From My Puppy Pulpit

Could District 158 be Headed in the Same Direction as Cary’s District 26?

Bongo was at the groomer the other day and overheard some other K-9s talking about how disappointed they were with the board of education in Cary’s District 26. For those who aren’t familiar with the goings on in Cary’s elementary district, that school board was taken over a few years ago by a hard line group of individuals who campaigned on a platform of no new taxes regardless of the need, and living within their means no matter what. Referendum is a bad word in Cary.

Bongo hates taxes and thinks they are high. But it appears that this group, who places the tax bill ahead of the school district’s needs, is driving that district right into the doggy dumper. The people at the salon spoke of high class sizes, questionable fiscal management, micromanagement by the board, and fears that the state would come in and take control of the budget by cutting programs for kids. Frankly, it made me happy that I live in Huntley.

Then I opened my Northwest Herald to see that District 26 earned the top spot on the local news page. “D-26 Faces Looming Deficit,” it read. My first reaction was relief that the big dogs at the Northwest Herald were finally picking on someone other than Huntley for a change. Then Bongo made the connection between Cary’s District 26 and Huntley’s District 158 that made my tail stop wagging and my fur stand on end.

The key players in District 26 are friends of Larry Snow’s. Don't believe me? Check out blogs and see how often D 26's Chris Jenner comes to the defense of Larry Snow. They ran their slate of candidates at the same time that Larry initially tried to run a slate to take over the District 158 board. Cary’s slate was successful and Larry Snow’s was not. In Cary, there was a mass exodus of administrators and other staff. Many original school board members also quit. Their top leadership is now two interim superintendents and an inexperienced CFO. They are running a deficit budget and don’t seem too concerned about a state takeover. They also don’t seem to have a problem with 28 kids in a first grade classroom. District 158 has first grade class sizes of about 22-23.

This new Cary board, which subscribes to the Larry Snow school of how districts should be run, has managed to turn a $750,000 budget surplus into a projected -$335,000 deficit in short order. They have to engage in expensive short term borrowing every year because they do not have an adequate fund balance to handle cash flow issues. The fine people of Cary can look for more budget cuts and probably even higher class sizes next year. And they have their school board to thank for it.

Aren’t you glad you live in a school community with a healthy fund balance, good class sizes and board members (five of them anyway) who have education as their top priority?

Yup, I’m glad I live in Huntley. I just hope the voters in District 158 never allow a Snow-controlled school board to do to our schools what the current board in Cary is doing to theirs. The 2009 school board elections in D-158, where five seats are to be filled, will be very important.

As always, Bongo welcomes your comments to this story.