Thursday, July 26, 2012
Former assistant superintendent of business for Lincolnwood School District 74 Kevin Nohelty is suing the school board for $250,000 plus the cost of legal fees. Nohelty alleges that he was wrongfully terminated on June 13 by the school board.
Update 10:16 a.m. 07/27 - Skokie Patch has received documents detailing why Nohelty was placed on adminstrative leave as well as other information. Lincolnwood District 74's former assistant superintendent of business, Kevin Nohelty, filed a lawsuit against the school board last week. Nohelty, who was dismissed on June 13, alleges that he was wrongfully terminated by the school board. He is seeking $250,000 plus the cost of legal fees, according to the suit. The complaint specifically lists board members Scott Anderson, John Vranas, Kevin Daly and Georjean Nickell as defendants. The aforementioned voted 4-0 to terminate Nohelty on June 13. "The filing of the lawsuit does not change my belief that we made the right decision," said school…
Friday, June 15, 2012
Assistant Superintendent Kevin Nohelty was released by board officials during an open school board meeting on Wednesday. The meeting originally started on Tuesday evening, but ended around 2:30 a.m. the following day.
School board members at Lincolnwood District 74 terminated Kevin Nohelty early Wednesday morning. Up until then, Nohelty served as the Assistant Superintendent for Business for nearly two years. However, he was on administrative leave for roughly four months prior to his dismissal. The school district has said numerous times that they will not disclose why he was on leave. Nohelty was released during an open school board meeting that started on Tuesday evening and ended around 2:30 a.m. the following day, said School Board President Scott Anderson. Nohelty was primarily in charge of the school's finances. He was widely criticized for not seeking a non-profit tax exemption for the former superintendent's 'company car,' which cost …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A small group of Lincolnwood residents have created big changes in their community. In as little as three months, two board members have resigned. The superintendent and assistant superintendent have also left the school district.
Lincolnwood School District 74 has seen three different board presidents in as little as two months. Former board president David Koder stepped down in February and board member Amy Frankel filled his position. On Monday, Frankel resigned, effective immediately. Several people familiar with the matter told Skokie Patch the resignation was “unexpected.” Now, recently reelected board member Darlene Fourkas is president. Fourkas has worked for the school board for nine years and served the PTA prior to that. “The immediate goal is to ratify the votes needed for an interim superintendent and assistant superintendent,” Fourkas said. “Right now, we are really focusing on the crisis the district is in. The super isn’t in place. We lost another …
Friday, April 6, 2012
It was a real display of fireworks during a Lincolnwood School District 74 board meeting on Thursday evening. The school district is in violation of state code, and several candidates who were poised to become superintendent walked out of the meeting.
Update 11:15 a.m. - Lincoln Hall principal Dr. Linda Klobucher will be filling in as interim superintendent and Dr. Jean Weiss will be the assistant superintendent. Stay tuned for more information as we will post it as it comes in. Earlier - The immediate future of Lincolnwood School District 74 isn’t clear, as the board failed to name an interim superintendent during a chaotic board meeting Thursday evening. Potential candidates opted out of the top spot by walking out during Thursday’s board meeting. Roughly 100 people loudly voiced their displeasure over the actions of the board in recent weeks - which included the re-election of the embattled President Amy Frankel and Darlene Fourkas as Vice President. Any possible superintendents who…
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Yesterday's open session started at 11:14 p.m. and ended about two minutes later. The school is currently dealing with the departure of their superintendent and assistant superintendent. Their business superintendent is also on administrative leave.
Lincolnwood School District 74 may have set a record on Tuesday evening for latest start-time to an open session, 11:14 p.m., and fastest finish, less than two minutes. Only two audience members were in attendance; a teacher from Rutledge Hall and a village employee. The meeting provided no new information. Despite residents demanding transparency between them and the school board, many recent open sessions have lasted for only a handful of minutes. Much of the time has been spent in closed session, as the board prepares to deal with the recent departures of its superintendent and assistant superintendent. The district's business superintendent, Kevin Nohelty, is also on administrative leave. Read more: See all of our coverage on …
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Lincolnwood School District 74 Superintendent Mark Klaisner resigned on Tuesday. Assistant Superintendent Susan Brandt retired. The moves come after a group of Lincolnwood residents began questioning district spending.
Since last month, Lincolnwood School District 74 has seen a lot of changes. School board member Richard Ruderman resigned, board president David Koder stepped down from his position and a $25-million referendum was resoundly defeated by voters 9-to-1. Now, Superintendent Mark Klaisner has resigned, "effective immediately." Assistant Superintendent Susan Brandt has also retired. The announcements came before a crowd of about 20 during a school board meeting at District 74's administration building on Tuesday. The board unanimously accepted both Klaisner's resignation and Brandt's retirement. Read more: Former Mayor Peter Moy to Run in 2013 School Board President Amy Frankel said “philosophical differences” between the board and …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Will School District 74 get to build a new, $25 million Lincoln Hall? Residents took to the ballot box today to voice their approval. We will be posting live results as they come in, so keep checking back here for the final results.
Update - 9:34 p.m. It's official: School District 74's referendum has been defeated, with 2,153 residents voting 'No,' or 91.07 percent, while 211 residents voted 'Yes,' or 8.93 percent. This could mean that property taxes will go down in 2014, but that remains to be seen, as some residents took this referendum as a vote of no confidence against the school board. See full results in the table below. Sign up for our newsletter to get headlines from Skokie Patch delivered to your inbox each morning for free. Meanwhile, Lincolnwood's other referendum, to appoint a village clerk instead of having one elected, was also defeated, with 1,484 voting 'No,' or 65.17 percent while 793 voted 'Yes,' or 34.83 percent. Update - 8:37 p.m. Lincolnwood's…
Monday, March 19, 2012
An open house walk through at Lincoln Hall attracted about 30 residents on Saturday morning. Some of the issues include replacing the roof or adding sprinkler systems to the school. See our photo gallery for more details.
Jim Caldwell, Lincoln Hall's building grounds director, will sometimes joke about his own title. "It's just a fancy way of calling me maintenance supervisor," Caldwell said. The building grounds director was made available to everyone (along with several other officials) during an open house walkthrough at Lincoln Hall on Saturday morning. About 30 residents attended and asked questions during the two hour-plus tour. See our previous SD74 coverage With the upcoming March 20 referendum, residents got to ask questions on why the community needs a $25 million, newly built Lincoln Hall. Regardless if it happens or not, the district will need to address a dozen or so issues to bring the school up to code. For 14 years Caldwell has done …
Friday, March 2, 2012
A March 20 referendum sparked a lively debate among Lincolnwood residents during a four-hour plus school board meeting Thursday.
The ongoing conflict between a group of Lincolnwood residents and School District 74 led to a bizarre spectacle on Thursday evening. There was a brief — and silent — presentation honoring former school board president David Koder, who recently stepped down from his position after reimbursing the district for limousine rides, first-class airfare upgrades and $600 dinners that were paid for with taxpayer dollars. Ultimately, the school board awarded Koder with a small clock in front of a silent audience prior to addressing the board's agenda. The hot-button issue, however, was the upcoming $25-million referendum set for March 20. If passed, the current Lincoln Hall would be torn down and a new school would be built in its place. A group of …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Lincolnwood School District 74 board member Richard Ruderman resigned during an "emergency" meeting in the basement of Lincoln Hall last Saturday.
Charges for limousine rides, first-class airfare upgrades and fine dining on school district credit cards have been reimbursed by several board members and administrators in Lincolnwood. One board member has resigned over the issue. "We didn't handle the internal controls well," superintendent Mark Klaisner told Skokie Patch. "I will tell you no one has done anything malicious." As Lincolnwood School District 74 addressses credit card purchases made by its employees, school officials reimbursed the district more than $6,000 for expenses -- some dating back to two years. The payments were made last week on Jan. 25. The move came after Lincolnwood residents began investigating credit card transactions within the district. Freedom of …
Gary
8:51 am on Thursday, July 26, 2012
One of the big issues is that former Asst Superintendent Kevin Nohelty was accused of having inappropriate relationships with at least on of the academic staff. As the head of HR that implies that he was in the person's chain of command. If that is true then he deserved to be terminated. If he sues then let's hope that all the information becomes public. more ›