Garrett Peck's involvement is? I had heard that Garret Peck had some dealings with the school board? What is the status of that? Just wondering....has he or the school board provided that information to anyone.

Mr. Kirberg should move on from the board and resign his position. He falsified two years of treasurer's reports and admitted to lying to people. Whether there was criminal activity or not, he has completely disgraced Dist 202 and rendered himself completely ineffective. If he cared about the kids at all he would step down and let the board move on.

Yes. The rational response to a man who spent less time on his volunteer position and formally resigned the position almost a year ago(CAPE), to then dedicate that time to his newly elected position(the school board), is to have him resign from his elected position because the volunteer job he resigned from wasn't being done correctly after he resigned from it.

This reads like bad gossip, and gossip columnist Karen Sorenson once again takes the ethically questionable route by not disclosing in this 'story' her existing personal relationship with Betsey Cleason-Vinson(a non-elected vice-president of CAPE).

Tim -- Why don't you disclose my "relationship" with Betsey Vinson, since you seem to know all? I'd be very interested in learning it myself, especially since she mentioned at yesterday's meeting that her "game on" comment was actually aimed at Patch and her belief that we failed to fully report this story.

Tim, I am a friend of Betsey's and you know I really think she stands up and says things that many people like "me" would be to afraid to say. I am a volunteer at our schools. I give my time and effort for the children and the teachers of the school district. I was binding papers in a class yesterday to help out. I am a mother and I am also employed . All I want to do is give back to the teachers that give to my my child. I know that Betsey's intentions are the same as mine. When I make mistakes I own up to if, apologize for it and fix it if I can. 2 years ago I left a 2nd grade student out of the year book. I could have pretended to just over look it and be just as surprised as everyone else would be. But I did just the opposite of it and immediately brought it to my schools attention, the family of the child and my staff. I was able to make a small fix that allowed her to be a sticker on her class page. I apologized over and over, and I gave them their book at no charge. Since then I still always hold myself accountable to that and we have a procedure that is hopefully keeping that from happening again. Now back to Betsey and the Karen comment, I too am curious what your knowledge on their relationship is. I don't know Karen, but I have been by Betsey's side through this and "game on" was to the patch because she had her feelings about the patch. Did you go to the meeting yesterday?

Dena,

What reasoning does Betsey, as a vice-president, give for the almost 1yr lapse between now, and when Mr Kirberg resigned from the treasurer position? 1 Year is a long time for nothing to have been done under the roles of the position, and as a VP of that group, she bears the responsibility as well for this incident.

Your friend could have the most honorable of intentions possible, but this article gives the picture of someone looking to place blame, and not accept responsibility for CURRENT events, not things that happened a year ago. The treasurer role, that Mr Kilberg held, of any organization is not the highest position, and SOMEONE above him in that organization was signing off on these reports the whole time he held that position, AND for the ~1 year after his resignation from that position.

This 'article' reads more like a character assassination piece on this man, with his words taken incredibly out of context.

After seeing how willing this editor is to not only censor comments that contain factual proof of her incorrect assumptions, as well as the 'selective' ways that others quotes are used, I find it perfectly possible that this mans actual words could have been;

"I'm sorry about the state of the finances, but I resigned from that position almost a year ago when I was elected to the board".... and the quote would have been;

"I'm sorry about the state of the finances"

Thus, Gossip

Tim, As a CAPE rep, I have attended many of their monthly meetings over the past years and can promise you that Betsey Vinson (who was just elected to this board in May) as well as the rest of the Board did not let a year lapse. Mr. Kirberg resigned last April and according to the information we have been given at the monthly CAPE meetings, he chose not to meet with the new treasurer and turn over the books until Aug and she was unable to obtain access to the bank accounts until Sept. The Board brought the information about the falsified reports, poor bookkeeping and need to open a new checking account to the CAPE reps at our January meeting after taking the time to meet with Mr. Kirberg and have the books reviewed by a CPA. If you had attended any of our meetings you too would have this knowledge! You would also know that Karen Sorenson's reporting of this past Friday's meeting was RIGHT ON and not specially edited in any way! I am glad Mr. Kirberg answered our questions and apologized and I'm thankful the CAPE Board has put steps in place to prevent these same problems in the future. CAPE will be fine, as far as Mr. Kirberg, only the votes at the next election will determine his fate, mine will not be one of them!

I agree 100%, the CAPE members that have commented on this article as well as the other one sound like cliquey high school girls! CAPE - try running your organization like a business and handle it internally. I hate the thought of these people being involved with anything concerning Plainfield schools!

I felt that way from the very beginning. The initial rantings and disclosure of what should have been CONFIDENTIAL information until all the facts were gathered was so unprofessional and ameteur. What's very concerning is the fact that the school board now wants to disassociate itself from this.

Yes, Ms. Vinson and Ms. Drake are trying to rectify the problem, but not without acting unprofessional and tactless.

Seriously, do you honestly believe that the board handled it the best way possible? One of the first comments on the initial story was by a board member and it grew antagonistic and bordered on adult bullying. Mr. Kirberg answered professionally, and then the board member kept right at it. You are correct! He started this mess, HOWEVER, the way it was being handled was an embarassment to PSD 202, and as a result, it took away from the matter at hand. I realize those board members have friends coming to their rescue--we are just outside observers expecting those WHO CHOOSE to be on a board to present the organization in the best light possible.

Can you explain why a mans mistakes at a volunteer organization, like CAPE, in any way has anything to do with the 'public'? I did not pay one cent, and neither did you, for his work as the treasurer. As soon as he actually was elected to a real position, he chose to resign this role, A YEAR AGO, and dedicate his time exclusively to his newly elected position. His elected position has no similarity whatsoever to his past responsibilities as a CAPE member. It would be like you getting reprimanded at your place of employment today for failing to disclose the speeding ticket you got last year. In other words, it is completely irrelevant to his current duties.

In no other real life situation will you be taken seriously for trying to 'blame' the person who last held your position. You will be seen as incompetent, and rightly so. Mr. Kiberg put aside his personal standing, and fell on the sword for someone elses responsibility because he sees that it is more important for the entity as a whole, than himself, to dwell on this insignificant problem. In other words, it looks like exactly the right person was elected, and exactly the right people were NOT elected.

And yet another stellar comment from someone siding with the "whistleblowers" - you are just making my opinion so much stronger about the current CAPE representatives!