Eight, Including Fultz, Vie for Two Seats on East Aurora School Board

Eight people have applied to fill two vacancies on the East Aurora School Board, and several of their names are familiar.

Perhaps the best known candidate at this point is , who lives at 967 Serendipity Drive in Aurora. Fultz won her seat on the school board in April’s election, but since records provided by the Aurora Election Commission and Kane County Clerk's Office show she was not a registered voter at the time of that election, a Kane County judge overturned her victory last month.

Fultz is one of three former candidates for the board who handed in applications by the Aug. 5 deadline. The others are , of 628 High St. in Aurora, and , of 1204 Peterson Ave. in Aurora.

They will join one Montgomery resident—Fernando Chapa, of 1330 Park Drive—and four other Aurorans—Richard Leonard, of 1655 Margaret Lane; Marcella McIntyre-Duermit, of 1180 Kingsley Lane; Sharrell McKennie, of 1143 Lehnertz Circle; and James Pistorius, of 1065 Serendipity Drive—in vying for the open seats.

One of the two seats opened up when Fultz was for the board, but the other came when Robb Hill, who also won his seat in April, , saying the time commitment required had caused him too much strain.

The school board will select the two new members, after conducting interviews next week. The new board members will be announced in September, according to Board President Annette Johnson.

But even though the Aurora Election Commission confirmed that Fultz is a registered voter, and has been since shortly after the April election, she may face another challenge, according to Johnson. She said the school board has always had a question about Fultz’s residence—in addition to being 18 years old, registered voters and U.S. citizens, school board candidates must have lived in the district for at least one year.

The crux of the issue, Johnson said, is that Fultz has a child who attended Indian Prairie School District schools last year, with an address on Echo Lane. And while that child is now an East Aurora student, Johnson questioned whether Fultz had lived at her current address for at least a year.

Johnson said the school board has never been able to verify whether Fultz lives on Serendipity Lane.

“The residency is definitely an issue,” she said. “We never addressed it (after the election), because it just did not get to that point.”

But Fultz said the matter could be easily cleared up, if school board members would simply ask her about it.

She said she does have a child who attended Indian Prairie schools last year, but that child did not live with her at the time. Her address, she said, has been 967 Serendipity Lane since she moved back to Aurora in February 2010, and her child is now an East Aurora student.

She said she tried to give that information to East Aurora officials during the election, but was told that it is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they meet the criteria. Fultz, like all East Aurora candidates, signed a disclosure agreement saying she met the requirements. But Johnson admitted in April that the board usually does not verify that information before an election.

Fultz said she is upset that the board members have not contacted her in person about their concerns.

“Why is all this in the newspaper when you could just ask me that?” she said. “No one has physically asked me anything.”

Fultz plans to speak tonight at the Aurora City Council meeting, to address her voter registration issues and her concerns about the Aurora Election Commission.

Johnson said the board would select the candidate based upon the interview process, but said Fultz’s residency, like that of every candidate, would be verified. She said the school board initially began investigating Fultz’s residency after receiving a call from a resident.

“With that information out there, how can we not look into it?” Johnson said.