The D99 published meeting minutes for 7/20 (that were approved on 8/15) contain factual errors that would have been prevented with an accurate recording or verbatim minutes record of the meeting.
-There was not a first public Reception of Visitors (listed as item 4. on the minutes). Board President Julia Beckman asked the public to hold their comments for the second Reception of Visitors, which we were then denied when that was cut short. There were plenty of visitors at that time.
-Item 22 of the record indicates a unanimous 6-0 voice vote to end the meeting, which cannot be the case. After the meeting abruptly ended, both Member Bill White and Member Deborah Boyle said, in the presence of myself, several residents and each other, that they did not participate in the voice vote that ended the meeting. If that is the case, there could have only been 4 Yea votes and 0 Nay votes of the six board members present.
The 7/20 minutes were not up the day of the 8/15 meeting, so there was no public opportunity to ask for those corrections to an incorrect public record. The same could happen at the next meeting, and the same may have happened at any number of past meetings. In this case, the BOE is failing to fulfill its elected duty to leave an accurate record of their actions. How long has this been going on?
Three weeks after the 8/15 meeting, those 8/15 minutes are not up and viewable to the public, yet they are scheduled to be approved at the 9/14 meeting. This pattern of purposefully avoiding public scrutiny on even such a meager matter of being timely in fulfilling this board and administration obligation to the public serves as another example of a general failure of transparency, honesty and common sense in even the most routine matters.
“Minutes..what minutes?? we don’t need no stinkin minutes”
Now you know why they didn’t want the meetings taped…This board has had trouble accepting “checks and balances” for many years. Why this is all just coming to light now is puzzling….
I have another observation. The BOE continues to post on the website and state in their meetings that Dist. 99 is “one of few” and one of less than 5% of School Districts in the State to have a balanced budget for 2009-2010. Where do they get that information. A quick view of websites of local disrticts show balance budgets in 66, 68, 58, Hinsdale H.S. and Grade school, 203,204,etc. As I have pointed out many times this School year is not as much of a problem to balance the budget as 2010-2011 will be. Tax cap for this years revenue was 4.1% ( we always pay in arears), but next year will be .001%. How will they balance next year when their biggest revenue source (local property tax) will show no real increase?
There must have been a different meeting on 7/20 than the one I attended.
In addition to the above comments iut should be noted that President Beckman called for a motion to adjourn after Member Schroeder slammed her hand on the desk, jumped up from her chair and started to rush towards me shaking her finger and yelling something which the sensors will not let me repeat on this blog.
Interesting how the minutes failed to mention anything about member Schroeder’s actions.
For the record I have received no response from President Beckman or the Board regarding the inaccurate statements President Beckman made to multiple press outlets regarding the meeting and me personnaly.
It would appear as though certain members of the D99 Board feel they are above the law and can manipulate the past in any way they wish.
Sad situation considering these individuals establish policy for our children.
I would like to point out that I have often found fault with our Dist. 99 Board, yet I am slim and attractive.
People, Sigmund must be part of the “establishment” of D99. Why else would you want to defray the argument at hand…abusing minutes at a high school board meeting- and start attacking someone’s physical being….
Its because you have your own, now apparent, frailties..Frailties and weaknesses of leadership that are now VERY exposed. Yes, you hid them quite well for all these years, keeping your meetings from being broadcast ed and video taped…But no longer can the Rules of Order be bastardized… No longer can the behind the scenes shenanigans be hidden. We have you on tape, and a whole army of hired attorney’s can’t stop the truth from coming out.
Anyone notice that Beckman and Schroeder were pretty mouthy all during the election, but when it comes to explaining themselves and their board actions, crickets can be heard chirping?
To the one-time poster Sigmund and your personal attack on a private resident of DG: How typical.
I’ve taken down the comment from “Sigmund” and have asked Thoman to reconsider his response, which he has.
I’ll have more to say about this later.