Claims information withheld in Dist. 15

At the District 15 school board meeting on Feb. 25, the thorny issue of board member access to the district's financial information reared its ugly head.

Once again, board member Tim Millar found himself being denied information from the district, this time by a business administration official, with the apparent complicity of board President Gerald Chapman. Mr. Chapman, to the obvious surprise of Kelly Keenan and Tim Millar, pulled an attorney out of the audience to deliver the legal opinion that an individual board member has no right to obtain any information from the district, and only a majority of board members have the right to request information from the district.

This spurious legal conclusion flies in the face of common sense, not to mention the law as understood by our own Attorney General. Lisa Madigan has gone on record to combat the practice of government entities disallowing elected public officials the very information that they need in order to fulfill the duties of their office. One can easily see how such a practice makes a minority board member ineffective in the face of an overbearing majority, or an overreaching board president, for that matter.

The information being withheld is important to every individual board member, as it pertains to the district's budget, and it is a board member's responsibility to understand the budget and to vote on it accordingly.

In the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, it is unconscionable that board members and administrators would play games with our hard-earned tax dollars, treating our money as if it were their own personal pot of gold.

Now more than ever, individual school board members and the public deserve absolute transparency regarding the district's finances. We can't afford any surprises in the budget, and board members need to understand that the district's budget will not be balanced on the back of the taxpayers of Palatine Township.

Mary E. Vanek

Palatine