McHenry County Blog

Illinois Democrats run the White House and Federal government. From President Obama to David Axelrod to Rahm Emanuel, they are in control.

My list doesn’t include lesser known Valerie Jarrett and higher profile Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education and former head of the Chicago Public Schools.

Obama ran on “Hope and Change.”

What seems humorous now is how one of his campaign slogan was

“Change You Can Believe In”

The Illinois Dem Obama team went with vague promises.

It was lathered in positive language of “we need to go forward” and “Hope and Change.”

Oh yeah.

It was going to be unlike other presidencies.

It was going to be post partisan and post racial – both.

To be analogous, the group from Cary 26 making demands of the school board while dangling $4.3 million out there had similar characteristics.

They didn’t tell the truth.

They also didn’t contribute one dime of their own money or actually collect any money from anyone else.

It was all one big public relations charade.

In McHenry County, liberal Dems like Melissa Bean and Jack Franks got elected pretending to be someone she and he are not.

Bean’s votes for the public option for healthcare, then Obamacare, higher energy taxes (tax and trade) and massive debt stimulus spending are about as liberal as you can get.

Franks’ liberal votes are public record, including his automatic ones for whatever the teachers’ unions are demanding.

Franks’ co-sponsoring the law that made red light cameras legal was Democrat greed to collect more money from people, without calling it a tax.

The common denominator between the group “The Soar to Higher Ruse Heights Foundation” and Illinois Dem politics is blatant pretense.

If the individual(s) have to tell a lie, untruth or more to create the pretense, do you think they even care?

When caught they plan on calling them “misunderstandings.”

A lousy economy and unemployment in Illinois over 10% is no misunderstanding.

There is no misunderstanding how the individuals in the Cary District 26 group didn’t bother to contribute a dime or twenty bucks apiece to their own cause. No money in the bank. Just vague promises of pledges from unknown sources.

Illinois Dems have decided there is no war on terror, only an overseas contingency operation.

A fizzling economy with sustained high unemployment is a “soft recovery.”

We also, according to Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security, don’t have terrorism anymore, just man-caused disasters.

If you don’t agree with this mislabeling, Obama and Illinois Dems have coined the phrase how you have “untrained ears.”

Dems didn’t bailout big overseas banks, but dealt with “toxic assets.”

I can’t recall Obama and the Dems campaigning on giving Deutsche Bank $2 billion of
bailout money.

But they did.

When small business owners can’t get a loan, it’s their own fault they don’t “Sprechen Deustch, nicht wahr?”

We can tell when the soaring Cary group play the “Sprechen Sie Deutsch” charade, just as Illinois Dems have for many years, can’t we?

In lawyer-like language what I have written above is pretty much what the Soar to Higher—finally a legally register—Foundation wrote Cary Grade School District 26.

Well, most of it.

There is a little ridicule.

More to follow.

And, by the way, it’s your fault that your not getting the money we never verified we had.

You started school when you said you would.

We (and you don’t need to know who “we” are) told you not to.

So, you lose $4.3 million.

So sorry.

See you at Soarin’, our Disney World ride.

We hope the ride we gave you in McHenry County was as satisfying.

Oh, yes.

We’ll spend some of our money to raise your taxes this November.

Identities of donors, if any, continue to remain secret.

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Editor’s note: If this fall’s tax hike committee spends more than $3,000 donors of more than $150 must be reported to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Well, glory be.

Former School Board President and current spouse of school board member and front man for the Soar to Higher Heights Foundation David Ruelle now admits to the Daily Herald
that none of the promised $4.3 million is in the bank.

No big surprise. This is like the ride on Soarin’ at Disney World.

A short thrill, then memories.

It’s Sunday and the Church Lady should be having a ball.

There’s a school board meeting tomorrow night.

Would you irreversibly agree to spend over 4 million dollars and in return people might show you they have $4 million that could pay for such spending?

I believe this is what is called a “Fool’s Proposal.”

You give and possibly you might get.

It’s no surprise that the recently formed foundation, Soar to Higher Heights Foundation, didn’t verify they had the money they talked about donating to District 26.

August 19th came and went without any evidence the money actually exists and is controlled is by the Foundation.

Ex-School Board President and school teacher husband Dave Ruelle presented his first you-agree-to-all-our-terms proposal to the board in writing.

McHenry County Blog pointed this out while local paper(s) apparently chose to ignore this condition when they first reported the proposal.

There is a big difference between reporting on an unrealistic written proposal and how parents are coming up with a $4 million donation to save the district.

Ruelle’s written proposal smacked of unilateral unionism and it contained wording that can be used as an escape hatch to stop making payments.

Even verification risks how an outside entity could make a deposit, to be used for verification purposes and then have it withdrawn without disclosure to Cary 26.

Who thinks a school board is so foolish to agree to the group’s agree-first terms? Apparently Dave Ruelle does. It symbolizes how Ruelle went about directing the district as Board President – keep on agreeing to higher teacher salaries and benefits without knowing how to pay for it. Ruelle’s wife is a Cary 26 teacher. Anyone see how this was a conflict of interest or a self-interest in common sense terms?

You might think that reporters and editors of newspapers would pay attention to what was actually proposed in writing before jumping on a rainbow and wagging-tail-puppy bandwagon about parents donating 4 million dollars.

If my son reads this column he might propose to his teachers this year if they first agree to give him an A grade, he will then promise to study really hard.

It will interesting if people end up about talking about this group in a context of soaring to higher heights of stupidity.

The “Together” in Cary’s teachers union T E A M tee-shirt, includes a lot less teachers because a majority of teachers wouldn’t agree to a pay freeze in order to save lots of jobs.

They threw some of their fellow educators under the you’re-out-of-a-job school bus while it motored into this school year.

The union is there for you until the union votes to not help its fellow teachers. Maybe the teachers who were laid off were sent a video of the movie “Wall Street.” where Michael Douglas proclaims

“Greed is good.”

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Also of possible interest:

You Spend Over $6 Million and In Return I Might Give You $4.3 MillionWhat the Cary Soar to Higher Heights Foundation Handed Out

What Wasn’t in the Local Papers About Cary 26 Grade School’s “Windfall”?

Daily Herald Editors in Denial

Message of the Day – A Tee Shirt

I was standing behind the wearer of this tee shirt at a McHenry County McDonald’s a couple of years ago.

Since the Soar to Higher Heights Foundation said today more information would be available, I thought it would be appropriate.

It’s from the Cary Education Association.

The Soar to Higher Heights Foundation is being contacted by the Charitable Trusts Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, according to press officer Robyn Ziegler.

McHenry County Blog checked last week as to whether the foundation had registered with the Secretary of State’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office.

When I called both offices said it had not, but the Attorney General’s Office told me that its Charitable Trusts Division would check further.

I got my reply yesterday.

“You’re right. The organization doesn’t exist yet, so obviously they are not registered with our office” Zeigler told me.

“The Attorney General’s Office is reaching out to those individuals identified as affiliated with this group.

“Our goal is make sure they understand the Charitable Trust laws of the state, including the requirement to be registered with our office, if they are soliciting for charitable purposes.

“Those efforts help to protect the charitable assets that have been collected for this or any charitable purpose.”

But, when I checked again with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office I was told,
“It was incorporated 8-13,2010.”

That’s last Friday.

The only name attached to the foundation is its agent, David Joseph Ruelle

“They don’t list officers until their first annual report,”

the Secretary of State’s employee told me.

It is always interesting to see how the journalists and editors in the local newspapers describe something and then compare such descriptions with source documents.

Here’s how the people who made their proposal to the Cary 26 school board described their offering in what little info they gave the board:

“Restricted Use Grant”

The bold lettering was in their original brief proposal.

Also bolded was “12 equal payments.”

How about this little detail in the proposal:

“Any failure to comply with the conditions and terms of the Restricted Use Grant may result in the suspension of the transfer of funds.”

This had its own bullet point.

Seeing how teacher unions legally interpret compliance and non compliance, this is a red flag.

How’s this written detail:

“The Foundation will provide fund verification to the Board of Education after the Board takes an action to accept this proposal.”

The “after” in the sentence indicates a level of unrealism that is laughable for a foundation calling itself “Soar to Higher Heights Foundation.”

How do you trust people who expect a school board to be so naively stupid to agree to this?

They might as well have called themselves

“Taking a Flying Leap off a Tall Cliff Foundation.”

Or

“The Leap of Faith Foundation,”

with apologies to Seren Kierkegaard.

Seeing how the foundation doesn’t really exist yet, at least that’s what the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office just told me

(“We have no record of that.”)

they have time to change the name.

Why don’t these folks want to work through the existing Cary 26 foundation? After all, it already exists.

It is interesting how the newspapers keep referring to the potential monies as a donation instead of “restricted use grant.”

It seems like the word “restricted” is key.

Teacher unions for years have wanted to dictate class size in districts as part of their contracts.

This “Soar” group has proposed specific class size ranges, without including the qualifier of “guideline.”

This is another red flag for any school district.

District 300 was foolish enough to agree to penalty payments to its teachers in the existing contract, if the specific class sizes were exceeded and in this school year it will cost the D-300’s taxpayers millions of dollars.

The D-300 teachers union said no dice to the idea that instead of paying the penalty money to the teachers, that the money go to keeping more teachers.

If the individuals in Cary 26 went about soliciting money for a foundation without registering with the State of Illinois, as may be legally required, what kind of a potential legal mess and legal consequences are there for whatever money has been already obtained or solicited?

The Co-Presidents of the Cary teachers’ union were thanked in writing for their input.

Did they get legal advice on soliciting money for a foundation from their state level teachers union, the I.E.A.? I imagine they had access to such legal advice for the asking.

It seems like any potential violation of State law involving soliciting funds for a foundation might add legal complications to any transfer and receipt of the money.

It will be interesting to see what attorney is involved with the formation of the foundation.

If I was a Cary 26 school board member I would insist on knowing

• what legal advice the group got,
• from whom and
• when, in writing.

If the Superintendent or any administrator was involved in helping the group out, each should disclose to the school board what assistance was given.

It seems a bit odd Superintendent Brad Coleman was willing to make a snap judgment recommendation about considering delaying the start of school for two weeks.

One of the demands or conditions of the group is for the district to report to the foundation on its cash situation on a monthly basis.

This is something a union might like to have, as it goes into contract negotiations at the end of the current school year. Here’s the requirement as written to the board:

“District 26 will provide cash flow and monthly reports accurately reflecting the financial position of the District.”

There seems to be an ulterior motive in making monthly payments and therefore requiring monthly reports.

Seeing how teachers unions interpret the phrase “accurately reflecting,” it would be easy for a union-type lawyer to argue the district isn’t doing what it agreed to.

Financial woman T. Ferrier worked for Huntley School District 158 before going to Cary 26.

Having seen what accounting was done in Huntley while Ferrier worked there, and then was restated by its audit firm, if I were a Cary 26 board member, I wouldn’t touch this requirement with a twenty-foot pole.

Whether T. Ferrier was personally involved in the $1.5 million of accounting and accounting adjustments is a matter of fact finding and interpretation.

I do know it’s not every day an audit firm restates a school district’s previous year’s audit by over a million bucks.

It took vigorous efforts by board members Larry Snow and Tony Quagliano to have the correct numbers become the officially correct numbers.

As I recall, Ferrier insisted she and the Finance Dept. had done the accounting correctly.

Then there was the ten million dollars of on-going construction that was in the Huntley administration’s proposed audit numbers that was for non-existent construction in that fiscal year.

That also was corrected. Ooops!

If the Cary 26 board agreed to “accurately” report to the group, it is an invitation to a dispute whenever the group decides, “We don’t agree.”

The unidentified group made it clear how reasonable it is when it required the board to first take action before verifying the money exists.

This apparently is after missing previous deadlines for verification that it had given the district.

In other words, the group already has a spotty track record to begin with.

I remember that some of my friends and even relatives bought Jimmy Carter’s “Trust Me” pitch.

There seem to be some similarities in the Cary proposal.

The spirit and specifics of the group’s “Restricted Use Grant” is not caring about whether the district remains subject to State takeover as it is now.

It’s callous.

Perhaps the teachers’ union figures that, if the teachers are re-employed in Cary 26 and then a State takeover occurs, the people in charge of the State takeover will opt for higher taxes, rather than a large cut in the number of teachers.

The group calling itself “Soar to Higher Heights Foundation,” which admits that it not yet a real foundation, issued the following at the Cary District 26 Grade School meeting earlier this week.

Any of the images can be enlarged by clicking on them.

The headline above sums up what a group in Cary 26 called the

“Soar to Higher Heights Foundation”

is or appears to be proposing.

Rather than make a $4.3 million donation and trust the school board to do what’s best for the district, the group that is not yet incorporated brought a “we don’t really trust you proposal” to the Cary board and school administrators.

All of the specific requirements in the group’s proposal weren’t detailed. However, you have to be a bit suspicious or skeptical of any group whose spokesperson says,

“the foundation would verify the funds after it is formally established on Aug. 19.”

as reported by the Daily Herald.

Obviously they didn’t want to go through the bother of doing the paperwork to set up a foundation unless they knew it would be the beneficiary of a large grant once the local foundation existed.

The school board would be required to take on irreversible 12-month contracts to hire 68 teachers in return for the promise from a as-not-yet-formed foundation with unknown financial supporters to make 12 equal payments.

This mystery group would set up a foundation after dictating the details of education policy in a district, rather than trusting professional administrators to do the right thing for the district.

Of course getting the district out of its current position where it now can be taken over by the State on the basis of insolvency might be one of those responsible things, the outside moneyed group has no practical interest in.

School Superintendent Brian Coleman has proposed pushing back the start of school to after Labor Day to accommodate the actual hiring of teachers back, if this and if that.

If teachers found new positions in other districts, they would presumably stiff those districts and quit their jobs to come back to Cary for a higher salary schedule.

Some teachers who found jobs, however, might not return for a gig that is only funded for one year and in a district that remains financially insolvent.

I find it interesting the group in Cary doesn’t trust school administrators to do the right thing and use the money for a combination of financial solvency and increasing the educational resources including hiring back dozens of teachers.

The outside group apparently doesn’t want the school board to consider hiring back 55 teachers, for example, and being financially solvent. It doesn’t want administrators to consider how that could be far better than hiring back 68 teachers and remaining broke.

My guess is the group wants to keep Cary 26 just over the edge and in financial insolvency in order to justify the tax increases referendums on the ballot in November.

The school board would have to bet all the marbles that a new foundation wouldn’t change its mind if the referendum tax increases were rejected by voters, for example.

If the district didn’t have the entire $4.3 million in hand, it would risk being taken over by the State of Illinois if the to-be-formed mystery foundation stopped making payments and protracted litigation ensued.

Then there is a question of what happens when a new school board with newly elected school board members convenes next Spring. It should be obvious there is a risk with a to-be-formed foundation that has, by definition, no track record.

A side issue is what happens to the money teachers are receiving in unemployment compensation because they were laid off?

Do the teachers reimburse the district for any payments already received?

The group portraying itself as financial saviors is apparently recommending the some teachers hired back come out financially better because they will have gotten unemployment checks and their full salary for this coming year.

So far there is no group of parents willing to individually come forward to be personally liable for the $4.3 million and pledge equivalent collateral if the foundation doesn’t come across with the money.

No existing teachers have offered as collateral future payments from their paychecks, if there are not legal obstacles to putting individual agreements in place to do this. I wonder why.

Probably because the teachers union would insist such agreements, even on an individual voluntary basis, would have to be bargained for.

The Cary school board should first independently verify the $4.3 million is sitting in an unrestricted account under the complete control of the newly formed foundation. It then is a matter of:

“So with all this money, are you going to help our district or not?”

The board could make it clear that restrictive conditions keeping the district in insolvency, subject to State takeover, as it currently is, is not helping the district.

You might think it would be easy for a foundation to agree to hiring back a minimum of 50 teachers for a donation of $4.3 million dollars and allowing the board and administrators financial discretion after that.

Then there is the real world with people having uncompromising tax increase agendas for teacher salaries and benefits that taxpayers can’t afford.

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Photos from the meeting are contained in this WGN-TV story.