In addition to Kurtz, I hope that Jenna and her friends will support Brennan Markee and Brett Siegmeier for the D 155 Board.

Why?

For many years, D 155 has been one of the most efficiently run school districts in the State.

Why?

Former Board members have been not only active in their communities but many attended and graduated from our local grade and high schools and also worked in the community.

Former Board members such as Bob Wilbrandt, Sr., Elroy Fitzgerald, Pat Philpot, Jim Bishop, Bob Boncosky, Bill Goodwin, Rich Naughton, Jim Schwarz, and on and on, grew up in our community, personally know all the players and are available on a daily basis.

Brennan and Brett would follow in their footsteps and straighten out a school board that has recently gone astray.

District 155 is a very high paying high school district and does not have good transparency.

According to the Open The Books Snapshot Transparency report, 39 % (223) of the employees in the district have “salaries” (is that pensionable income?) over $100K (is that teachers and administrators only or all employees?).

Check out the % change in salaries compared to CPI in the report.

From 2003 – 2013, CPI ranged from .1% to 4.08% and the % change in salaries ranged from 3.91% to 14.64%.

Where is the evidence District 155 is an efficiently run school district?

District 155 does not vidoetape / auditotape its board meetings and archive them on the district website.

Here is the Open The Books Snapshot Transparency Report for Crystal Lake High School District 155.

http://www.openthebooks.com > Illinois > Snapshot Transparency Schools > Scroll to the bottom of the page and select 500 items per page > Community HSD 155.pdf

Grafton Nunda Algonquin Dorr Community Advocates (GAND) who is Chris Williams and some other folks was watching the district 4 years ago, are they still active, is any taxpayer watchdog closely watching the district?

More statistical data is available on the Illinois State Board of Education Website, FamilyTaxpayers.org website, Bettergov.org website, Taxpayers United of America may have something, amongst others.

The Top 25 annual pensions in the Snapshot Transparency Report for CHSD 155 range from $117,000 to $191,000.

People in the TRS pension system typically recoup their lifetime pension contributions in the first 1 – 2 years of retirement; CHSD 155 hikes end of career salaries to hike the pension; CHSD 155 has pension pickups so the school district / taxpayers pay a portion or all of the employee pension contribution for some or all of the teachers and administrators.

Has any taxpayer watchdog looked at the collective bargaining agreement hikes for teachers and the administrative contract hikes for administrators from 1999 to present?

Highly doubtful or we would have been reading about it in the newspaper.

The only reason taxpayers woke up a little in CHSD 155 is because the school district didn’t fully consult with the village before erecting tall bleachers next to residential houses, and bleaches are very visible.

Well debt and spending may not be so visible to the naked eye but taxpayer pocketbooks will feel the effect in property tax and income tax and other tax hikes at some point to pay for this spending, but no one will take the blame, it was all legal they will say, that’s just uninformed people who don’t know what they are talking about they will say, not said but insinuated is pay us experts lots of money and we’ll tell you the truth, it was all public knowledge and done in a transparent way via board agendas and board meetings and board minutes they will say.

There are two CUSIP numbers to track bonds for CHSD 155 on the EMMA MSRB website: 580807, 451908, 451908.

Looking at that site.

http://www.emma.msrb.org > enter 580807 in “Quick Search” > click arrow in click search > under “Issue Description” click GENERAL OBLIGATION LIMITED SCHOOL BONDS, SERIES 2015 > click “Official Statement” > click “Official Statement posted 02/03/2015 (1.7 MB)”.

Ask the incumbents why they issued Official Statement posted 02/03/2015 $9,575,00 in non referendum bonds if they are spending the money as indicated above.

Can’t the Board reign in those salaries and spending?

Why did the Board take taxpayer money without a referendum?

When does the teacher collective bargaining agreement expire?

Let’s find the teacher collective bargaining agreement.

http://www.d155.org > Human Resources > Current Teachers Contract.

The term of the contract is July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2016.

Where are the previous collective bargaining agreement contracts?

Not posted. The district purposefully removes prior contracts forcing the public to ask for them.

Well, ask the contracts to be posted on the site someone.

Submit a FOIA request for an electronic copy of the collective bargaining agreements from 1999 to current, ask that the agreements be sent in a searchable format (not a non searchable image format).

In addition to the teacher union, CHSD 155 has other negotiated collective bargaining agreements with other public sector labor unions.

Here are all the public sector labor unions present in CHSD 155:

High School District 155 Education Association, IEA-NEA (Illinois Education Association – National Educaiton Association).

The teacher union has a PAC, School District No 155 Education Assn IPACE Fund, Illinois State Board of Elections committee ID 25361. To look up that ID, http://www.elections.state.il.us > committees > search options > committee search > committee ID: 25361 > Search > click on “School District No 155 Education Assn IPACE Fund.”

2nd public sector union in CHSD 155: Community High Education Support Staff (CHESS), IEA-NEA.

3rd public sector union in CHSD 155: Teamsters Local 731 (Bus Drivers).

Organized labor is just that, organized.

There are no organized taxpayers with the money and membership to even remotely match that of the public sector unions in the district.

The current board doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job of watching the cookie jar as costs are increasing and they issued $9.5M in non-referendum bonds in 2015.

The administration whom is the employer and the board are supposed to negotiate with the public sector unions to watch out for the taxpayer, but the administration benefits from the same taxpayers and has to deal with all the public sector collective bargaining rights and laws in Illinois and worry about the threat of a strike, especially in the case of the teachers.

How much scrutiny and press was there over the issuance of the $9.5M in non-referendum bonds?

Here is another example of terrible transparency by Crystal Lake High School District 155.

The required posting of employees with compensation over $75,000 whom contribute to the IMRF pension fund is supposed to be posted on the district website.

Such employees are not teachers and administrators.

Here is the exact wording of part of that law, which is Public Act 97-0609 (PA 97-0609):

“Within 6 business days after an employer participating in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund approves a budget, that employer must post on its website the total compensation package for each employee having a total compensation package that exceeds $75,000 per year.”

How does CHSD 155 do in following that law:

Let’s look.

http://www.d155.org > Human Resources > Salary > P.A. 97-0609

What does the CHSD 155 website say under that path?

“​P.A. 97-0609. The data of P.A. 97-0609 is posted in District 155’s Human Resources Office and may be viewed in the office.”

Nice transparency.

What would the district likely say?

Oh there are so many unfunded mandates it’s hard for us to keep up with them all.

Or whatever, there’s always an excuse for the monopoly and no recourse for taxpayers other than taxpayers asking the monopoly to post the state mandated report on the monopoly website which apparently no one has done because I’ve written about this very topic previously.

And we could go on and on but there’s no pay in doing so.

Janna keep up the great work!

You are a inspiration to many at just a young age the future is going to be very bright for you !!

Kurtz, Guss and Blazier are a better bet.