Two local high school board members who were political allies two years ago have become adversaries amid public allegations of threats and harassment.

The conflict shrouds the race for the Bremen High School District 228 Board of Education. Voters on April 4 will choose from nine candidates seeking three seats on the seven-member board.

Tension crept into the proceedings of the school board meeting on Feb. 21, when Kristine Resler, board vice president, read a statement accusing board member Larry Canning of threatening and harassing her and her family.

“Not only did he issue this threat, but he used one of my daughter's teachers — a staff member at District 228 — to communicate this threat,” Resler said at the public meeting.

Resler went on to say that on Feb. 3, she was contacted by one of her daughter's teachers, who relayed a message from Canning allegedly saying, “Take down the post or things can get really ugly for you.”

The message referenced a post Resler shared a day earlier on Facebook about her difficulties working with Canning. Resler was elected to the board in 2015 as a member of Canning's Parents for Progress slate, but has since disassociated herself from the political group.

“Unfortunately, after being on the board for no more than 2-3 months, I realized I was just a pawn in Larry's attempt to control the board and thus the administration,” Resler said in the Feb. 2 post on the Facebook page for the Truth for 228 slate of candidates.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Canning denied threatening Resler.

“Complete lies,” he told me. “As far as another teacher involved, I reached out to a mutual friend and asked him to tell her to please knock off the lies and allegations.”

Proceedings were much quieter during Wednesday night's school board meeting. Board President Debi Stearns, however, read a statement to the board from the union that represents District 228 teachers.

“The executive board of the Joint Faculty Association is concerned about board members involving staff to act as go-betweens for any interactions between other board members, personal or professional,” Stearns read from the statement.

“We respectfully ask that all members of the board of education adhere to the taken oath and follow the code of conduct defined in the District 228 board policy. No staff member should be pressured, implicitly or explicitly, to communicate messages from one board member to another,” Stearns read. She then added, “We are aware, and we will adhere.”

Resler's four-year term extends into 2019 and she is not up for re-election on April 4.

Canning told me he believes it's improper for Resler to be making political statements during school board meetings.

“These are slanderous lies that have no business being brought up at a public meeting,” Canning said. “She was elected on campaign promises she has now reneged on.”

In her statement, Resler alleged Canning began harassing her after she stopped supporting him.

“I've never deviated from my platform and just like my fellow board members, we all strive for fiscal responsibility, transparency and academic excellence,” she said in the statement.

Canning was previously accused of threatening and harassing a District 228 official. In July 2015, the Bremen school board voted 4-3 to remove Canning as board president, just three months after he assumed the position.

The board majority at the time said Canning should be removed from board leadership for violating board policies by allegedly threatening the employment of Superintendent Bill Kendall and allegedly attempting to interfere with hiring of personnel.

Canning told me he wasn't at the Feb. 21 board meeting when Resler read her accusations against him because he had to attend a Bremen Township board meeting that night. Canning works full-time for the township highway department.

It can get confusing because there are a lot of political connections between the Bremen township and school boards.

Stearns, the board president, ran for Bremen Township supervisor in 2013. Maggie Crotty, the incumbent, walloped Stearns in that election by a three-to-one margin.

Stearns also serves as president of the obscure Bremen Township Trustees of Schools board. It's a seven-member panel of appointed officials who oversee a treasurer and other staff responsible for providing “consolidated financial services” for public school districts within the township through pooled investment of public funds.

Back in 2011, when she was still a state senator, Crotty sponsored legislation to change and expand the Bremen Township Trustees of Schools board. Previously, the board overseeing the treasurer's office consisted of three elected members.

The previous three-member board attracted negative attention when it tried to use public dollars to pay $220,000 in legal bills accumulated over a political challenge to the then-board president, Joseph Bertrand Jr. A Cook County judge ruled the payment was illegal and ordered the money returned.

So you see, there's long been a pattern of mixing the personal, professional and political in Bremen Township. Lines get blurred. It's not unusual for rhetoric to become heated as elections approach.

For the Bremen Township School District 228 Board of Education, the three incumbents up for election April 4 are Stearns, who has served since 2006; Evelyn Gleason, who has served since 1993; and Canning, who was elected to his first term in 2013.

Stearns, Gleason and Della York are running as the Truth for 228 slate. Canning is running on the Parents for Progress slate with Tina Kessens and Edward P. Maggio.

Additionally, three independents in the race are Andrew R. Manno, Terrence J. “T.J.” Whitcomb and Russell V. Zohfeld.

The League of Women Voters is sponsoring a candidate forum for the District 228 board election at 7 p.m. Thursday at Oak Forest High School, 15201 S. Central Ave., Oak Forest.

The district serves more than 5,000 students and employs more than 600 people at four schools: Bremen High School in Midlothian, Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hill, Oak Forest High School in Oak Forest and Tinley Park High School in Tinley Park.

tslowik@tribpub.com

Twitter @tedslowik