District 15 incumbents made bad decisions

After reviewing all the editorials supporting the existing board candidates Ms. Babcock, Mr. Chapman and Mr. Ekeberg, I find it very disturbing they still have community support after what they have done as past board members.

Several elections ago, Mr. Chapman was the president of District 15 and was voted out. Most recently he was appointed by the regional superintendent to replace a board member that suddenly died. Now he's running for the board again. Mr. Ekeberg and Ms. Babcock were also members on that same board.

Most recently, these same members voted on an unprecedented 10-year teacher salary contract that was negotiated by a newly appointed human resource person who is an ex-teacher's union member. How convenient!

The board voted to approve that contract from an outline, without ever reading the details.

After that, the administration proposed a $130 million bond referendum to build two new schools and tear down one of the oldest schools, while swapping properties with the Palatine Park District. After studying the proposal for less than 20 minutes, the board put the referendum on the ballot last November. The referendum posed a lot of unanswered questions regarding how the funds were going to be spent, what were the redistricting and transportation issues and what was the estimated cost to the taxpayers going to be. All of this without any community involvement or agreement from the park district on the land swap.

I think it's time to say no to these "rubber stamping" board members and elect some fresh people that want to get the community involved in addressing issues facing the school district. I recommend voting for Frank Annerino, Mike Smolka, Anthony Wang, Lisa Szczupaj and Barb Kain.

Ed Richter

Palatine