Kendall County Times

Oswego 308 District Board of Education President Dr. Donna Marino has stepped down in the wake of mounting criticism over continued mandates in the school system.

Marino’s resignation comes only four days after a board meeting in which 200 parents attended, most of whom expressed their anger at the school board's failure to overturn the mask mandate like over 400 others have done in the state.

At that meeting, held on Feb. 11, about half of the audience members were not wearing masks.

"We elected you to do a job," one woman said, according to Kendall County Now. "Take a vote tonight. Our children are literally begging you."

At one point, the meeting was stopped.

"I did not sign over my rights to my child. I have all responsibility for her and medical decisions related to her," parent Joanne Johnson said.

Marino and others were accused of not acting quickly enough to make the school system mask optional.

"You are making a horrible mistake. You’re hurting our children," Johnson said.

Marino adjourned the meeting without calling for a vote.

Marino’s tenure on the board was brief. She began her first term as an elected official in 2021.

Vice President Latonya Simelton will now step into the role as president.

Oswego 308 is the seventh largest school district in the state serving 13 elementary schools, five junior high schools and two high schools.

It serves more than 18,000 students.

Pritzker's blanket state emergency school requirements on masks and tests through the Illinois Department of Public Health were deemed "null and void" by Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow. She said that the governor and his agencies were imposing rules on students without their consent.

“Statutory rights have attempted to be bypassed through the issuance of Executive Orders and Emergency Rules … This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain," she wrote.