McHenry County Blog

In the “field report” made by Diane Evertsen after she attended the Harvard School Board meeting to complain of the district’s having rented Harvard Junior High School for use by the Mexican Consulate for four days, she revealed that a referendum was pending.

Now Jenn Wiant of the Northwest Herald has spelled out the details in an article.

$20.7 million for an elementary school. The vote was 6-0.

Estimated cost – “$42.50 a year for each $100,000 in assessed property value.” $100,000 in assessed value would equate to a $300,000 home.

There is another sentence, however, that makes me wonder if that $100,000 really refers to actual value. Here’s that sentence:

“’ The citizens, parents and staff of the Facilities Task Force made it very clear to us that they wanted us to keep the cost of the proposed school to less than $100 per year for the owner of a $200,000 home,’ Superintendent Lauri Tobias said.”

Notice that the school superintendent does not say for a home assessed at $200,000, which would be worth $600,000, because assessments are one-third of market value.

There was no press release on the district’s web site, so no way to find out over the weekend.

22 acres of land will be donated by Dan Hereley through the Evelyn Hereley Trust. It’s off Marengo Road.

Barrington architect Ruck Pate will use a design used previously. My guess is that it will not be built out of energy efficient Solar Crete.

In the “field report” made by Diane Evertsen after she attended the Harvard School Board meeting to complain of the district’s having rented Harvard Junior High School for use by the Mexican Consulate for four days, she revealed that a referendum was pending.

Now Jenn Wiant of the Northwest Herald has spelled out the details in an article.

$20.7 million for an elementary school. The vote was 6-0.

Estimated cost – “$42.50 a year for each $100,000 in assessed property value.” $100,000 in assessed value would equate to a $300,000 home.

There is another sentence, however, that makes me wonder if that $100,000 really refers to actual value. Here’s that sentence:

“’ The citizens, parents and staff of the Facilities Task Force made it very clear to us that they wanted us to keep the cost of the proposed school to less than $100 per year for the owner of a $200,000 home,’ Superintendent Lauri Tobias said.”

Notice that the school superintendent does not say for a home assessed at $200,000, which would be worth $600,000, because assessments are one-third of market value.

There was no press release on the district’s web site, so no way to find out over the weekend.

22 acres of land will be donated by Dan Hereley through the Evelyn Hereley Trust. It’s off Marengo Road.

Barrington architect Ruck Pate will use a design used previously. My guess is that it will not be built out of energy efficient Solar Crete.

Yesterday, readers saw Wednesday’s Harvard School Board meeting through the eyes of taxpayer Diane Evertsen.

Today we look at the three-minute presentation concerning the use of the Harvard Junior High School by the Mexican Consulate four days last weekend that Harvard’s Evertsen made to the Harvard School Board Wednesday night.

Here it is:
Harvard School Board
July 23, 2008

On July 9th I sent Certified letters and extensive supportive documentation to all School Board Members and Dr. Tobias relative to the decision to allow the Mexican Consulate to use District 50 public property.

Through your response to our FOIA request, we find that in spite of information sent to all of you and your Superintendent, you went forward with your decision and signed an agreement on July 14th.

Apparently you feel your excuse of “We rented to Castle Bank” lets you off the hook for responsibility of having a foreign government on school grounds.

Not so!

At any point, did any of you check on authorization from the State Department allowing this event to happen?

Apparently not!

Dr. Tobias chose not to respond to my Certified letter, or to my husband’s electronic mail. She did however, send a response to an individual in California. May I quote:

“There is simply no evidence that the Matricula Cards or any other service provided by the Consulate is illegal.”

Pardon me, but your ignorance is showing and we beg to differ!

Video evidence proves Illegal aliens were present on school grounds and within the Junior High Building itself.

Guess what, folks?

There’s a reason they’re called “ILLEGAL ALIENS”!

Beyond that, the Mexican government billed itself as providing “passports and Gov’t Identification offered by the Mexican Consulate of Chicago”.

So, where did they inform you they would be registering people to vote – in US elections, that is??!

One of their ‘registrars’ was pleased to offer to register any of us
to vote – I guess that would have been interesting since we had already received Dr. Crosby’s message that we were not allowed to enter the building.

Dr. Crosby was well aware of what was going on since he had been in and out of the Junior High every day the Consulate was here, and yet he failed to put a stop to it.

Dr. Crosby was well aware of the Mexican Consulate’s stated purpose, since he approved it; there was no mention of ‘voter registration’ on the application.
Moreover, foreign nationals who need foreign passports or foreign “Gov’t Identification”, may not LEGALLY vote here, and therefore there is no need for them to fill out forms from ‘THE CHICAGO BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS’.

Dwell on this for a moment:

You ALLOWED a foreign government to conduct business on public property.
You, who should be so concerned about the safety of the
Children of District 50, allowed foreign nationals free access
To our property, while American citizens were denied access

To THE BATHROOM!!

As a side note, isn’t it interesting that Castle Bank was distributing flyers about use of taxpayer property prior to approval of their application – ACTUALLY, EVEN
BEFORE THEIR APPLICATION WAS SUBMITTED.

Why don’t you take a few minutes to tell the people here how that works? I’d also like to know if even one of you questioned why here, why now, and why Castle Bank didn’t want this going on on their own property?

Anybody need a clue?

Your lack of common sense is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING and not one of you is competent to serve American citizens!

Note the facial expressions when Diane starts to speak. Also note the position of the arms of the people watching – one lady taking notes.
Only one male has his hands together under his chin but he does that a lot, it appears to be a habit. The guy fourth from the left tries to stay hidden behind his cohorts.

Now as Diane progresses, more people with their hands to their chin or close to their faces.

This picture was taken after public comments when Mr. Crosby decided to address Diane about her comments. Note the position of the hands and the
fourth guy from the right now appears to be very interested in his papers. Need to review the video for his exact words.

Note the bottled water. Is Harvard city water not drinkable?

Instead of buying wrought iron fencing to install around the parking lot, they could have bought a better flag.

I have not checked to see if the wrought iron was donated but even if it was they should have asked for a better flag instead.

Yesterday, readers saw Wednesday’s Harvard School Board meeting through the eyes of taxpayer Diane Evertsen.

Today we look at the three-minute presentation concerning the use of the Harvard Junior High School by the Mexican Consulate four days last weekend that Harvard’s Evertsen made to the Harvard School Board Wednesday night.

Here it is:
Harvard School Board
July 23, 2008

On July 9th I sent Certified letters and extensive supportive documentation to all School Board Members and Dr. Tobias relative to the decision to allow the Mexican Consulate to use District 50 public property.

Through your response to our FOIA request, we find that in spite of information sent to all of you and your Superintendent, you went forward with your decision and signed an agreement on July 14th.

Apparently you feel your excuse of “We rented to Castle Bank” lets you off the hook for responsibility of having a foreign government on school grounds.

Not so!

At any point, did any of you check on authorization from the State Department allowing this event to happen?

Apparently not!

Dr. Tobias chose not to respond to my Certified letter, or to my husband’s electronic mail. She did however, send a response to an individual in California. May I quote:

“There is simply no evidence that the Matricula Cards or any other service provided by the Consulate is illegal.”

Pardon me, but your ignorance is showing and we beg to differ!

Video evidence proves Illegal aliens were present on school grounds and within the Junior High Building itself.

Guess what, folks?

There’s a reason they’re called “ILLEGAL ALIENS”!

Beyond that, the Mexican government billed itself as providing “passports and Gov’t Identification offered by the Mexican Consulate of Chicago”.

So, where did they inform you they would be registering people to vote – in US elections, that is??!

One of their ‘registrars’ was pleased to offer to register any of us
to vote – I guess that would have been interesting since we had already received Dr. Crosby’s message that we were not allowed to enter the building.

Dr. Crosby was well aware of what was going on since he had been in and out of the Junior High every day the Consulate was here, and yet he failed to put a stop to it.

Dr. Crosby was well aware of the Mexican Consulate’s stated purpose, since he approved it; there was no mention of ‘voter registration’ on the application.
Moreover, foreign nationals who need foreign passports or foreign “Gov’t Identification”, may not LEGALLY vote here, and therefore there is no need for them to fill out forms from ‘THE CHICAGO BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS’.

Dwell on this for a moment:

You ALLOWED a foreign government to conduct business on public property.
You, who should be so concerned about the safety of the
Children of District 50, allowed foreign nationals free access
To our property, while American citizens were denied access

To THE BATHROOM!!

As a side note, isn’t it interesting that Castle Bank was distributing flyers about use of taxpayer property prior to approval of their application – ACTUALLY, EVEN
BEFORE THEIR APPLICATION WAS SUBMITTED.

Why don’t you take a few minutes to tell the people here how that works? I’d also like to know if even one of you questioned why here, why now, and why Castle Bank didn’t want this going on on their own property?

Anybody need a clue?

Your lack of common sense is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING and not one of you is competent to serve American citizens!

Note the facial expressions when Diane starts to speak. Also note the position of the arms of the people watching – one lady taking notes.
Only one male has his hands together under his chin but he does that a lot, it appears to be a habit. The guy fourth from the left tries to stay hidden behind his cohorts.

Now as Diane progresses, more people with their hands to their chin or close to their faces.

This picture was taken after public comments when Mr. Crosby decided to address Diane about her comments. Note the position of the hands and the
fourth guy from the right now appears to be very interested in his papers. Need to review the video for his exact words.

Note the bottled water. Is Harvard city water not drinkable?

Instead of buying wrought iron fencing to install around the parking lot, they could have bought a better flag.

I have not checked to see if the wrought iron was donated but even if it was they should have asked for a better flag instead.

Following up on the renting the Harvard Junior High School to the Mexican Consulate for four days a week ago, Ev and Diane Evertsen went to the Harvard School Board meeting Wednesday night.

Ev Eversen provides this introduction:

“Last night we attended our local school board meeting (the first one after they permitted the Junior High School to become a Mexican Consulate where federal laws were broken).”

Here is his wife Diane’s

FIELD REPORT
Harvard School Bd. Mtg; 7/23/08

A lovely evening for a School Board meeting and a big ‘thank you’ to the other folks who showed up to participate. Seems like citizens would be a little more concerned about how this Harvard School District is spending their $18,000,000.

All in all, the meeting went as we anticipated.

Firm denial on the part of the District that they had been involved in any way with any wrong-doing.

After all, they did contact their lawyers about this lease situation and I’ll bet some expensive correspondence went back and forth over that one.

I believe the phrase was they “believed in their hearts” that they “did the right thing”; followed by a hearty nodding of heads all around the table.

Dr. (Lauri) Tobias went on to claim that she responded via email to those who had contacted her. Seems odd that I never got a response, my husband never got a response, people from Des Plaines never got a response.

Did anyone out there in D-50 get a response from Dr. Tobias? If you did NOT, please let us know.

We’d hate to think that the good Doctor is dealing with a computer system that’s sending emails out into the ozone and she’s functioning under the misbegotten impression that ALL OF US HAVE GOTTEN HER RESPONSES. (Please, let me sit down; my side just hurts like crazy from laughing!)

During my brief allotted three minutes to speak, I pointed out that this administration, which should be so concerned about the safety of our children, allowed unknown foreign nationals (basically) free reign over taxpayer property.

Interestingly enough, later on the agenda came a public safety report and the District’s policy to keep all of the doors locked all the time.

Except, of course, when students are going in or out, or you have, like, a group of foreign nationals operating on the property under the pretext of a consulate. DUH!!

Well away from the public comments portion of the Agenda, Dr. (Richard) Crosby decided to go back to my comments to claim he never denied us access to use the facilities. He claims he has no knowledge of any woman named “Janice” who came out to give us a message from him that we were not allowed in the building.

Perhaps we dreamed this up after being out in the hot sun. Perhaps it’s early onset Alzheimer’s. However shall we solve this great mystery of the unknown woman with the unauthorized message? I bet it won’t be as difficult as the mystery of the pyramids, boys and girls.

All in all, this school board has terrific meetings and I certainly encourage you to attend.

They’re so eager to serve the public properly that there’s about zero discussion of any item (the pop supplier for the coming school year seemed to be the biggy of the evening, followed by the contract for paper). Here’s how it goes:

1. Call the Question,
2. Second to the question,
3. Everyone votes in accord,
4. Move on!

It’s also special when any board member has a brief comment that they keep it soft enough so that the audience won’t be disturbed by hearing them (hopefully we can enhance the voices on the video). We also noticed they rarely look at the audience; I guess that would make the public feel included and we can’t have that.

Well, FOIA requests will flow and we’ll wait to see what the answers are.

For those of you who want to see how the citizens’ eighteen million plus dollars are spent, the monthly meetings will be held on Wednesdays from now on (or until they decide to change them to keep you on your toes).

Oh, yeah, almost forgot we saved the best for last again!

They’re planning for another referendum (emphasis added). After all, with those Matriculas come more, and more, and more . . .

Have a great day! Diane

Following up on the renting the Harvard Junior High School to the Mexican Consulate for four days a week ago, Ev and Diane Evertsen went to the Harvard School Board meeting Wednesday night.

Ev Eversen provides this introduction:

“Last night we attended our local school board meeting (the first one after they permitted the Junior High School to become a Mexican Consulate where federal laws were broken).”

Here is his wife Diane’s

FIELD REPORT
Harvard School Bd. Mtg; 7/23/08

A lovely evening for a School Board meeting and a big ‘thank you’ to the other folks who showed up to participate. Seems like citizens would be a little more concerned about how this Harvard School District is spending their $18,000,000.

All in all, the meeting went as we anticipated.

Firm denial on the part of the District that they had been involved in any way with any wrong-doing.

After all, they did contact their lawyers about this lease situation and I’ll bet some expensive correspondence went back and forth over that one.

I believe the phrase was they “believed in their hearts” that they “did the right thing”; followed by a hearty nodding of heads all around the table.

Dr. (Lauri) Tobias went on to claim that she responded via email to those who had contacted her. Seems odd that I never got a response, my husband never got a response, people from Des Plaines never got a response.

Did anyone out there in D-50 get a response from Dr. Tobias? If you did NOT, please let us know.

We’d hate to think that the good Doctor is dealing with a computer system that’s sending emails out into the ozone and she’s functioning under the misbegotten impression that ALL OF US HAVE GOTTEN HER RESPONSES. (Please, let me sit down; my side just hurts like crazy from laughing!)

During my brief allotted three minutes to speak, I pointed out that this administration, which should be so concerned about the safety of our children, allowed unknown foreign nationals (basically) free reign over taxpayer property.

Interestingly enough, later on the agenda came a public safety report and the District’s policy to keep all of the doors locked all the time.

Except, of course, when students are going in or out, or you have, like, a group of foreign nationals operating on the property under the pretext of a consulate. DUH!!

Well away from the public comments portion of the Agenda, Dr. (Richard) Crosby decided to go back to my comments to claim he never denied us access to use the facilities. He claims he has no knowledge of any woman named “Janice” who came out to give us a message from him that we were not allowed in the building.

Perhaps we dreamed this up after being out in the hot sun. Perhaps it’s early onset Alzheimer’s. However shall we solve this great mystery of the unknown woman with the unauthorized message? I bet it won’t be as difficult as the mystery of the pyramids, boys and girls.

All in all, this school board has terrific meetings and I certainly encourage you to attend.

They’re so eager to serve the public properly that there’s about zero discussion of any item (the pop supplier for the coming school year seemed to be the biggy of the evening, followed by the contract for paper). Here’s how it goes:

1. Call the Question,
2. Second to the question,
3. Everyone votes in accord,
4. Move on!

It’s also special when any board member has a brief comment that they keep it soft enough so that the audience won’t be disturbed by hearing them (hopefully we can enhance the voices on the video). We also noticed they rarely look at the audience; I guess that would make the public feel included and we can’t have that.

Well, FOIA requests will flow and we’ll wait to see what the answers are.

For those of you who want to see how the citizens’ eighteen million plus dollars are spent, the monthly meetings will be held on Wednesdays from now on (or until they decide to change them to keep you on your toes).

Oh, yeah, almost forgot we saved the best for last again!

They’re planning for another referendum (emphasis added). After all, with those Matriculas come more, and more, and more . . .

Have a great day! Diane