Illinois Valley Times

Candidate James “Jay” Walsh said he would like to make another run for Serena CUSD 2 school board in the future following the April 4 election results.

Other candidates for the race for Serena CUSD 2 school board included Joseph H. Cantlin, Neal Rosengren, Justin DeBolt and Gary McNelis. According to the official results, Joseph Cantlin won with 27.04% of the vote, and trailing behind him was Neal Rosengren with 22.63%, Justin Debolt with 20.66%, Gary McNelis with 19.44% and James Walsh at 10.23%.  

Even though he was in last place, Walsh told Illinois Valley Times that he was undeterred from making another run for a school board seat in the future. 

"I think there are more seats set to open up in a couple years," he said. "Maybe I’ll give it another run at that point. As for right now, I plan on doing the same things I've always been doing to help the community. Things like putting on events for the kids and fundraising for the school."

In a previous interview with Illinois Valley Times, Walsh said his campaign was fueled by his burning desire to make things better for the next generation of students by working hard now to make sure each and every one of them is able to get the most out of their public school education. Walsh said that a lot of people had asked him for the past five or 10 years to run but that he and his family "were somewhat new to the community and still didn't know a lot of the people," so he wanted until he felt the time was right.

"I learned some things in this run that hopefully will help me should I decide to do it again," Walsh said. 

The Serena CUSD 2 district oversees the education of over 600 students in four schools.