The deep debt of Prairie Grove Elementary School 46 has been the topic of controversy on McHenry County Blog.
Here is how it started back in April:
On July 7th this was posted about Prairie Grove Grade School District 46 pointing to how the school board put taxpayers in debt without asking them:
Former Cary School Board President Scott Coffey added this debt issuance strategy can be adopted by any school district:
And an update on July 8th on how Governor JB Pritzker has made it even easier for school districts to borrow money, also from Scott Coffey:
The July 7th article prompted this July 9th rebuttal from a former Prairie Grove School Board President Joseph Ricciardi:
Now comes evidence of the accuracy of the first publication gathered by Prairie Grove Watchdog Terri Rybicki from official sources through Freedom of Information requests.
“This email serves as an official supplemental evidence addendum to the active complaint file regarding Prairie Grove Consolidated School District 46.
“Recent defenses by Interim Superintendent Dr. Joseph Bailey at the finance committee meeting and local commentators (such as Riccardi on the McHenry County Blog) have claimed that former Chief School Business Official (CSBO) Kevin Werner is entirely innocent of, and detached from, the district’s alternate revenue bond mechanics because he left office in June 2021 before final voting occurred.
“The attached official board resolution completely dismantles that defensive timeline.
“It proves that Werner’s direct financial management, audits, and calculations served as the mandatory legal foundation required to launch this entire bond structure.”
ALERT more FOIA’s dropped
The Paper Trail Doesn’t Lie: The Truth About the 2021 Prairie Grove D46 Bonds
Recent comments on local blogs and claims from committee members and past school board presidents have suggested that former CFO Kevin Werner had “nothing to do with” the Series 2021 Alternate Revenue Bonds because he left the district in June 2021, months before the final October vote.
As a community, we don’t need to guess.
We just have to look at the official, certified Board Resolutions.
The paperwork completely refutes that timeline defense.Here are the facts from the public record:
1. The Blueprint (April 21, 2021)-Internal email records show that while serving as active CFO, Werner explicitly mapped out a strategic blueprint to Superintendent Bute to access millions via Working Cash Fund Bonds without triggering a public taxpayer referendum, noting the mechanism was “interesting.”
2. The Legal Basis (June 30, 2021)-Werner departed D46 for D155 at the end of June 2021. However, he left behind the completed financial books for Fiscal Year 2020 and Fiscal Year 2021. In school finance, these audits are the required legal foundation for any future debt issuance.
3. The Authorization (September 14, 2021)-Just 75 days after Werner left, the School Board utilized those exact financial frameworks to officially authorize a bond package not to exceed $11,000,000. An $11 million bond structure takes months of legal and financial prep with bond counsel—it cannot be built from scratch in 75 days by a new team.
4. The Ratification Vote (October 12, 2021)-On October 12, 2021, the Board officially voted on the final parameters of the resolution.
3. The certified documents explicitly states that the legal “Determination of Sufficiency” to back these bonds relied directly on the 2020 Audit and the 2021 Audit.The
5. Documents prove the Board formally voted to execute
Section 1, stating: “The 2020 Audit is hereby accepted and approved.” The board literally could not have legally unlocked the $11,000,000 debt without approving Werner’s exact financial work product.
“Bottom Line:-While Mr. Werner may not have been physically in the room to cast a vote on October 12th, the Board explicitly voted to use his financial audits, his data custody, and his engineered framework to legally justify and secure the $11,000,000 bond package.
“You cannot separate the architect from the building just because they walked off the job site right before the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“The community deserves administrative transparency based on the actual public record, not rewritten timelines.
“Thin formation comes from unedited, official public records obtained legally via FOIA requests from Prairie Grove CSD 46 and McHenry County.
“If you believe the timeline or data is incorrect, your dispute is with the district’s own certified board resolutions, not with the public record.”
