Poor record keeping would be an understatement. For two years approximately Mr. Kirberg knowingly presented inaccurate treasurer reports. He withheld SEVERAL checks some for almost a year before depositing them. After he told our treasurer he had deposited them. Then suddenly within a twentyfour hour period the checks were deposited by him.

He also suggested that he did nothing wrong. I beg to differ... There was indeed no money stolen, but since he was not able to produce a check register the forensic audit was done not as it should be because of the missing information.

He also said he was very busy at the time of him holding this position. I guess that is not an excuse

I guess there is also nothing wrong about signing checks when your name is not on the account signer card.
GAME ON!

I would be disappointed in District 202 if we produced graduates that could not balance the simplicity of the CAPE checkbook. It wasn't sloppy bookkeeping, it was NO bookkeeping because Kevin had NO access to the bank account since he had never taken the time to become a signer. He did exactly as this article states, "let the ball drop with CAPE". In my opinion, CAPE meant nothing to him other than a means to get his name out to at least one person at every school for campaigning for school board purposes. Too bad he couldn't have done the job he was elected to do for the CAPE board in the meantime!!

Wait. I am so confused. There is no missing money but there is no check register to verify it? What am I missing? The tone of the article doesn't match the supporting comments. Betsey, you and I volleyed back and forth on Kevin's page during the elections, what's going on? Am I supposed to start eating crow now? haha

WOW...and isn't this the guy who was supported/funded by the Teacher's union???

..

I find it apalling that Mr. Kirberg is now serving on our school board and has a say in what happens to OUR money. This article is going to be forwarded to everyone in my address book who has a child in District 202 with a note encouraging them to do the same. As a treasurer at another district school, I realize what is involved in order to fulfill the obligation of treasurer and he just simply didn't do anything. It seems that Mr. Kirberg used his position with CAPE as a means to an end, election to the school board, and he certainly acheived that goal. Mr. Kirberg needs to be held accountable for his INACTIONS and his removal from the school board would be an appropriate consequence.

How can this situation happen when obviously there is more than one board member in CAPE? What about the audits? Hopefully, the people/board members that were present during this time are no longer there!

As a current PTO Treasurer in District 202 I find Mr. Kirberg's actions appalling!!! He has demonstrated a huge lack in judgement, in discipline and moral values. He is not someone that I want making decisions for this district or my children.

The bottom line-He needs to resign from the School Board IMMEDIATELY!!

Everyone in our neighborhood (we have a homeowners email distribution list) will be getting a link to this article, and a reminder email before the next election if this bozo is ever up for re-election.

Really, it is very apparent that the issue with many of you is that the teachers union backed a candidate. Lets look at the past, the admin asks teachers to take pay freezes and pay cuts while handing out raises to high ranking admin people. Second, the PTO organizations think they have power and try to "flex" their muscle not for the better good of a school but for the better good of their child. They also are not in it for the kids. They are merely puppets for the admin of 202 which promises better things for them. The PTO is great at gossip and starting stories about various teachers which they have no real concrete evidence to support. So he was a bad book keeper, how come nobody noticed it on the board? Could it be that it is easier to point a finger to blame someone because you also were too busy or ignorant to catch it. Let it go. The teachers are here to stay in the political arena. Get over it!

Who exactly is the person that heads CAPE? This has nothing to do with the teachers' union backing him. How would they know this was going on? They don't have access to the financial records, nor are they in charge of CAPE.

My name is Laura Ries Dralle and I served as president of the CAPE organization during one of the two years Mr. Kirberg served as treasurer (I have been a proud member of the CAPE Executive Board for the past five years). I speak only for myself when I say that I was shocked and disappointed when Mr. Kirberg's actions came to light. As a five-member board, we met often to assure we were all on task -- from helping coordinate Plainfield's homecoming parade, sponsoring the Board of Ed's candidates' forum, hosting the district-wide CAPE Recognition Dinner, and holding monthly meetings attended by reps from our district's 30 schools, principals, administrators and board of ed members. At no time during my term as president did I receive a single complaint regarding Mr. Kirberg's performance as treasurer; therefore, neither I nor my colleagues had any reason to question his actions or the monthly reports he submitted. Furthermore, I want to state for the record that at no time was CAPE's key responsibility to service the needs of our 30 district schools EVER compromised during Mr. Kirberg's two-year term. My former board colleague Karen Newberry Meehan, and my past/current board members Anthony Scala and Deborah Sihweil have been praised by administrators and alumni alike for going above and beyond our stated bylaw responsibilities over the past five years, and helping make CAPE a key liaison for all members of the Dist 202 community.

Mr. Kirberg has accepted an invitation to attend our next CAPE meeting to address any remaining questions. I hope that at the conclusion of the meeting that this matter can be put behind CAPE so our key focus can return to serving the needs of the District 202 community.

why is anyone surprised by this news? Mr. kirberg is a union bought and paid for board member funded by the teachers union to negotiate union teachers contracts in 202. How do you think he opened the flood gates of union money to support his campaign? Who sits at the negotiating table for the kids or the taxpayers when there are hacks like this on the board working only for the teachers union? I use the term hack because if you serve on any kind of board as treasurer and keep track of the money in this fashion - that's what you are; a hack.

I hope everyone of you who have commented on here voted in the last school board elections!

And you Mrs. Vinson have done a lot of damage to CAPE.....a GREAT organization that was in Plainfield long before you got into the district! I think YOU should resign from the CAPE board and let them get back to supporting District 202! And take your personal grudge with Mr. Kirberg someplace else because people are getting tired of reading your blogs!

Ok... Some of you need to get back on task here.. there seems that there was many thing done wrong here and it appears there has been something not released... Reading this I see frustration... The wrong that seemed to be done here was to CAPE by HIM.. I see someone that wants the truth out... So, I'm waiting and seeing what happens instead of assuming what Mrs. Vinson's 'motives' are....

Jeannette, you are correct. This situation was created by Mr. Kirberg, not by the CAPE board, and not by the teachers' union. I'm certain there is much more to this than has been reported. My opinion is that if you are a member of a board that is supported by my tax dollars, I expect and demand professionalism from that representative. I was very clear that the comment "game on" was meant for Mr. Kirberg and I found it insulting to be told otherwise. I appreciate your effort to moderate her on Ms. Vinson's behalf.

Then how did they acquire the money that was mismanaged? It sure sounds like a fairly large amount to cause this much of a stir. As stated in the article,
Mr. Kirberg "had sloppy bookkeeping, causing individual schools to have a hard time balancing their budgets." I see schools and budgets and can put 2 and 2 together. Would that not be yours and my tax dollars in question here?

erg "

CAPE is is on the district website... They take money from parent groups...

I think it should have read school PTO budgets. Each PTO in the district gives a certain amount of money to join. Therefore, those are not tax dollars. Where the rest of their budget comes from I am not sure. As I said, I could be wrong but that was my understanding.

I looked on the district website but could not find any information. Ms. Dralle, could you possibly clear this up? How is CAPE funded?

I am a current CAPE Board member, the new Treasurer to be exact. In order to try to clarify things, CAPE is a group consisting of a representative of all PTO/PTA's in the District, a High School Principal, Middle School Principal, Elem. School Principal, Representative from Administration & various others who meet monthly to discuss district news & common goals among other things. We collect dues from each PTO/PTA at the start of the school year & we collect admission money for the annual CAPE Awards Reception every spring. Therefore, technically it is not school district (taxpayer) dollars but rather volunteer organization (PTO/PTA) money. It is those groups whose budgets were affected when their dues checks from Sept 2010 were not deposited by Mr. Kirberg until August 2011 (four months after he had resigned from the CAPE treasurer position). Betsey Vinson is a hard worker & very good Board member. Like myself, she has been very disappointed by Mr. Kirberg's lack of honesty & integrity. Perhaps she has expressed herself "unprofessionally" at times, but she believes in open government & has only wanted to be sure the public's aware of the wrong doings of a person they voted into office, something the school district seems all too willing to cover up. We do not have evidence if money was or wasn't stolen as cash is untracable & we do know he signed checks for 2 years when not a signer on the account which is illegal. Lets not divert the attention away from these real issues!

CAPE has issues & it seems that 2 of you have personal issues with this guy. Are you violating your own Cape rules by discussing this? CAPE does have a President information regarding any issues should come from that person. Have you overstepped your positions? Has a committee been formed to investigate this issue? It seems like one guys is getting the blame when the bigger picture is that the CAPE board itself has let the ball drop on many things. No checks and balance system, No protocal to follow when someone has a formal complaint like this, no review of policies, no communication between board members. When a treasurer is voted into office is it not one of his job requirements to write and deposit checks. Your organiazation gave him permission to perform these duties. He signed his name not someone elses and the bank didn't have any issue with this neither did your organization. Why isn't the bank in the hot seat for allowing them to clear? Who was getting the bank statements? Why aren't they in the hot seat? Lots of people should be in the hot seat including the 2 current Board members discussing this. This beef with him collecting money from the teachers union, a lot of good that did union. Teachers got no pay raise and they have to pay more for health ins. You are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Should we start smearing your names, attacking your character, have your children hear about this from friends for a volunteer position.

10:22 am on Saturday, January 28, 2012
Why are the two of you attacking the 'whistleblowers'... Should they say nothing to their members... Because you know this guy? Oops, my bad... Dropped the ball... It's not a good tthing to imply, even when you are a volunteer. To me it looks like they don't want a cover up.... Because there are groups that do that... Asking them did they 'overstepped' their position? It's the boards duty to be loyal to their membership... Mrs. Dralle states no one complained... that confused me a little... How'd did CAPE find out about the checks, if no one ever said anything? The truth in what was happening needs to be out ... Maybe because of the position he holds. Again, the few that had said things towards Mrs. Vinson, we should just wait... They have a meeting next week maybe there Is more to this...

I do not know this man personally. What I am attacking is the way this was handled and who handled it. You mentioned whistleblower most organizations have a whistleblower policy in place so that none of this would be coming back againt the two current board memebers for alerting the other board members that this was going on. Yes we have a right to know about wrong doing but after a proper investigation has been performed and an authorized person to speak for the organization has released the info. I feel certain information has been leaked and not all of it and only one person is the focus. This is an organization that deals with $4000 a year if I am correct. Really bring a guy down over this and force him to resign. From what I have read on other articles in the Patch this man seems like he has done some really good things for our schools and district. Another question I have does CAPE file taxes? Your accountant needs bank statements and check registers to do this.

I think that almost everyone here has a valid argument - both for and against. I am sure that Mr. Kirberg had good intentions when he came on the board at CAPE but it became less of a priority given his other commitments. Unfortunately, instead of stepping down, he let a bad situation escalate into what it has become. I personally do not know Mr. Kirberg either but I would hope that is what happened. I still feel he needs to be held accountable for what he has done & this not be swept under the rug. My inital reaction was that decisions made by the school board were being made in part by someone who couldn't even deposit some checks he was responsible for and this was very upsetting. As I have been thinking about this for the last few days I have come to realize that Mr. Kirberg didn't do anything that isn't done all the time - using connections to acheive a goal. It is very sad that all of the good things he had done for the district are now being overshadowed by this.

Just because people put there name in the paper, really means nothing... It's the job that was done... Is the whole situation here...I'm not sure about the money, so I'm thinking you know something about them... But it's the casualness of the 'oops' that's disconcerting... The more personal attacks on this woman....shows me something's going on.... I see a lot of frustration on the part of these women... So let's see what really is going on... Also, I thought they had an audit, but the problem was not enough records.... I'm thinking this group wouldn't have an accountant ... It's the treasurer's job for all that.... everyone have a good day and let's just wait...

@Manny I also agree the bank should be in question here... Good point when it came to them...

Maybe someone should call the State's Attorney office or the IRS for a full investigation!! Oh that's right, no crime was committed other than a CAPE board member sending a personal email (representing herself as a CAPE board member)out to all PTA/PTO/PTSO presidents looking for support only to have it backfire in her face and tarnish the great organization of CAPE! I am sure when the Presidents and CAPE representatives provided their email address to CAPE, it was not intended for that use! Any attorney's out there?

I question the validity of both Betsey Vinson and Heather Drake's posts because they have absolutely no problem being unprofessional and attacking a fellow board member here - very similar to high school fights among cliques. While I believe that the issues should be brought up in a public forum, it should be at a CAPE meeting with ALL board members. All of Ms. Vinson and Ms. Drake's issues and concerns with Mr. Kirberg should be addressed there, among their fellow board members.

From the Info I received, CAPE takes in roughly 100 per school PTO,PTA etc. in the district (times 30 schools) my kids have more money in their bank accounts.....really this an issue worth 47 comments....?

Somehow it is being missed that Michelle Mullins has written an article that is being disputed by the 2 individuals being quoted in it. I think we need to hear from Ms. Mullins and/or Karen Sorensen as to how this gross misrepresentation was able to make it to print.