Chicago School Board District 4 results

Like many districts in Chicago’s first-ever school board elections, progressive and conservative groups have coalesced behind two opposing candidates in the North Side’s 4th District.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story in this district, where there are six candidates with varying views on key education issues.

The lakefront district is one of the city’s wealthiest, with 33 schools in Lincoln Park, Lake View, North Center and most of Uptown.

All six candidates are Chicago Public Schools parents and all have worked in education.

Retired longtime teacher Karen Zaccor is backed by the Chicago Teachers Union and several progressive organizations, including Northside Action for Justice, her activist home. She taught for 28 years at Stockton Elementary, Arai Middle School and Uplift Community High School and served on the local school councils at all three.

Ellen Rosenfeld, a current Chicago Public Schools employee in the community engagement office, is supported by a slew of other groups, including some establishment Democratic organizations and more conservative “school choice” groups — the latter of which Rosenfeld has said she did not solicit. She’s also a former teacher at Dulles and Hartigan elementary schools and a parent at Whitney Young Magnet High School. She served on Bell LSC as a parent.

Kimberly Brown is a marketing executive and adjunct professor. She’s a Nettlehorst Elementary parent who served on the school’s parent teacher organization board. She previously founded a nonprofit focused on teaching and developing middle managers and another that aimed to empower mid-career women.

Thomas Day is a parent at Hawthorne Scholastic Academy who founded a nonprofit that brings lab inventions to commercial and defense markets. An Army veteran of the war in Iraq and former journalist, he has worked as a substitute teacher in CPS and lectured at the University of Chicago.

Carmen Gioiosa is a Lincoln Elementary parent and serves as the LSC chair there. She used to teach Italian at Schurz High School and led the implementation of small learning communities. She worked in CPS’ central office supporting at-risk students. Gioiosa holds a doctorate in educational organization and leadership and is an adjunct professor and teacher coach at National Louis University.

Andrew Davis founded the Education Equity Fund, which makes zero-interest loans to CPS educators pursuing doctorates. He’s a Lincoln Park High School parent — and Lincoln Elementary before that — and was on the local school council at Newberry Math and Science Academy. He was a one-time board member of the Global Citizenship Experience Lab School.