Oak Brook Paper Picks Up on Cary School Pay-to-Play Prohibition

Before the Illinois House passed a pay-to-play prohibition, Cary Grade School District 26 did so under the leadership of school board member Chris Jenner.

Two firms that stood to gain financially helped bankroll the Butler School District 53 bond issue last month, according to an Oak Brook Suburban Life article by Lane Kelley.

And, you know what, the name of that friendly blond from Wm. Blair and Company popped up again.

You remember Elizabeth Hennesey.

She was the one sitting in the audience of the Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 Board meeting in December.

She was the contact person who worked on Carpentersville District 300’s pay-no-principal-back-for-years, plus paying an additional $11.8 million for the privilege.

Hennesey did not return phone calls to the Suburban Life reporter.

I can empathize with the reporter. Hennesey wouldn’t return my phone calls either.

The other big donor was the political action committee for bond counsel Chapman & Cutler.

Catch this part of the article:

Butler Superintendent Sandra Martin said the district was not involved in the contributions, “and there certainly was no guarantee of any work in the future,” she added.

Cary’s Chris Jenner, who shepherded an anti-pay-to-play rule though Grade School District 26, was quoted as saying,

“It happens in a lot of places. It happens more often than it doesn’t.”

The weekend is not a desert at McHenry County Blog.

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