Newcomers Join District 118 Board

A newcomer turned out to be the highest vote-getter Tuesday night in the race for four seats on the District 118 school board.

With 21 out of 21 precincts reporting, Katie Thomason, John Faustino, Meredith Marran and Catherine Maier have been elected to the District 118 school board, according to unofficial results. Maier and Faustino are incumbents.

Four seats were up for the Palos Park-based school district. Incumbent Larry Mish, despite strong campaigning Tuesday, pulled in the least number of votes.

Read more: District 118: Incumbents in the Palos District Race Face New Entrants

Newcomer Thomason credited strong community support and smart picking of polling locations for targeted campaigning for her success Tuesday.

"I’m new at this," Thomason said. "I had a lot of people who wanted to help."

Thomason said she believe the district would have benefited regardless of which four of the five candidates had been chose.

"It was all good candidates running," she said.

The district includes Palos East and Palos West elementary schools and Palos South Middle School. The Palos Community Consolidated School District 118 has served the village of Palos Park, the western half of the city of Palos Heights, the northern portion of the city of Palos Hills, and adjacent unincorporated areas since for 167 years.

Read more about District 118 on Palos Patch's Local Voices