I’m not sure why Public Television’s children’s show “Teletubbies” came to mind when I read the Daily Herald’s Jameel Naqvi story of the resignation of Huntley School District 158’s Chief Operating Officer Glen Stewart at last Thursday’s meeting.

Maybe it’s just a Huntley school district thing.

Fortunately, my son was not attracted to the poorly speaking characters.

“Nunu,” the Teletubby word for a vacuum clearer, is the only word that entered our vocabulary.

We don’t know why Stewart is leaving his over $100,000 job.

Maybe it was the severe electrical shock suffered by a school bus driver—serious enough to send her to the hospital.

Impossible to know.

You may remember that I commented on his absence a month ago.

There is no way to forget the picture I have run time after time of a grateful Stewart thanking a totally shocked then-Board President Mike Skala for helping put him in the $101,000 administrative post.

At the meeting, it was so clear that the decision had been made to hire Stewart before the meeting.

One thing is for sure, the board’s ruling majority will be losing a major friend inside the administration.

Another thing is for sure.

This school board cannot keep its second level administrators.

Two Chief Financial Officers–Stan Hall and Stacie Talbert–have left within a year. Now, the board will be searching for a Chief Operating Officer as well.

Maybe, if the fix isn’t in, more applicants with more directly related experience will be interested.

That is, if Dave Jenkins, currently technology director, who was appointed to the job on a six-month trial basis on the recommendation of Supt. Burkey, doesn’t capture the post. He will be paid at the rate of $84,000 per year, the Northwest Herald story says. And, he will be Burkey’s man, not the man of the ruling board majority.

One final note from the Northwest Herald’s Tom Musick’s article. It says Stewart will be getting money from District 158 through June. “$20,307 but no additional benefits,” Supt. Burkey said. If that is for a little over nine weeks’ work, the rate of pay would be a bit less than $2,200 per week or something like $115,000 per year.

Musick has this great line:

”Stewart’s exit marks the end of a two-year run that began with controversy and ended with questions.”

Parents will probably remember Stewart for the school bus fiasco less than two months after he was hired. He was featured in a flattering student newspaper article in mid-March.

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Teletubbies waving bye-bye on top, followed by a missing Glen Stewart last month, the handshake of thanks from recently elected board member Stewart to then-Board President Mike Skala. Finally, Stewart can be seen on the left and a pensive Stan Hall on the right in the bottom picture.