Lessons Learned from the School Board — the Hard Way.
“Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?” Voltaire
Prologue
Consider this hypothetical scenario: Your local School Board became aware of possible wrongdoing and criminal activity within the leadership ranks of the school administration — the superintendent of the administration provided the School Board with abundant documentation about alleged misconduct by a certain principal and a couple of assistant principals. The local State's Attorney serves a Grand Jury Subpoena on the School Board requiring information to document the facts. The School Board declines to provide the documents, replying to the State's Attorney through an attorney that, regardless of laws that may have been violated, from the Board's perspective, it was "no foul, no harm." The School Board declines to provide documents responsive to the subpoena. Meanwhile, some or all members of the School Board, officially or unofficially, provide the alleged wrongdoers with letters of recommendation, so these administrators can be hired by other fine school districts.
As a resident of the community, you learn from the newspaper that the School Board has just terminated the Superintendent’s contract because he was creating a “toxic work environment” causing some administrators to leave the district. The School Board provided the Superintendent with a substantial severance (more of your tax money not going into education) and sent him off with a seriously, if not irreparably, muddied reputation. The School Board apparently never mentioned to the newspaper reporter anything about the Grand Jury Subpoena or the results of an independent, third-party investigation that had revealed alleged misconduct by the administrators that happened on their way out of the school district’s doors. Indeed, you still don’t know if the School Board terminated those administrators or if they left voluntarily.
As a resident of your community, do you care? What information do you think a School Board needs to share with parents and the greater community? Are you entitled to know about misconduct of superintendents, principals, and assistant principals?
Regardless of your answer to my question — do you care? — I hope you will read the entire report. If you answered “no”, perhaps you will learn why you should care, as well as how to care, the questions to ask, and how to develop a system that encourages everyone to do their best. Also, this report is intended to be relevant to the reader, wherever you live. Highland Park and Deerfield are great communities, comprised of many wonderful, intelligent, giving and caring people. We are community that puts signs up that say “Character Counts.” Whatever happened here could just as easily have happened in your own community. It happens wherever people do not hold their local public officials accountable, where they vote for friends and friends of friends but they don't really follow up on performance of the elected officials.
That is one of the first lessons learned from our School Board — hold your local elected officials accountable even if they are your friends or friends of friends.
Background
Since 2008, this blog has been dedicated to the residents of the City of Highland Park, Illinois, my hometown – “HP”. The impetus to start the blog was an issue, yet to be resolved equitably or satisfactorily, about the City Council that coerced 47 residents, many of whom were retirees, in certain neighborhoods to pay in the aggregate nearly $240,000 for sanitary sewer lining arising from the City’s infrastructure problems. That initial complaint led to other blog posts, mostly because people contacted me for help.
In the interest of full disclosure, your blogger is a practicing corporate lawyer and recently retired adjunct professor of law of legal ethics and professional responsibilities. This blog is completely independent of those endeavors. When it comes to complaints about the City of Highland Park, District 113, District 112, and the Park District, I am just a concerned resident in this community.
Years
after the initial blog entry, a trio of residents called and asked for
assistance. They said there was a problem with District 113 – HPHS and DHS — that the treasurer of the schools had issued "Petty
Cash" checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars and that these ginormous checks were cashed at a local bank and were carried out small
bills. This was unbelievable. Petty cash is for petty sums. Surely no one with an accounting
background would write out a check like that. Surely not the treasurer of District 113. In disbelief, I could only reply to the trio, "I don't have time to research this for you. Prove it
to me first and if it is true, I'll work with you." They did prove it to me by
delivering the documentation. I have great respect for this trio as they really were dedicated to protecting our school system.
Ultimately, in 2018, this blog detailed how more than $1,013,000 was handled in cash – bags o’ bills —with several individual “petty cash” checks issued for six-figure sums — one nearly $350,000. This blog documented the mismanagement of funds, as well as the lack of oversight by the School Board. No one was held accountable. The story was further published with the headline Cash & Carry: $1.013 Million in Paper Bills in the local Patch.
As with the Whistleblower Letter discussed later, the community was unaware
that the Lake County State's Attorney (LCSA), Michael G. Nerheim at that time, had conducted a criminal
investigation. However, the School Board knew. The LCSA had worked on the matter long before I contacted them. I don't know who initially reported the petty cash problem to the LCSA but the States Attorney’s
office believed they couldn't successfully pursue the matter because it is difficult to trace cash. Additionally, it seems they had previously chalked the whole problem up to the fact that a lot of schools don't manage their money well. Maggie McPhee (of blessed memory) was a member of the trio who had reported the matter to me, and we went together to the first meeting with the LCSA's office to disclose the information we had. The LCSA they told us that the statute of limitations had already
passed and they could not reopen the matter, even with additional compelling documentation.
In general, and for many reasons, writing this blog is the last thing in the
world I want to do. It takes a lot of time to research facts and work with
the authorities. Worse yet, even when the community is informed, residents do not seem to care, at least it not with their ballots. The same people tend to be re-elected, even when mismanagement rises to dereliction of
duties.
Why post this blog now? Recently, in a Facebook group, “Highland Park/Deerfield High Schools Sounding Board”, a resident posted a news report about a current case in Northern District of
Illinois Federal Court stating that an ex-Highland Park assistant high school principal tries to
continue suit against District 113 over alleged retaliation for aiding an
investigation. I immediately recognized that the case was, in part, based on the facts I had received in a whistleblower letter. The facts are still relevant.
The resident posted in her Facebook comment: “I’m now starting to get curious what other things are being
hidden…but the way this seems, there were a lot of people involved in this
cover-up. I’m very disappointed and concerned.” She wondered what she is missing, what is being hidden, and she deserves to know the answer — lots! This new blog report
is dedicated to her.
Links to all chapters of this report:
Chapter FourChapter Five
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