Angry couple goes after Dist. 158 board

After watching their elected school board members trade accusations and engage in public name-calling in recent months, two Huntley Unit District 158 watchers have had enough.

Paul and Jennifer Troy, a Lake in the Hills couple who routinely attend District 158 meetings, are mounting a campaign via e-mail and blogs to express their frustration with the board.

Board meetings have been acrimonious for months, but things have gotten worse since a Nov. 13 meeting where one board member allegedly threatened another and where it was revealed that a board member filed a police complaint about an incident at a meeting.

Paul Troy was at that meeting. He was one of four district residents who applied for the seat Jim Carlin resigned in October. Troy lost out to former board President Mike Skala.

Troy also is a small part of the controversy stemming from that meeting. Board members Larry Snow and Aileen Seedorf accused three colleagues of announcing their intent to appoint Skala during closed-session deliberations.

According to Snow and Seedorf, the other candidates -- including Troy -- were not given a fair shake, a charge the rest of the board denies.

The Troys said they hope to get other District 158 residents who are fed up with the infighting to voice their displeasure at the board's Dec. 20 meeting.

"These actions have taken focus off their purpose of educating our children. It is time for this to stop," reads an e-mail from the Troys, also posted on the Web site www.huntleyneighbors.com.

The e-mail was sent out to dozens of residents, including former school board members.

The Troys declined to elaborate on their e-mail.

Board members said they understood residents' frustration and welcomed their feedback, but differed on who bears the blame for the board's inability at times to get along.

"They're not happy that it's become too much about the individual members instead of education," board Vice President Tony Quagliano said. "There's a little bit of blame to go around for everybody, including myself."

But Quagliano also assigned most of the blame to Snow.

"If he was not on the board, board members would not be having the issues they're having with each other," Quagliano said.

Snow suggested half-jokingly that Paul Troy is using discontent with the school board to further his bid for a seat on the board -- much as Snow did prior to getting elected in 2005.

"I guess he's running for his next school board election a year and a half early," Snow said.

Snow responded to Quagliano's charge by accusing the board vice president of playing politics.

"It's an embarrassment that Tony is playing the political blame game, and it doesn't deserve a reply," Snow said.