Dist. 158 board member grills staff over incident

Tempers flared in the Huntley Unit District 158 board room Thursday when a board member asked about a recent incident in which a transportation employee in the district received an electric shock.

On the afternoon of Feb. 19, a District 158 bus driver was shocked while plugging a bus block-heater cord into an extension cord, according to a report by district's operations staff.

Board member Larry Snow suggested Thursday a district employee tampered with equipment involved in the incident after the fact.

"Was the equipment … modified after the incident by one of our employees?" Snow asked.

No one answered, but the other board members and district officials grew irritated at Snow's line of questioning.

"You're asking questions you obviously know the answer to … so why are we doing this?" Superintendent John Burkey said.

Snow said he had heard information about the incident from people who attended an emergency meeting of transportation employees but was looking for official confirmation.

Snow also criticized the report district officials prepared for Thursday's building committee meeting as incomplete.

"There would appear to be details that are missing," Snow said.

Burkey said this was by design.

"It's a summary. Of course there's details that aren't in there," Burkey said.

The district has hired a forensic engineer to investigate the incident and propose procedures to prevent future incidents of the same nature.

Burkey said the engineer's report would have many of the answers Snow seeks.

But Snow continued to press Burkey and district staff for answers to specific questions about the incident and the district's response.

After a few minutes of heated debate, board member and building committee chairman Kevin Gentry ended the discussion.

"Stop. We'll take this in closed session," he said.