Palatine Dist. 15 board members boycott portrait for good governance award
Three Palatine Township Elementary School District 15 board members have refused to join a group picture celebrating an award for good governance — a boycott the panel's president said “borders on being petty.”
Only 18 school boards in the state received the Illinois Association of School Boards honor for the 2014 school year.
All seven elected members were told in advance to gather for a picture Wednesday night at the board meeting. The portrait will be displayed at a high-profile venue for state educators: a joint conference of the Illinois Assocation of School Administrators and the Illinois Association of School Business Officials in Chicago Nov. 21-23.
District 15 board members Gerard Iannuzzelli, Manjula Sriram and Scott Herr were noticeably absent from the photo op.
“It's very disappointing. Those seven board members are supposed to work together for the benefit of the community,” Superintendent Scott Thompson said Thursday. “I would really like to see them more unified instead of having these differences. For me, if we focused on the kids, I think we could really do a lot more good.”
Herr said he declined to participate because he thinks the board hasn't modeled effective governing.
“It was really against my principles to accept an award we didn't deserve,” Herr said.
He said the board hasn't worked collaboratively on long-term goals and budgeting in recent months. He pointed to a lack of “interactive discussions” in an email ahead of the meeting to Thompson and board President Peggy Babcock.
He also said he didn't want to make a public issue out of his decision but felt compelled to when Thompson highlighted the award during a board meeting this week.
Sriram said she was blindsided by the honor and said the full board shoud have been involved in the application.
“I got your point, but I feel it borders on being petty,” Babcock said.
Thompson said administrators regularly vie for such accolades on behalf of the district without every board member's input. An example? The application for the Illinois Policy Institute's Sunshine Award, which the district snagged this spring.
In this case, Tim Waldorf, a writer for the district, compiled the application, a “generic form,” Babcock said.
The association looked for school boards that conduct a self evaluation and superintendent review, among other factors officials say.
“This recognition is designed to acknowledge those school boards that have engaged in activities and modeled behaviors that lead to excellence in local governance in support of quality public education,” IASB executive director Roger Eddy wrote in a letter to Babcock.