More District 158 Agenda Censorship by Board President Shawn Green and Superintendent John Burkey

Huntley School District 158 genuinely does not like minority board member Larry Snow.

You can tell that by the language of his emails, the way he treats Snow at meetings, not to mention his body language.

School Superintendent John Burkey can’t be too happy at the way Snow has gave him less than A+ ratings in Burkey’s first year performance review.

McHenry County Blog published the email exchange between Snow in which he asked for public discussion of various items he considered significant.

Below is the subsequent round of emails:

Subject:

RE: COW 12-6-07 agenda sent to BOE in board packet info.

Date:

Tue, 4 Dec 2007 15:27:13 -0600

From:

Green, Shawn

To:

Larry Snow , Burkey, John

CC:

Fettes, Naomi , Skala, Mike , Quagliano, Anthony , Gentry, Kevin , Skaja, Kimberly , Seedorf, Aileen

References:

<38fa4c5e32e78744a9a0f39361c19e91de7e4c@d158exch02.d158.loc> <474f2c35.7080100@mc.net> <47559629.2080906@mc.net>

Responses in red (and boldface , because of my red-green color blindness.)

________________________________
From: Larry Snow [mailto:lsnow@mc.net]
Sent: Tue 12/4/2007 12:02 PM
To: Green, Shawn; Burkey, John
Cc: Fettes, Naomi; Skala, Mike; Quagliano, Anthony; Gentry, Kevin; Skaja, Kimberly; Seedorf, Aileen
Subject: Re: COW 12-6-07 agenda sent to BOE in board packet info. 
Mr. Green and Mr. Burkey,
The agenda that you distributed for the COW meeting did not have Superintendent's Violation of Policy 7:30 under Board of Education.  The agenda item I submitted is about a violation of Board policy, and not about the policy per se. 
You incorrectly placed it under a policy committee agenda item as if it were to be a discussion of the policy itself.
Please properly place it on the agenda as submitted.
Mr Snow's request was honored. The policy states the agenda is prepared by the Superintendent in consultation with the committee chair/ board president. We determine the order of business, which as policy states, can be changed by a majority of board members present.
You omitted agenda items:
Permanent Loss of State Aid (Previously attributed to as Kane County error)  
Finance Committee
Truthful Restatement of Facts Previously Made Public Regarding former C.F.O.'s Early Retirement Option.
Closed session forensic audit/ litigation (Thursday's closed session is set to cover this)
Explanation of Incomplete Closed Session Recording of Last Board Meeting.
Covered under 7g
Explanation of Missing Open Session Recordings of Last Board Meeting.
Covered under 7g
The recently revised policy 2:220 states:  "The Committee Chairperson or Superintendent is obligated to place on the agenda those items submitted by a Board Member ....
Please place the items that I submitted on the agenda or specifically explain why the agenda items I submitted are not on the agenda.
Policy has been complied with here.
You have allocated 5 minutes for item "Power of Attorney".  The policy states that the requesting board member has up to 10 minutes to present information. 
The agenda item I submitted was very specific:
Power of Attorney Granted by the Superintendent to a Board Member, not the Board President.
Please properly represent on the agenda the item that I submitted and include in the online board packet information a copy of the power of attorney that was granted.
Board members have been asked in the past to provide a time allottment for their agenda item requests. 
When one is not provided, I have to estimate. If Mr. Snow needs more than five minutes, then he can feel free to take more than five minutes as policy allows for.
Mr. Snow's agenda requests were honored.  

Regards, Larry
= = = = =
The trio of Huntley School District 158 board members in the photograph at the top of the page are, from left to right, minority member Larry Snow and majority board members Kevin Gentry and Shawn Green. The head shot is of School Superintendent John Burkey.

The board meeting is Thursday night at 6. It probably will be a sight to behold.


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