I have been contacted by many voters in the area asking questions as to why I am running for School Board. I believe the information below will answer those questions.
                                                                  
In the early years of our marriage, my wife and I with our son Joey bought our first home. We could not afford to live where we wanted to live; instead, we bought in Round Lake Beach.

As you know, the RLB schools have had their issues. In part due to those issues we decided to exercise our Freedom of Choice and homeschool our children. After a few years, the RLB schools became so bad that there were warnings that the State of Illinois would come in and take over the school system. We decided that it was time to move to where we actually wanted to live, not just where we could afford.

We had been attending the Church of Holy Apostles in McHenry since 1998 and since we had many friends living in and around McHenry, we decided to move there. McHenry has that old-fashioned “Main Street USA” feel to it that my wife and I had hoped to raise our children in.

Unfortunately, within a few short years, the local school district once again seemed to take the joy out of our community. The divisive nature of the March 2006 referendum and the threats to eliminate programs, end “after hours” community access to school buildings and the rest of the threats and intimidation had a damaging effect on our community.

This time, rather than leave town, we decided to stay and fight for our community. While we are still homeschooling our children, the vast majority of our childrens’ friends, our friend’s children, and most of my Sunday School students attend District #15 schools and I feel that they deserve better than to be used as pawns by a school district which would have shortened the school day and sent these children into the streets, possibly without parental supervision if their parents could not adjust their work schedule, and would have eliminated the year-round schedule of our most successful school, Landmark School if it had not gotten its way with the referendum; and then to give our esteemed superintendent a pay raise of between 7.5% and 8% (depending on the source) after a hard-fought property tax increase further divided our community.

With that being said, School District #15 may have its issues, but it is still a good district. If the voters choose to elect me to the School Board, I want to help make it a great district.

I want to see the children of District #15 receive the best education possible while working to make sure that the School District “lives within its means” much like the parents and taxpayers of the district do.