Resident Sends E-mail Begging for Board Cooperation with New Finance Leader

One of Bongo's fans directed him to the Huntley Neighbors site so that he could read an e-mail sent to the Board of Education by resident Mike Luecht. Remember, this is the human who in December of 2007 took out the full page ad in the Northwest Herald regarding his opinion about who was responsible for the chaos on the D 158 board.

Evidently, Luecht had written the comments with the intention of reading the statement during public comment last night, but he had to go out of town on business. So, he sent the e-mail to all seven school board members.

Board member Kim Skaja received Luecht's permission to share the e-mail with HN.

Here is the text of the letter:


I was planning on making a public comment at this Thursday's board
meeting. I unfortunately now will miss the meeting due to being out of
town. Since it is my preference to say this sooner than later, I am
going to have to do it via email.

I am very glad to see that the financial executive position at District
158 has been filled. This position's vacancy went on too long for an
entity the size of D-158.

A few of my thoughts as a backdrop to the purpose of this email.

I was deeply bothered by the resignation of Ms. Talbert. In
the ad I took out in the Northwest Herald in December 2007 where I
referenced the obstructionist behavior of certain board members, meaning
Mr. Snow and Ms. Seedorf, I wrote "If things do not get better, D158
runs the risk of losing the new key figures in the administration....."
I did not think something would occur within a week from when the ad
ran.

I have found it very interesting over the last year to listen
to various commentary about why Ms. Talbert resigned. Here is what I
know to be true. She resigned first and foremost due to the behavior of
Mr. Snow and Ms. Seedorf. Her comments in the newspapers at the time
substantiate that. Yet I know it even more intimately as she and I had
2-3 hours of private conversations after her resignation while she
continued to vacillate about her decision. While our discussions need
to remain confidential as it related to her career planning, etc., what
no one will ever change my mind is why she left the district. On top of
that, I will never forget the hypocrisy displayed at the meeting when
the "good-byes" were said to her.

As it relates to the new hire, I was beginning to sense that
the final candidates were being reviewed and a new person would be
announced soon, I said to my wife one day, "no matter who gets the
position, I will guarantee you that there will be two dissenting votes".
Now, I have no problem with votes that follow the heart and a no vote is
a person's right, I just find it comical that my prediction was such an
easy layup. I also said to her, "if the Michael Jordan of CFO's got the
position, there would still be two dissenting votes so that they can
protect themselves politically".

So with those thoughts, here is the main purpose of this email.

A new person has been hired. Mr. Snow, when I watch you in the
meetings, it is obvious to me how competent you are when it comes to the
business intricacies of the school district. But as someone who
represents me and everyone else in the district, we also need leadership
from you. So even if you did not agree with this hire, the fact is a
leader would wake up the next day and say to himself, "OK, didn't win
that one, now what can I do to make sure that the new person is a
success?" That type of thinking is what the district needs, not
politics and obstruction.

Mr. Snow, when you were grilling the new hire at the Finance Committee
last week to see if he read the audit report, it was so predictable.
When you said to the Daily Herald that the new hire reminded you of a
past CFO, which was clearly made in an inflammatory way, it was so
predictable. How cool it would have been if I read "I did not vote for
him which was my right, but I will share with him my knowledge and make
myself available to get him up and going because the district's success
is where my focus is".

Mr. Snow, please and for the sake of the district, go out of your way to
help this new person have every chance to succeed. I have no idea if
this is the right person for the job, time will tell. But the person
will not have a chance if the administration and the board do not rally
around him which of course gives the team the best chance of winning.
And the person who has made himself most critical in that is you. Mr.
Snow, setting folks up to fail is easy. How about aiming higher on this
issue and help someone succeed?

Finally, if you would ever like to have a private discussion with me
about any of this, please feel free to call. I am not a big fan of
communicating like this but I needed to share my views this week. I
have sent this just to the board and Dr. Burkey and will not pass it
along to anybody else. To all of you, and I mean all of you, thank you
for the time and effort you put into the board.

Four paws up to Mr. Luecht for expressing his opinion and for allowing Mrs. Skaja to reproduce the e-mail for others to see.