I didn’t follow Daily Herald reporter Jeff Gaunt’s relationship with Huntley School District 158, so I don’t know when Gaunt went into “This doesn’t look right” mode.

His replacement, Jameel Naqvi, seems to be chronicling the development of his relationship with the Huntley School District.

Last Friday, Naqvi wrote the second piece I have noticed in which he questions the facts given by district officials.

This time mentioning Chief Operating Officer Glen Stewart specifically.

Again, it was a second look at a subject that resulted in Huntley School Officials coming up short.

Naqvi wrote a story about the impact of Neumann Homes’s announced bankruptcy on Carpentersville District 300 and Huntley District 158.

“I got a call from District 158’s Chief Operations Officer Glen Stewart telling me Neumann Homes didn’t owe District 158 any money” Naqvi wrote, “and that the district did not expect enrollment growth from the Conservancy.”

“After the story ran, I took a look at District 158’s budget for this year. The district projected $200,000 in impact fee revenue from Gilberts.”

I bet that caused Naqvi’s brow to furrow

Huntley School Superintend John Burkey said that the subdivision was expected to result in up to 350 homes in his district, maybe 50 this year, a handful of students.

Stewart, on the other hand, told the reporter that Neumann had told him it would build “zero” homes in District 158 this year.

Naqvi’s conclusion:

” But then, why did the district budget $200,000 in impact fees from Gilberts if it expected zero homes to be built there this year?

“But a handful is more than zero.

“Stewart implied that there had been rumors that Neumann owed the district money, and that the expected bankruptcy would depress the district’s enrollment. I can guess the source of some of that talk.”

Want to guess that Huntley School Board member Larry Snow was trying to find out about any debt owed his school district by Neumann Homes?

“But if you’re going to preempt district critics by calling the newspapers first, at least get your facts straight,” Naqvi suggested.

Now, let’s reprise what I think was the first installment.

This was the story McHenry County Blog started about the unneeded school buses just sitting in the parking lot behind the administration building every morning while kids are being buses to school. Two days later there was even a second story.

Naqvi asked both School Superintendent John Burkey and Chief Operations Officer Glen Stewart questions about the buses.

The answers were so contradictory that Thursday’s headline writer concluded:

Superintendent Burkey said,

“We don’t have extra buses.”

Further down the page is Chief Operation Officer Glen Stewart saying,

“Is it fair to say we have 25 extra buses? Yeah.”

Reporters don’t like to be deceived.

Anyone but I think the credibility of Huntley’s top school administrators may have begun spinning in the Daily Herald drain?

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I selected the picture of school board member Glen Stewart offering his hand to then-School Board President Mike Skala upon the winning of his $101,000 Chief Operating Officer post because the two may have cause to shake hands again. That would be appropriate, if, as expected, the Huntley School Board majority appoints Skala to the board seat that he narrowly lost to Jim Carlin. Carlin, you may remember resigned last month after being elected in April.

Snow ally Aileen Seedorf beat both men.