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Last modified: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 9:06 PM CST
LLCC Trustees Will Be Elected In Districts
Montgomery County residents have had some input in electing representatives to the Lincoln Land Community College Board of Trustees, but this April, they will have a more significant say.
For the first time in the school's 41 year history, all seven trustees will be running in districts, giving residents outside Springfield the chance to elect more local representation to the board.
The community college district has been divided into seven trustee districts, and District 7 is primarily all of Montgomery County, plus the northern third of Macoupin County, and small slivers of Sangamon, Bond, and southern Macoupin.
Districts 1, 2, and 3 are all Springfield area. District 4 is the east side of the community college district, from Christian County up to Logan County, including the south and east non-Springfield sides of Sangamon.
District 5 is the northwest corner of LLCC's area including Menard, Cass, part of Mason, and the lesser populated west side Sangamon County.
District 6 centers around Jacksonville in Morgan County, and includes part of Scott and western Cass County.
Currently, there are seven members of the LLCC Board of Trustees plus one student trustee with an advisory vote. All seven trustee seats will be up for grabs in the April 7 consolidated election, and, according to Libby Elder, LLCC Assistant to the Vice President, seven candidates are circulating petitions for election, including one from District 7.
The local candidate is Jerry Wesley of Witt, a lifelong educator and former school superintendent.
Of the seven candidates currently circulating petitions, only four are incumbents, Elder said.
Actually, LLCC trustees began running in districts in some areas in 2005.
The district elections were staggered in gradually because most of the trustees to begin with were from the Springfield area, and electing all seven trustees from districts at the outset would have resulted in a completely new, inexperienced board.
Thus, some regions elected district trustees in 2005 and 2007. All seven will be up for election in 2009 and 2013, according to Elder, and elections will be staggered by district after that.
Local legislators took the lead in crafting statutes that shaped the new LLCC Districts. Rep. Gary Hannig of Litchfield and Jim Watson of Jacksonville sponsored the enacting bill in the House, and Sen. Deanna Demuzio of Carlinville was the bill's Senate sponsor.
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| The Lincoln Land Community College area divided into districts for the April 2009 consolidated election. |
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