Prairie Crossing board members fail to remove treasurer

Four Prairie Crossing Charter School board members failed in an effort to remove one of their colleagues as treasurer.

Board member and treasurer Laura Elizabeth Fay was the target. She and three supporters blocked the attempt to knock her out of the financial post in a 4-4 vote early Wednesday.

Fay said part of her problems stem from a report in the last academic year when she wrote Prairie Crossing Charter School had a "precarious cash flow." She said one board member told her that was opinion and not fact.

Heading into the school year that starts in mid-August, Fay said, Prairie Crossing is on pace for a $9,000 deficit.

"People should know if we have financial trouble," she said. "They have a right to know."

Board President Linda Wiens, who opposes Fay, said the school board treasurer is supposed to provide oversight of finances at a high level of governance. Wiens said Fay has been overstepping her bounds.

"The treasurer is not to get involved in management issues," she said.

Prairie Crossing is a public school that takes in students from Woodland Elementary District 50 and Fremont Elementary District 79, although parents of children from elsewhere may pay out-of-area tuition. It's projected the school will have 366 students for the next academic year.

Fay also issued a six-page statement denying, among other things, that she's had keys to the charter school's administration building. She also contends the Prairie Crossing board has had "chronic" violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.