Meet the candidates: Unit 4 District School Board elections
April 4, 2023
Champaign’s nonpartisan school board elections will also be deciding the new board members of the Champaign Unit 4 School District.
There are seven candidates on the ballot: Amy Armstrong, Jamar Brown, Jeffrey Brownfield, Elizabeth Holder, Mark Holm, Mark Thies and AJ Zwettler.
Amy Armstrong (INCUMBENT)
Amy Armstrong, Unit 4 board president, is running for reelection. She has been on the school board since 2015.
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Armstrong is an advocate for disability awareness as well as multicultural awareness within schools.
She is associated with The Christie Foundation, an organization that provides grants to health-related community organizations, scholarships for medical students and hosts educational seminars within the community.
In relation to the recent discourse of schools banning certain books, Armstrong believes that it’s not the board’s decision to create the school’s curriculum or decide which books are provided in the library.
Jamar Brown
Jamar Brown is another member of the Unit 4 Board of Education as well as a lab mechanic at the University.
One of his goals is creating ties with the community and parents to continue to keep them informed with what is going on within the school system.
Overall, Brown wants to bring a diverse perspective to the board and be able to be reached by parents and taxpayers to answer their questions.
Jeffrey Brownfield
Jeffrey Brownfield is a lifelong Champaign resident.
Brownfield wants to increase public participation during board meeting events by moving public comments toward the beginning of the meetings. He believes this will make public commentary more accessible for residents to be involved.
He encourages data from the school board to be public data for all residents to access. He is in favor of increased transparency between the school board and the public.
Brownfield was in favor of the metal detectors being put in both Champaign Central and Centennial High Schools. He wants to increase school safety.
He said in an interview with WICS that he does not advocate for the banning of books, but will review books that are being brought to the school’s attention.
Elizabeth Holder
Elizabeth Holder is a local injury lawyer and a current partner of Holder Law Group, LLP.
She wants to increase communication between teachers, administrators and the Board of Education. Holder also wants to increase collaboration between Unit 4 and the University of Illinois.
She is in favor of decreasing district spending to bring in outside parties to do tasks for the district.
Holder is in favor of putting in school resource officers to ensure students’ safeties. She intends to address school safety differently depending on each grade level.
She does not support censorship or the banning of books.
Mark Holm
Mark Holm is a Champaign native and attended Unit 4 schools.
In the 2023 Municipal Candidate Forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, he said that he has served on the board for the Girls and Boys Club since 1985, during which time he says that he has spent a considerable amount of time with students in the district.
As a business owner, Holm says that the budgetary concerns faced by the school district should be addressed “from a business standpoint.” He intends to approach the issue of students performing below grade level by establishing a system including reading aides at an early age.
In the candidate forum, Holm emphasized the importance of at-risk student program.
Holm has spoken out in favor of student resource officers, describing early and positive interactions between students and their law enforcement officials as an opportunity to provide children with a necessary life skill.
Mark Thies
Mark Thies is a certified financial planner and hopes to use his experience and skills in planning the school board budget.
Thies is a strong believer in school choice, working toward small class sizes, technology access for all students and lateral hiring in order to revitalize low performing schools in the districts.
Thies said that the schools in neighborhoods need more attention, affording the opportunity for all students to walk to school.
“We need to give these kids strong neighborhood schools so that kids can walk to school again,” Thies said in the League of Women Voters municipal candidate forum. “I think that every child deserves an opportunity to learn- and you’re not going to learn by being on a bus.”
AJ Zwettler
AJ Zwettler is a former student of the Unit 4 district and relative of three Unit 4 educators who called himself a “Champaign-Urbana kind of guy” in a League of Women Voters Forum in February.
Zwettler is a social worker who currently leads a program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Zwettler also said all students – LGBTQ+ students, students of color and “multi-language” learners – deserve to have an accepting and functional place to learn.
Zwettler also advocated for mental health support for students with mental health issues through the LIFT Program.
