Posted Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Look what District 26 found: Last week I reported that Cary Elementary District 26 recently found out it received a $644,215 check from Town and Country Homes that the board didn't realize they should have received in  April 2002. The money came thanks to an agreement between Cary and the developer that Superintendent Jacklyn Crosby said the district didn't know about.

Instead of receiving impact fees for each home upon completion, the company agreed to simply write two checks to the district, the first of which came in 2001 for the same amount.

The only reason the district realized it was owed the cash was Cary officials alerted them to it, Crosby said at last week’s meeting.

Everyone’s pleased this cash came in, but where’s the outrage over the district not knowing they were due the money? If the district did receive a check in 2001, I’m sure they knew or found out what it was for at that time. So why wasn’t anyone making sure they got the second check?

It’s scary to think the school board nearly never saw this money. The only reason they did get the cash, by the way, was because an astute Cary village staff member was double checking information, and noticed he didn’t have a copy of the check from the developer. He called the school district to get a copy of it, at which time, according to him, the district said, “What check?”

•Patrick Garmoe covers the villages and schools of Cary and Fox River Grove and McHenry County College. To reach him, call (847) 608-2718, or e-mail him at [email protected].