With last CPS School Board races called, elected board divided among CTU, independents and anti-CTU camps

Two more Chicago school board races have been called by the Associated Press, and in both of them independent candidates were confirmed as winners.

With the South Side's District 9 going to retired school psychologist Therese Boyle and the Southeast Side's District 10 going to songwriter and rapper Che "Rhymefest" Smith, candidates who were not supported by special interests and did not have big money have won three of 10 open seats.

Only one race has yet to be called by the AP, which WBEZ and the Sun-Times depend on. That is the North Side's District 1. But Jennifer Custer's opponent in that race called her to concede. With all precincts reporting, there are about 2,000 votes separating Custer and her opponent, but mail-in votes have still not been calculated.

Custer was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and had the backing of other unions.

Boyle on Friday said she was proud of her campaign and thankful to her neighbors and friends who stepped up.

"I think I ran a really positive campaign that really stuck to the issues of supporting the students and the communities and the taxpayers," she said. "I didn't engage in any negative campaigning."

On Tuesday night, when it looked like Smith was going to pull through a victory, he said he was impressed by District 10 voters who went for a community person as opposed to someone who had major backing from special interests.

In District 10, voters in some polling stations on Election Day were given ballots with the wrong school board voting district. A spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners said the issue was resolved quickly and there is no way to rectify it now, but several candidates were concerned about voters being disenfranchised. Smith won by about 2,200 votes.

Looking across the 10 races, four CTU candidates won, including Custer; three candidates backed by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools won; and three independent candidates won. The independents had way less money than those with support from CTU or pro-charter school, anti-CTU groups.

The CTU and its related political action committees spent about $1.75 million on their candidates as of Nov. 7, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Two pro-charter school, anti-CTU groups spent about $3.17 million, either through independent expenditure or political action committees.