School Board appoints member to fill vacancy

It took two votes and a check of the legal procedure, but the Cedar Grove-Belgium School Board is back at full strength.

The board on Monday interviewed three candidates before appointing Jill Huenink to fill its vacant spot that opened when Kurt Kraus resigned in spring.

Huenink received four votes, the required majority, and Sara Graziano, vice president of the parent-teacher-student organization who runs a child care center and has a bachelor’s degree in early elementary education, received two.

Reinaldo Cesco, a pilot for a large U.S. airline who has military academy experience in Venezuela and who lost to John Krechel in the 2025 general election, was the third candidate.

Huenink has lived in the district since 2011, has two sons who graduated from the district and two more children in the schools.

Huenink is a member of the Board of Appeals for the Town of Holland and is on the Advisory Council for the Biological Systems Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been a dairy ambassador for Sheboygan County Dairy Promotion.

Huenink also coaches middle school track and cross country and is a substitute aide.

She and her family own and operate a beef cattle farm that also has chickens. Huenink has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from UW-Madison.

“What most excites me about serving on the Board of Education is providing guidance to help our students thrive. Building relationships and connection within community is a priority to me, and I strive to understand and consider various viewpoints based on a person’s life experience,” she wrote in her letter of interest to the board.

Board President Jeremy Spriggs said the trio were “three strong candidates” and that he doesn’t remember when three people sought an appointment to one seat on the board. Fellow members agreed that they had a quality pool from which to choose.

The board first voted by secret ballot, but it didn’t result in any candidate receiving a  majority. After realizing it needed to hold an open vote according to state law, the board gave Huenink the required number of votes.

Kraus resigned after seeing that “two wonderful candidates” were running for one seat in this spring’s election to fill the spot of Nancy Niebauer, who didn’t seek re-election after many years on the board.

Mike Sells won a spot on the board over Dan Derler. Kraus resigned hoping Derler would apply for the position. He did not.

Kraus held an at-large seat on the board. His term is up in two years but state law requires appointed candidates be up for election after one year.

Huenink is to be sworn in at the August board meeting.