No apology seems forthcoming for the pulling of financial fire alarms throughout Huntley schools and spreading the word that financial conditions were “bleak.”

Officials could say,

“Sorry, the financial numbers were messed up. We should have checked them. We shouldn’t have been telling reporters and the public the situation is ‘bleak.’”

The large change in the budget numbers was attributed to a “revenue error,” as if the error was beyond administrators’ control.

But, it was completely within their control.

An anonymous “revenue error” was in the Northwest Herald article.

Rather than admit publishing messed up financial numbers that showed deficits for each year for five years, Comptroller Mark Altmayer is unapologetic.  In the article Altmayer is quoted,

“My adjective of ‘bleak’ remains the same,” Altmayer said…”

Staying with “bleak,” reminds me of former presidential candidate’s John Edwards insisting his mistress’s baby wasn’t his for two years. Don’t let the facts get in your way as long as you can.

Only Huntley has school administrators proclaiming “bleak” when a sizable surplus for running the schools is projected for next year’s budget.

The surplus assumes no increase in the State Aid’s foundation level.

It strikes me this is the kind of response that creates mistrust in government. If public officials were willing to admit their mistakes, wouldn’t their credibility increase?

The Santa Claus approach to checking whether kids are naughty or nice might be in order.

No one ever said that CPA’s like Altmayer have the same skill sets as publish relations folks, but anyone can see that completely different financial results should not be described the same way…unless there is something else out there that would make “bleak” still appropriate.

Huntley taxpayers won’t eat anything put in their dog dish, at least not all the time.

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A related article from Friday:

So, Is the Huntley School District in Financial Trouble or Not?