In the April 1 consolidated election, Marc Willensky, Amanda McMillen, Charles Cush and Holly Joy Blastic were elected as District 203 School Board members.
Willensky led the vote totals, followed by McMillen in second, Cush in third and Blastic winning election 730 votes ahead of Jillian Langer, the sole unelected candidate in the race. The newly-elected Board of Education will be sworn in at the May 5 board meeting.
To Cush, his incumbency helped him edge towards the victory.
“The thing that’s great about being an incumbent is you have a track record, and people can rely on that,” Cush said. “You’re either going to be authentic about your record or you’re not.”
Similarly, McMillen believes that her successful tenure as an incumbent led to her being reelected.
“I only missed one meeting in the four years that I went to, but that was because I was at a conference representing the board,” McMillen said. “I’ve shown a real commitment and people can see what I focused on in regards to voting. So when that aligns with your values, you have stuff to back it up.”
Community outreach also played a pivotal role in the election for McMillen.
“We did a lot of work around making sure that we got out to the voters’ meet and greets,” McMillen said. “We would door knock. We made sure that we had signs around the town.”
In addition to being on the board, McMillen also acts as the Executive Director of The Alive Center.
“Focusing on mental health, belonging and connection for youth and staff is a top priority for me, in addition to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging,” McMillen said. “Ensuring that every single student and staff member in our district feels like they have a place and are connected and can really thrive within the community that we have.”
Cush has been on the board since 2016.
“My platform has always been around three things,” Cush said. “It’s been student growth, college and career readiness, with an extra emphasis on the career part of things.”
Since his tenure started, the district and state has placed a much greater emphasis on students entering a career pathway earlier. Students can graduate with a notation on their transcript for completing a career pathway, which includes taking a set slate of courses meant to prepare them for a future career in jobs like Finance and Information Technology.
“[I’m] really particularly proud of the work that we’ve done on our pathway endorsement program,” Cush said. “Illinois has these different pathway endorsements, and we’ve been a heavy proponent of those, trying to implement things where students can pursue a certain curriculum where they can get a pathway endorsement in certain areas, like whether that be healthcare or marketing or entrepreneurship or some of the STEM pursuits.”
Blastic has worked as an attorney for 18 years.
“We have great resources [in the District],” Blastic said. “But it’s something that I can really dig in and understand the background, and where it’s coming from, because it’s what I do every day. “
Naperville 203 is regarded as one of the top districts in not just Illinois, but the nation. In Niche.com’s 2025 Best School Districts in America list, 203 sat at No. 41.
“Naperville ranks in the top 1% of all school districts,” Cush said. “That is something to be hugely proud of. And it’s a team effort. It’s not [that] I did this, or any individual one of my board colleagues did it. We’ve done it collectively.”
