The Algonquin-based District 300 school board president has been removed from her position by fellow board members a week after she refused to apologize for her remarks about the Charlie Kirk assassination.
A special board meeting for Community Unit School District 300 was held on Thursday evening.
The board voted to remove Nancy Zettler as the board’s president during the meeting, which was overseen by the board’s legal counsel.
The motion passed 5-1 and Christine Birkett was promoted to board president. A second motion, to censure Zettler, was not voted on because none of the board members proposed bringing the motion to a vote.
Prior to voting on the first motion, board member Alisa Lindmark said she hoped everyone could move on from the situation.
“Because for me, it isn’t about what she said in her post. We need to move on as a community… we aren’t doing our best. We just aren’t. We can do so much better for our kids. I hope everyone can just cool it after tonight, honestly,” Lindmark said.
The passed motion only removed Zettler from her position as president of the board. She remains a board member and the board does not have the authority to remove her from the board entirely.
Zettler said moments before the vote that she was “not going anywhere” no matter what the board decided to do regarding her president position.
The removal from her post comes after Zettler shared a Facebook post on her personal profile last month from Qasim Rashid, a fellow Democrat and Chicago-area resident.
Rashid reflected on the assassination of Charlie Kirk and said that he extended empathy to Kirk’s family despite disagreeing with his politics and with him as a person.
In sharing the post, Zettler said, “The first thing I thought when I heard this today was ‘Karma, it’s a $itch.’ Then I read this. The author, Qasim Rashid, says it best.”
Parents in the school district took to social media against Zettler for making the comment, saying it was “hateful” while calling for her removal from the board.
A protest was also held outside the District 300 administration office at 2550 Harnish Drive in Algonquin.
Protesters lined the roadway and held signs, including “No Nancy, assassination is not karma, it is murder! You must resign!” and “Charlie Kirk is not the problem… Zettler is!”
“Hate has no place in our community, and she must be held accountable,” the Kane County GOP said in a statement.
District 300 Board Member Steve Fiorentino said he was “disturbed and disgusted” at the words that Zettler wrote.
“I want to insure you that I remain committed to a safe and inclusive environment for all students, teachers and staff,” Fiorentino said.
“I assure you that your voices are being heard and that I will continue to ask for action. D300 deserves leadership that reflects and models integrity, respect and thoughtful communication,” he added.
During a board meeting last week, Zettler gave a several-minute-long speech saying she was sorry that the district was disrupted by “recent attacks” on her, the board and the administration.
Zettler called the actions a “manufactured disruption,” which drew audible laughs from the audience.
“These groups recruit people to find and manufacture evidence to use against leaders and employees on social media, create an uproar and then use it against them to try and get them fired or removed from office,” Zettler said.
“This is why I will not apologize for the post I made through my personal Facebook page on September 10,” she said.
Zettler said the post is “my speech, my property, my intellectual property” that was “stolen” and altered to make it look like she was celebrating the “horrific” murder of Kirk.
“Thank you for your time and for reaching out with your concerns, we do take them seriously,” she said at the conclusion of her speech.
Laurie Parman, who was a 2023 candidate for the District 300 school board, said that Zettler’s social media comment “was not leadership material.”
Zettler was first elected to the board in 2019 and her current term is set to end in April 2027.