McHenry County Blog

This article is corrected and bumped up for visibility.

Mark Altmayer

I misread the minutes of the Financial Advisory Committee meeting of August 2nd. It was not Huntley School District 158 Chief Financial Officer Mark Altmayer whom the minutes say advocated abolishing the financial Advisory Committee.

My apologies to him for the misidentification.

It was tax hike advocate Michael Andre who is reported to have thought there was no further need for a citizens advisory group on financial affairs.

Here’s what the second draft of minutes from the August 2nd meeting says about the “FAC Role”:

Discussion from both committees took place.

Mr. Quagliano asked for the FAC to provide their role at this time.

Mr. Andre conveyed the District has a CFO (Mr. Altmayer) in place, and that the FAC may not be needed.

Mr. Andre stated the four options remaining for the FAC:

1. work on various projects
2. hibernation until needed
3. dissolve
4. other

Mr. Quagliano shared the importance that SD 158 residents stay involved, and conveyed the importance of keeping the FAC in tact. He further stated the FAC should work together as a committee to help determine their role, and their direction.

Mr. Troy reiterated with Mr. Quagliano and concurred.

Mr. Gentry entered at 7:15 p.m.

Mrs. Moore exited at 7:40 p.m.

Mr. Skala reiterated and concurred; adding whatever issues the FAC wants to delve into, it is okay for the community to stay involved.

Recommendation: Finance Committee to determine 3-5 items they would like FAC to work on. FZC to decide if they want to remain a sub-committee of the Finance Committee or expand to a broader citizen’s advisory committee, and reporting back in the next month or so to the Finance Committee.

= = = = =
Attending the meeting besides School Board members Tony Quagliano, Kevin Gentry, Mike Skala, Aileen Seedorf and Paul Troy were citizens Joe Lyons, Michael Andre, Ronda Goldman, Michael Laird, Lucinda Nelson, David Roeder, Rich Seiler, Linda Moore and Angela Sorejian.

This citizens advisory committee was the launching pad for both Quagliano and Larry Snow’s school board candidacies.

The Moore family home.

There were plenty of political motives to change the longstanding agreement that Huntley 158 had which allowed Linda Moore and her family to live in the house she grew up in.

Linda’s family sold the school district the property that Huntley High was on and retained the right to live in the tiny house on the opposite side of Harmony Road. The house was 1,200 square feet; the hen house 350 sq. ft.

Linda Moore ran for school board. The political knives of existing school board members
came out.

She ran with Aileen Seedorf, who was the top vote getter. Board President Mike Skala narrowly lost (13 votes) to his running mate Jim Carlin. Linda Moore ran just one vote behind.

Skala’s friends on the board were ticked.

David and Linda Moore talk with former school board member Glen Stewart after he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Huntley School District 158 by his fellow school board members.

Superintendent John Burkey appears to have begun a mission to generate negative publicity about Moore being in the house rent free and how this somehow was so terrible or unfair. Burkey certainly seemed glad to allow negative publicity and administrator remarks be directed at the Moores.

Apparently honoring an existing legal agreement is subject to interpretation when you have “free” legal services of the government at one’s disposal.

The Moore family farm barn and silo.

The district insisted on charging rent. The Moore’s simply moved almost next door, to another house they own.

Now the school district is about to authorize tearing the tiny house down, along with the hen house and barn.

The demolition cost will be over $44,000.

The district could have avoided spending the money.

But that would have meant allowing the Moore family to live in the tiny house. The Moores were responsible for the upkeep of the house and maintenance of the grounds. An old drafty house is expensive to heat in the winter. Paying what rent the district wanted made sense for one year as a transition, but it wasn’t economical to stay.

The kitchen was bright.

School board members knew that. They also knew it would be expensive to tear down the buildings. At the time, board member Larry Snow told the board that it would cost at least $20,000 to tear down the building and the board majority scoffed that it could cost this much.

More than $44,000 for demolition will be likely approved at July’s board meeting.

Not a penny of which, of course, will go toward improving the educational services of the students.

Johler Demolition will get to keep the boards after tearing down one of Huntley’s historic
barns. I wonder if paneling basements in barn boards is still in style.

School board politics and not wanting the Moore’s to live in the family house means one of
Huntley historic barns will get torn down.

The demolition bids can be found on page 8 at this link.

No thought of allowing a teacher who was starting out to rent the home, I guess.

= = = = =
Starting in 1842, the Williams family lived on the farm it purchased for $75. In 1942 Linda Moore’s grandfather, Louis Borhart brought the farm. The family moved next door two yea+rs ago.

With 15 out of 31 precincts having no elected GOP precinct committeeman, the Grafton Township Republican Central Committee met to select officers for the next two years.

Tom Poznanski will continue to be chairman of the Grafton Township Republican Central Committee,

Grafton Township Precinct Map (click to enlarge)

Running against him was Tammy Lueth an ally of Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore.

The weighted vote was 1,302 for Poznanski and 626 for Lueth.   (“Weighted” votes allow each precinct committeeman to cast the number of votes cast by their constituents in the last Republican primary election.)

The other officers are

• Dan Ryan, Treasurer
• Mike Skala, Recording Secretary

All 16 elected committeeman were present, except Tom Halat, whose proxy vote was allowed.

Grafton Township precinct map. Click to enlarge.

Continuing a series of Republican turnout in the February 2nd primary election, we now turn to Grafton Township. Previously, precinct results for Algonquin Township have been previously  published.

As in Algonquin and Nunda Townships, all Grafton Township precincts had contests for county board.

Part of the Crystal Lake July 4th TEA Party demonstration. My favorite is "If you're not outranged, you're not informed."

What you see below are the thirty-one Grafton Township precincts. Next to the precinct number is the percentage of Republican Party turnout. If there was a person on the ballot for precinct committeeman, his or her name is seen in parentheses.

If you live in a precinct with no elected committeeman, you could volunteer to fill that slot. If you are interested—and maybe some TEA Party demonstrators may wish to make their citizenship more intense—just send me a email and I’ll pass your name along.

• Grafton 1 – 11.0% (Mike Skala)
• Grafton 2 – 19.3% (Scott Breeden)
• Grafton 3 – 9.9%
• Grafton 4 – 10.7% (Tammy Lueth)
• Grafton 5 – 9.8%
• Grafton 6 – 17.5% (Harriet Ford)
• Grafton 7 – 17.2% (Fred Wickham)
• Grafton 8 – 12.5%
• Grafton 9 – 10.1% (Eric Hartmann)
• Grafton 10 – 13.8% (Lloyd Everard)
• Grafton 11 – 11.0% (Bernice Gora)
• Grafton 12 – 8.1%
• Grafton 13 – 8.4% (Gene Goeglein)
• Grafton 14 – 7.9% (Terry Aavang)
• Grafton 15 – 25.5% (Daniel Ryan)
• Grafton 16 – 6.1% (Tom Halat)
• Grafton 17 – 10.5%
• Grafton 18 – 8.2%
• Grafton 19 – 4.4% (Samuel Paglini)
• Grafton 20 – 6.3%
• Grafton 21 – 10.2%
• Grafton 22 – 7.1%
• Grafton 23 – 6.1% (Linda Betzold)
• Grafton 24 – 8.3%
• Grafton 25 – 7.1%
• Grafton 26 – 17.7% (Linda Moore)
• Grafton 27 – 21.1%
• Grafton 28 – 7.8% (Thomas Poznanski)
• Grafton 29 – 9.7%
• Grafton 30 – 12.4%
• Grafton 31 – 11.1%

Sun City continued it reputation of being a high turnout area. County board member Dan Ryan got 25.5% of his constituents to vote GOP. He was on the ballot, but did not win. He blamed his loss on not filling out the conflict of interest questionnaire proposed by the Alliance for Land, Agriculture and Water. He was the only committee who topped the 20% benchmark that I am using.

You might have had a teacher or two who told you to check your work before turning it in.

There are probably a few teachers in Huntley School District 158 who are either recoiling in dismay or laughing at how former teachers, now administrators in their district, have a different standard for themselves when they become administrators.

In this case, several parents, including Mrs. Sara DiFucci, seem far better at reading comprehension and mathematics than administrators who prepare and (are supposed to) read the documents given to the board and public.

In Thursday night’s board meeting, DiFucci pointed out a large error in special education material Supt. John Burkey submitted to the school board. It was in a document in which administrators added up their spending list for the Federal Stimulus ARRA IDEA funds.

There was a $295,576 addition error.

You can see the error on page 464 of 507 of the November board meeting packet.

If you scan and do a quick addition of the numbers on the first page of the report, say the first ten line items, you can see how they add up to much more than $800,000 (click to enlarge page 464).

Quick rounding is a way professionals and educators—even 5th graders in my son’s homework last year—look at numbers to see if there are any obvious errors.

Burkey’s board packet presented a spending total of $801,660.81 for 89 items in the initial request for Special Ed money from the Federal Stimulus Package.

The problem is that the first ten items on the two page list total more than $840,000.

A casual look of ten items lets you see there is an error.

Of course, Burkey probably doesn’t look at documents like this closely before they go to the board. That’s what staff are for.

Other administrators apparently didn’t bother either.

Later on in the meeting, board member Aileen Seedorf asked Controller Mark Altmayer if he knew of the large error.

Altmayer’s reply was interesting.

Without saying who was responsible, the Controller emphatically said it wasn’t his document, emphasizing he didn’t know about the error.

Sources within Huntley 158 have let it be known that multiple administrators knew of the error before Thursday night.

Is it possible, as top financial guy, Altmayer was left out of the loop and this wasn’t discussed at Burkey’s weekly cabinet meetings of which he’s part?

One might think that an expenditure as contentious as this would make that agenda.

To be fair to the new Special Ed (Special Services) Director Cheryl Kalkirtz, I have it on reasonably good authority the error was not of her making.

Interesting is no administrator was willing to raise his or her hand and say it was not Burkey’s mistake.

Burkey in the past has seemed proud of how he has a C.P.A. as Controller.

No comments about the C.P.A. test Altmayer passed Thursday night.

A fair question to ask is “What’s the point of having a C.P.A. as Controller if the district’s isn’t taking care that public documents with financial numbers in them are carefully reviewed?”

In any event, someone dropped the ball. In fact, the total for the proposed Special Education expenditures from the Federal Stimulus Package aren’t even in the ballpark.

In years past, Huntley’s board had Larry Snow and Tony Quagliano on it.

Both loved to review financial documents.

Snow, of course, lost to Mike Skala and Quagliano decided to retire.

There’s still a CPA on the board, Keven Gentry, but he apparently didn’t catch this mistake while reading the board packet. There are also a couple of M.B.A.’s on the board now. But, considering the District 158 administration dumped 507 pages into the board packet, there’s no reason they should have discovered the mistake.

The only board member who gave an indication of caring about the large error was Aileen Seedorf, who has been the one bird dogging on Special Education matters.

The six-member board majority expressed no concern at the mistake.

I will note, however, when state officials wanted a legislator not to find something, they smothered them in so much paper the odds of finding something that might be amiss were minuscule.

Burying people in paper is a tried and proven way to keep people from finding something.

Supt. Burkey didn’t so much as offer a superficial apology for the mistake. He didn’t say a word.

A $295,576 error would seem to me to be worth a mention.

Teachers help our children learn how errors should be admitted to when made.

It’s not as if anyone was expecting a Tiger Woods-like “I regret those transgressions with all of my heart” type of apology or offer of repentance.

An insincere “We regret the inconvenience this error may have caused anyone” that you might associate with a utility, bank or cable provider would have been in the something – anything category.

The example to teachers in the audience was when you make a large error admit to nothing and don’t say a word.

Special Ed director Kalkirtz apparently reports to Associate Supt. Terry Awrey.

Awrey, like all other administrators, sat silent, not volunteering a word lest it be thought he was at fault.

Showing teachers that neither he nor any of his top administrators are willing to admit to an error can hardly be considered leading by example.

It certainly won’t win a “We Set Good Examples” shiny apple award.

My guess is that all sorts of people set better examples of accountability than those unwilling to admit or apologize for this $300,000 mistake in public.

Say,

• kindergarten teachers
• first grade teachers
• second grade teachers
• third grade teachers
• fourth grade teachers
• fifth grade teachers
• sixth grade teachers
• any special ed teachers
• any certified special ed support people

or, well, you get the idea.

Some administrator(s) apparently has (have) not learned to check work before turning it in. Or to take responsibility for mistakes.

Or proof read the reading assignment given to the board and public.

Educators (and President Barack Obama) talk of teachable moments.

The Special Education revelation could have been one of those.

Burkey could have apologized for his staff’s mistake.

He didn’t.

He could have asked his staff in public to be more careful in the future, to double check their work before turning it in.

It gives me something other administrators can use as “how-not-to” example.

Perhaps the school board and the public will allow the “whatever” approach to an almost $300,000 error.

Even my son has learned there are consequences to that approach.

My guess is that teachers have set higher standards for students in Huntley’s classrooms.

The Northwest Herald published a long letter of resignation from former Cary School District 26 School Board President David Ruelle.

He just resigned as the school district’s finances are tanking.

One item in the letter was Ruelle pointing out;

“For the third year in a row, the District exceeded its expenditure budget.”

He omitted how this is prohibited under the Illinois School Code. Must not have any meaningful consequential in the law.

So why would a board member, who became board president, allow such overspending with apparently inadequate accountability for Superintendent Brian Coleman?

Is it because his wife is a teacher in Cary District 26?

I’ve never gotten this “serve on the school board with a wife on your payroll” approach to public service.

It’s not exactly a phenomenon. Huntley School District 158′s past President Mike Skala has a wife who is a Huntley High School teacher. She was even co-president of the teachers’ union.

It always stuck me as a conflict of interest or at least an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Apparently Skala agreed, because, last time around, he didn’t participate in the union negotiations.

But, back to District 26.

You can find the salary/compensation info for the ex-school board president’s wife Elizabeth Rulle on the Champion web site.

There you can see;

Ruelle, Elizabeth A – $92,821

That is more than Thom Gippert , Principal of Maplewood School, is reported to make in the same database.

Gippert, Thomas R – $89,084

Ruelle voted to not close Maplewood school.

Mrs. Ruelle’s compensation also compares favorably with Principal Chad Nass at Briargate School in the same database.

Nass, Chad W – $88,864

The above is 2008 data.

District 26 has the highest average teachers’ salaries in McHenry County for all elementary or unit school districts, according to a chart published by the Northwest Herald.

That’s probably because of a school board caved a couple of years ago when the teachers went on strike.

Ruelle didn’t formally vote for his wife’s current teachers contract. He abstained.  He apparently did negotiate the contract’s compensation for the 2006-8 contract, plus terms and conditions.  The 2008-11 contract had the same terms and conditions as 2006-8, just different salary schedules.  He abstained on that vote, too.

It’s hard to believe this is perfectly legal in Illinois with all of our ethics and conflict of interest laws.

Wait a minute.

No, it isn’t.

The Illinois Education Association (the teachers’ union for most teachers outside of Chicago) is one of the most influential special interest groups in Illinois.

One of the provisions that Ruelle did not get removed from his wife’s teachers’ contract is this:

2. A post-retirement lump sum payment of $20,000 to be paid after the certified staff member’s last day of creditable service and after the last paycheck for regular earnings (after July 1st of retirement year) as a non-elective employer paid contribution into a post-retirement tax sheltered 403(b) annuity.

You can find it using this link. Go to electronic page 27.

Does any school district around, besides Cary, have this cash retirement wealth transfer?

Ruelle’s letter of resignation complaining about being fiscally responsible reminds me of a scene from the movie Casablanca. Maybe this dialogue will remind you of it:

Captain Renault:   “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on, in here!”Croupier walks over and gives Renault a lot of money.

Croupier:  “Your winnings, sir.

Captain Renault:   “Oh, thank you very much.”

It’s fair to say that Ruelle wanted his board to vote for another tax increase referendum.

When you have lump sum $20,000 give aways in a teachers’ contract, in view of the current economy, it’s easy to explain why residents would vote “No” to using their money to ratify such a policy.

= = = = =
For those who need more of an explanation about the dialogue from “Casablanca,” I offer this from MSNBC:

Remember when Captain Renault, looking for an excuse to close down Rick’s, declares himself “shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,” just before the croupier hands him his winnings?

Ever since, people have used that double-adjective to describe the false innocence of public officials: those who know the score, benefit from the score, and then loudly condemn the score.

Door-to-door leafleting.

Pretty basic politics.

And some Special Education Moms were doing it this afternoon in neighborhoods around town.

With a photo of Superintendent John Burkey, taken by yours truly, the broadside’s headline was

Our Superintendent wants special ed money spent on filing cabinets to help our kids learn.

Bet your Superintendent doesn’t do that!

In the leaflet seen above (click to enlarge), the Moms talk of politely asking, pleading, literally begging, and almost groveling to get Burkey to listen.

“It’s gone from giving us the stone-ears treatment to where Supt. Burkey now wants our board to approve nonsense.”

Citing the approximately $100,000 being spent on filing cabinets, office supplies and equipment, plus an expensive reading program the Moms don’t want, they explain that still there is “no option B and option C alternatives.“

“We disagree with Supt. Burkey’s priorities and judgment about spending large sums of special ed money that won’t help special ed children learn. This is personal for us. It’s our children. But frankly in our opinion, many of his recommendations reflect terrible educational judgment and a callous insensitivity to our children’s learning needs.”

One is tempted to ask, “How do they really feel?”

The message asks for people to attend Thursday night’s meeting at 7 and gives email addresses:

• sgreen@district158.com
• kgentry@district158.com
• ddrzal@district158.com
• ptroy@district158.com
• aseedorf@district158.com

Despite the hopeful words from board member Kim Skaja, the Moms seem to write her and fellow veteran official Mike Skala off, referring to them as “rubber stamp board members,” who “want to give Supt. Burkey another long contract with lots more money.”

This is the firth and final installment of a too long article about the discussion of spending $800,000 of special ed money allocated to Huntley School District 158 this year as a result of the Federal stimulus program. The other stories are here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Board member Paul Troy brought up the question of staff training. He found $8,000 explicitly listed.

It turns out there is more, but it was not identified in the budget document. It was bundled with other identified expenditures in various line items.

Clearly exasperated by this point, Superintendent John Burkey asked,
“What do you think it should be?

“Tell us.

“We’ll make it look like that.”

Troy suggested 5%, saying he “would also like to see the general education teachers get it, too.”

“It’s already there,” Burkey replied.

“I want the regular education staff to understand the needs of the special ed (kids),” interjected veteran board member Mike Skala. “They don’t have a complete understanding of what it means to be special ed.

“If you tell me that’s what’s going to happen, great, and I’ll theoretically hold you accountable.”

“If that’s what you want, it’s not in here,” Burkey observed.

“General teachers don’t know what to do when a kid has a melt down,” Seedorf said. “Don’t call the kid a name. Don’t insult the kid. Is it impossible to send down a memo that says, ‘If you have a problem with a kid, call Cheryl and (another person)?”

Assistant Special Ed Director Karen Alward revealed that she was “doing Special Ed 101 classes” in each school.

As the meeting moved toward its conclusion, Skaja concluded, “Everything we’ve brought up has been addressed.”

Kevin Gentry disagreed.

“I think people want a different allocation, but can’t (come up with it).”

“I don’t feel comfortable spending $500,000 on Read 180,” Don Drzal added.

Referring back to Comptroller Mark Altmayer’s statement that he would order the Read 180 licenses as soon as the plan were approved, Skaja said,

“Do it slowly, then go forward with more.

“As soon as it’s approved Mr. Altmayer said he’ll filed a purchase order.

“That’s the one item I wouldn’t approve.”

“I’m fine,” Troy said, seemingly changing his mind after Skala spoke.

Maybe someone else can figure out how the board will vote when given more detail in the face of a December 1st filing opportunity, but I have no idea.

What I took away from the meeting was that there were not a lot of suggestions the special ed staff professionals made that could not be fulfilled with the money that was available.

If some Read 180 money were to be eliminated by the board, it made me wonder if the Special Ed Moms, who were filled with suggestions at the July 14th town hall-style meeting with administrators and board members I attended, might come up with their own priority list for spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

Surely, some of them know enough about the subject to make rational suggestions of what would help their children.

= = = = =

Huntley School District 158 School Board member Paul Troy is on top.  Superintendent John Burkey can be seen just below.

Five of the seven school board members can be seen in the next shot, plus Supt. Burkey.  From left to right are Don Drzal, Paul Troy, Shawn Green, John Burkey, Kevin Gentry and Kim Skaja.  Hidden behind Skaja sits Mike Skala.  Aileen Seedorf sits to the right of Troy.

This is the fourth installment of the discussion last Thursday night at the Huntley School District 158 board meeting on spending Federal stimulus money under the IDEA grant program. Here are links to the prior stories: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

When we left off, newly-elected member Don Drzal was trying to find out what the special ed administrators would spend money now destined for Read 180, if the hoard decided to cut it back to a pilot program.

Assistant Special Education Director Karen Alward seemed to have already provided the answer in an interchange with board member Kevin Gentry.

Gentry was trying to find out how the special ed administrators had gotten down to the $800,000 in first year money that is available.

“We really didn’t have to say, ‘No,” to anything,” Alward told the board. (Alward is the one looking at the camera in this only shot that got all four special ed administrators’ faces.)

Later it was explained that some suggestions, like providing gift cards to students for accomplishing something, were made that just were not legal under the guidelines.

Board member Aileen Seedorf, who seems to be the patron saint of the Special Ed Moms waiting until last.

“I believe the parents would have expected something in this year,” she said.

“Is that correct?”

“Yes, “The Moms answered.

Seedorf asked about the classroom furniture. Board President Shawn Green had a similar concern.

Kevin Gentry took offense at what he thought was a Seedorf’s accusation that regular students were treated better than special ed students.

“If you’re right, we need to do something about it.”

Green agreed: “If you have specific concerns they need to be addressed?”

Seedorf repeated several times that the committee she has proposed could have investigated that line of though, but the board majority had decided not to allow it.

She burrowed in on Read 180 and took a jab at one of her fellow board members.

“I’m not interested in running for senate.”

“I’m not interested in running for senate either,” Gentry replied.

“Good for you,” Seedorf countered.

Seedorf wanted to know if the Read 180 pilot program “could be pared down to 15-20.

“How many do you need to buy to do a small study before you drop big bucks on this?”

Special Ed Director Cheryl Kalkirtz replied that they could also be used as part of an RIT initiative, that is, with at risk kids.

“Let’s get 30 licenses and see how the kids do,” board member Paul Troy added. He suggested that would be better than “buying 360 license today.”

“We need to give direction to the administration and move forward,” long-time board member Mike Skala said.

“We can’t just buy 360 licenses and go forward not caring whether they work or not,” Troy interjected.

“If the administration wants to change it and come back to us, I’m fine with that…but not the opposite,” Skala replied.

The board decided to ask for more detail on the Read 180 line item.

“We all trust you. You’re all professionals,” veteran board member Kim Skaja added.

More tomorrow.

= = = = =
Read the whole series:

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 1

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 2

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 3

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 4

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 5

Thursday night the Huntley District 158 School Board held an executive session.

Top secret. Hush, hush, don’t you know?

One of the topics discussed was current contract negotiations with the teachers union, the H.E.A., short for the Huntley Educational Association.

You thought those were over, didn’t you?

The strike came and went. After much delay, the HEA finally signed the contract its members overwhelmingly approved (before, it seems, understanding what it said).

The board is in current negotiations with the teachers union on modifying the just signed existing contract to include early retirement benefits, including expensive health insurance.

The union wants taxpayers to pay for extra early retirement benefits when a teacher has 15 total years in the teaching profession, not all necessarily in Huntley.

Incredibly, newly-victorious-over-Larry-Snow school board member Mike Skala was in on the secret meeting.

Perhaps he forgot what he put on the “Position” page of his campaign site (click to enlarge; what’s quoted is at the bottom of the page):

Teacher Salaries

It is important that District 158 be able to attract and retain quality teachers. However, since my wife is a teacher, I will not be participating in or voting on issues regarding teacher salaries.

Perhaps he forgot the following from the Daily Herald’s endorsement of him over Larry Snow:

“Skala’s critics, primarily led by Snow, note that Skala’s wife is a teacher and has been a union official in the district, questioning why Skala at one point voted on a teacher’s contract or was anywhere near negotiation sessions.

“It’s a valid concern and, when initially raised more than an election ago, he took steps to ensure he is not part of those tricky teacher contract negotiations.”

Well, the election is over.

Skala has two years to sit in on board meetings while items vital to his wife, a Huntley High School French teacher and former teacher union official, are discussed in closed session.

Can the taxpaying public reasonably expect husband and wife not to discuss topics of common interest?

Even if it would be a conflict of interest to do so?

After all, Skala did vote for the contract that gave his wife a 50% raise over its life.

Would it not be more prudent for Skala to absent himself from these meetings, whether or not he has the “legal” right to attend them?

(And what kind of law would let the spouse of school teacher have influence on or information about negotiations with her union?!)

Imagine the union outrage if their private strategy and how-they-make-decision sessions could be communicated directly back to the Board.

Board member Larry Snow was asked to comment on Skala’s including himself in talks on contract modifications:

“It’s a common sense conflict of interest, which Mr. Skala chooses to ignore. He’s done it for years; he did it Thursday night.

“It’s outrageous if you think about it. Let’s see if any reporters or newspaper editors publicly call him on it.”

Click to enlarge any image.