I am most proud of from all the craziness that was going during the height of the pandemic we were able to keep the schools as open as possible and keep the education system running,” he said.
Bernahl cited family and professional obligations for her decision not to run for a second term in a message sent through a district spokeswoman.
The two departures mean there will be new officers on the board as Bernahl is the vice president and Kirar is secretary.
The respective decisions by Kirar and Bernahl not to run again mark additional changes on the school board that have seen some turnover in the last few months. Earlier this year, Anne Geraghty Helms and Alice LeVert both resigned, as Helms was appointed to the Lake Forest High School board and LeVert was elected to the City Council.
To fill those vacancies, the District 67 school board appointed residents Shyama Parikh Chauhan and Gregory Adamo to fill the terms that will expire next year.
Adamo is expected to seek the endorsement of the Lake Forest Caucus to run for a full term next year, according to a caucus President Joe Oriti. He said he had not heard back yet from Parikh Chauhan regarding whether she would be a candidate.
All of the changes mean that after next year’s election, there won’t be a member on the District 67 school board who has served prior to 2023.
The turnover is not a concern to Superintendent Matthew Montgomery.
‘Board service has a natural life cycle, and the movement we are seeing is consistent with that,” he wrote in an e-mail. “In Lake Forest, we are fortunate to have community members who are generous with their time and talent and consistently committed to giving back. I am confident that this will continue as the composition of our District 67 board evolves.”
