I'm trying to think of a time when I've made the same mistake FIVE times in a row and was able to simply claim human error and move on. One or two times is human error. Five times without correcting the issue is either negligence or just plain incompetence.

Odd. One would think that if you had technical difficulty/human error a time or two that you would be darn certain it was working on times three, four & five. They definitely do not appear to be helping themselves with their image - human error or not. Start paying attention, board members. You can only expect so much support in the face of so much nonsense - no matter the ultimate cause.

Once or twice I could also accept. EVERY meeting in April? The people of Oswego are not that stupid or gullible to fall for that excuse.

Now that 3 of us have said that, I'm waiting for someone who posted on the last Patch article to speak up and say "They are human; they have families; they dedicate their time ... blah blah blah". Guess what? I'm human, I have a family, I dedicate my time to various things ...I typically don't do something against specific regulation/rules FIVE times in a row.

What I find Ironic is that the person asking for the current leadership to step down and have more senior board members step in, is that none of the senior members of the board didn't speak up to say, Hey wait, are the recording devices working or not.

Now, I'm not happy either that this took place but remember the ENTIRE board will be held accountable, not just specific members. You as a member have the right to walk out if you feel it's not being done properly and not one did.

Completely unacceptable lies. The only human error here is Walsh believing we're stupid enough to buy into this line of bull. Not recording the meetings was nothing short of their attempt to hide the process from the public.

I should clarify and say..It's appears not one did. Sorry for the confusion.

I would think that part of the process would be to possibly review the tape recording at the next meeting to make sure that it recorded properly. I'm not talking about going through the entire tape, but quickly fast forwarding through it to make sure that the audio is on it for the length of time that was expected.

These violations of the open meetings act seem to occur too often in Kendall County. It's about time that Eric Weiss gets replaced because he never goes after the violators.

Same with the Kendall County board member who lied about her residency, the board members who were illegally getting paid for meetings that didn't qualify under the rules.

So long as we have a State's Attorney who doesn't prosecute people then things like this will continue to occur.

Though I don't think the vast majority of people care too much about this - what people do care about are their taxes. And despite the assessed value of my property declining (though the assessment is still ridiculous), I am pleased to once again see that my property tax bill has again increased. About $7500 on a house that wouldn't sell for $200K.

If only there were a way out of this town...*sigh*

If I let something like that happen 5 times in a row at my job, I would be fired!!! WOW! They really believe we are that stupid!!

Give credit to Eric Weis, the Kendall County State's Attorney, as he predicted a possible violation early on with all these sub-committees Mr. Walsh demanded. I suspect his response to this mess won't be a surprise as Mr. Weis has always come down on the side of the law, not this Boards' wishes (ex. Boundary Committee).

<blockquote> Like other recent closed meetings, no members of the district’s administration were present for the interviews.</blockquote>
Really, you know if I was looking for someone to fill a role, I might want input and would have someone in a similar role asking questions as well as getting their opinions about the candidates as well.

Sally I'm gone! Life long resident who can no longer afford to stay. I'm all for education but I must also live within my means which certainly hasn't been the case with our past and current BOE's. You watch, this district will go bankrupt and then the real problems will start.

Everyone asking why the top 3 are leaving might want to take a look at the agreement made with the last referendum. We were promised that the tax rate would stay the same, it's gone up by how much the last 2 yrs. We are adding on to the H.S 's and hiring above leaving salaries, where do you see your taxes going then. They will be driven so far up that only a select few will be able to afford to live here.

It sure is the year of suprises isn't it

Think your taxes are high now, if the Governor and state democrats have their way, the local taxpayers will have to start making the pension payments at the local level. They are debating this issue right now. The morons that made these unrealistic promises in return for votes have bankrupt the state and the pensions system. The easy way out, force the payments on local taxpayers through property tax increases. Public education just does not work, at least the way Illinois does it. I'm with you Walt, get out of here and leave this mess, can't afford their idea of public education anymore, no end to what they think is a fair amount of taxes, mine have doubled in 12 years. I have made my last investment in anything Illinois, will be leaving at the next good opportunity, you can't beat the tax and spenders in a blue state. I'll have a lot of company on my way out, 30% of Illinois businesses are looking to relocate somewhere else. You can make money here, but you can't keep any of it, have to make sure someone else gets good health and retirement benefits before your own family does.

The human error was voting this board into office.

I just got my 2011 tax bill and fell off the chair it went up $625.00 for schools and last year was $908.00. I am done with this. There is a board meeting Monday May 7, 2012 at 7:00 I intend to be there and give them a piece of my mind. This is the most disrespectful arrogant act I have seen of late. Who do these people think they are to treat taxpayers like this. They can just decide to charge you more and we have to pay!!!!!! There is something fundamentally wrong with this system. The rate in 308 is 6.6317 the rate for 202 Plainfield is 5.2705 which is way below Oswego last year of 5.8245. It is time to fight for ourselves or we will lose our homes. I am going to contact the Will county state's attorney about the open meetings and the tax increases since I live in Will County. THese have been 14% per year. Please join me and lets do something to stop this.

Judi vogt happyspa1@yahoo.com

One more thing to add. My school taxes are $7,073 for 2011 and were 6448 in 2010 and 5540 in 2009. And yes my property value finally decreased $4000 in the assessed value this past year. I was hoping to save a couple hundred maybe. This is outrageous.

Didn't the Village bring economic development in-house?

The various munis in the District (Oswego, Aurora, Plainfield, Joliet) need to charge appropriate impact fees on new housing. The financial situation gets worse with every new student. Have the new residents actually pay for the impact that they are creating. I have no idea why the Oswego School District ever opted for branch out into so many communities.

If the bonds to build the third high school were approved for sale, our property taxes will be higher than our current ones. I want to thank the board for their correct decision which I believe couple administrators are reluctantly also seeing as the correct decision.

Dr. O'Donnell has given his resignation. He is leaving us. I can not imagine in any corporate setting where the board of directors will give the outgoing CEO the authority to hire the executive team that he will leave behind.

Didn't get my tax bill in the mail yet, but just checked online. An increase of $430 even though my house is probably only worth around what we built it for 16 years ago. There is no more blood to give in this turnip ....

The blame on the higher property taxes should go to the past board members who approved all the spending, not the current board who stopped the building of the third high school. Regarding the salary of Asst Superintendent of Business, please see his contract on the Patch article http://oswego.patch.com/articles/district-308-hires-new-finance-chief, for how he will save our district money. I have asked Steven Jack to please FOIA and post the employment contract of Mr. Neubauer. I would like to ask residents to click on the PDF file of Mr. O'Malley's contract above. Page 3, line10 outlines his Performance Based Goals. Line item E says that Mr. O'Malley will reduce the expense of third party firms by 50%. I believe Mr. Neubauer utilized the services of PMA on many occasions. If Mr. O'Malley can save us any amount over $40,000, he has more than justified his salary, and in that event, we should thank the board for saving the district money in addition to bringing in a highly qualified candidate. If his initiative of reducing those expenses by 50% is any indication, I am looking forward to other savings he can help our district with. It would be interesting to FOIA how much our district has paid PMA and other third party firms.

I believe residents should thank the board for the service and sacrifice to their community.

I have previously stated that I oppose using search firms for furnishing candidates because they have no responsibility or loyalty to the public body and will always post the highest salary they believe the public body will pay. I do not approve of the salary offered to the new Asst. Supt. for Finance and my opinion is the board made a mistake in offering a salary more than the current salary; however, the board has been fiscally responsible on the much larger issue of not building a third High School which saved a minimum of $78 million over the next 5 years. Those blaming the current board for the tax increase ignore the facts that the majority of the tax increase is a result of previous boards approving building schools, betting on an ever increasing Equalized Assessed Evaluation which stopped increasing in 2009. Only approximately .16% of the 1.59% tax increase in the last two years is a result of the bonding for the HS additions. The petition asking the BOE officers to step down and replacing them with board members, who were on previous boards that voted for the spending that increased taxes the most, makes no sense. Mr. Behrens is a board member who voted for every building project. The complaint that personnel interviews are being held in closed session is without merit because personnel issues are an exception to the Illinois Open Meeting Act and all previous personnel interviews for administrative positions have been in closed session.

Many of the critics of the current board are the same individuals who were very vocal in demanding the third high school and now complain about taxes. Suggesting that a Superintendent who has resigned participate in selecting new central administration administrators is illogical. No company or business would allow a CEO who resigns to make decisions on staff for the next CEO. It is unfortunate that Dr. O’Donnell did not relate his decision to resign earlier so that the board could have began a search and have the new Superintendent on board to help in hiring other administrators.
I agree with Jill Ko, who has taken the high road in stating that the BOE has shown extraordinary dedication, time and effort in attempting to solve the many problems dealt them. For those who use monikers, pseudonyms or partial names, your comments should not be taken seriously. I don’t think the our country’s founders who developed The Constitution and The Bill of Rights ever thought that freedom of speech would be used by anyone who would not use their lawful name.

Lee, I appreciate your opinions and comments. If the BOE was interviewing or discussing a possible new employee then it would have been okay to do this in private? Do they still need to record that meeting or no because it's regarding personnel? Sorry for questions that might seem ignorant but I'm at my wits end trying to make heads and tails out of this one.

I agree that the last BOE spent like fools. Yes we had the kids coming but I think we let the cart get ahead of the horse. I'm all for education but it needs to be done within our means. I've always been able to pay my bills and patronize the businesses but the taxes are killing me. $400.00 this year $800.00 next, when does it end. I can't continue and have no choice but to walk away. Thanks for your time and ear!

Robyn, Enjoyed meeting you after the BOE meeting Mon. You point regarding the authors of the Federalist Papers is correct; however, since there were three authors we don't know if all three or the publishers made the decision to use Publius as the author. I will conseed that it is an example of using a pseudonym.

Walt, All closed meetings are required to be recorded by the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, (IFOIA). There is little to be gained by recording personnel interview if there is no action taken but the requirement still exists. You seem to realize that the tax increases we are now seeing are a result of the overly optimistic revenue projections, (that did not materialize), which was required to support the building and operation of the many schools built. This year 27% of the school tax is for bond and interest and is 1.81 of the 6.67 tax rate. Bond and Interest is not a capped by the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, PTELLL, which explains why the tax rate is more than 5.00%. I sympathize with everyone having difficulty because of these taxes. Give me a call I would enjoy talking with you.

On the subject of 5 meetings without proper recording devices, the school district has a LARGE staff that works on computers and other technical divices. Their job is to keep these things operating. After the first failure, where was the phone call, e-mail or whatever to get the thing up and running. The main thought is that there should not have been any more closed door sessions until the recorder was back on line. Common sense!!!!