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This page provides all of the information that we have been able to gather on Ms. Clark to date. Ms. Clark is from Hampshire township
Ms. Clark Chooses Not to Respond
As mentioned before, A300 sent exhaustive questionnaires to all of the D300 BOE candidates.
The questionnaires asked about each candidate's work and educational experience, their experience as volunteers in the district, what ties they have in the District besides the obvious one of living here and examples of what they would do to benefit the children of District 300, if elected. Click here to see a copy of the questionnaire that we sent to Ms. Clark and all of the candidates.
We took great pains to make that questionnaire fair and unbiased and because the questionnaire was lengthy, we even gave the candidates extra time to respond if they needed it. Ms. Clark chose, without explanation, not to respond.
General Information
So, what do we know about candidate Monica Clark? We know that she lives in Hampshire. We know that she is an insurance agent. We know that she did not support the passage of last year's referenda. And, as far as we can tell, Ms. Clark has no website.
Despite her secrecy, we do know that her primary backer is longtime District 300 opponent, Jack Roeser. We know that despite Mr. Roeser's financial support, she hasn't filed any campaign disclosure paperwork with the county or state election boards.
Ms. Clark's Motivation
While Ms. Clark ignored our questionnaire, she apparently did respond to the Daily Herald's questionnaire. Here is her reponse to one question that the Daily Herald has published:
Q: Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election the first time? Is there a particular issue that motivates you, and if so, what is that? What will be your main priority in office?
"Clark: "I'm running for the school board because I believe that as it sits now, the board has neglected its primary duty, and that is ensuring students receive a quality education. The board is so bogged down in fiscal mismanagement that students do not receive the quality instruction or necessary resources they deserve. My priority is simple 'focus more resources to the classroom and to the community than has been focused by this current board'."
Advance 300 attempts to get more information
Ms. Clark does not, however, state how she would accomplish her goal or even what needs to be done to improve education here in the district - both questions that we asked in the questionnaire that she failed to respond to. So, we gave it one more shot. We sent her this email:
**************** Email sent from Advance 300 **************
Dear Ms. Clark,
As the next part of our effort to bring information to the voters of District 300, we are highlighting each candidate individually. Your profile should go out sometime in the next week or so. We have been unable to find much information about you or your campaign. We did see, however, your response to one of the questions posed by the Daily Herald in it's questionnaire and we would like to give you the chance to clarify your position.
In responding to the Daily Herald's questionnaire you accuse the current BOE of mismanaging district finances and failing to ensure quality education, yet you give no examples, nor do you set out what you would do differently.
Therefore, we pose the following:
We look forward to your response.
Nancy Zettler
Chair, Advance 300
**************** End of Email sent from Advance 300 **************
As of this date, we have not received a response to this e-mail from Ms. Clark or anyone on her behalf.
Ms. Clark - Supported by Jack Roeser and FTN
Curiously, Monica Clark neither admits nor denies that she's being backed by Jack Roeser. But she is. Here is a transcript of a phone message accidently left on the voicemail of one of our members on March 4th:
"Hi, this message is for [name withheld to protect intended recipient]. I received your name from Jack Roeser at Family Tax payers Network as someone who might be interested in seeing a change on the District 300 school board. Now there are two great candidates running for election to the school board - Monica Clark and John Ryan. They are running because they feel that the current board does not address the needs of students, parents, or the tax payers of the district. And they also want to ensure that the money received from the referendum is being spent wisely. So what we are looking to do is to find concerned citizens to assist in their campaign. Starting on March 7th, we are going to be phoning every Wednesday for two hours. Starting on Saturday March 17th, we will be walking neighborhoods hand out our literature. We are doing all we can to effect a change and get these great candidates elected... Let us know if you'd like to do a yard sign."
Interestingly, the phone call was made to our volunteer's business phone number. Note that Mr. Roeser (who does not live in the district) has been quoted as saying "If you help a good, conservative, pro-business candidate win public office, you can count on that person to be much more responsive when your issues are on the table."
In addition, here is a copy of an e-mail sent out by Lidia Downs, an employee of Roeser's instructing their operatives on how to use mis-information in letters to the editors of local papers (keep this in mind when you read pro-Ryan and Clark or anti-D300 letters between now and the 17th):
**************** Email sent from Jack Roeser's FTN **************
From: The Champion ... On Behalf Of ldowns@familytaxpayers.net
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 11:09 AM
To: District 300 Tax Fighters
Subject: YOUR HELP is needed to get good candidates elected!
Supporters of District 300 Reform -
We're in the home stretch of the campaign to elect solid, responsible people to the board - but John Ryan and Monica Clark need your help. The newspaper is a powerful tool to help influence the voters and you can help write the news with Letters to the Editor. We need letter sent in every day, every week, until the election arrives.
There are two types of letters you can write:
1. A POSITIVE letter in favor of John and Monica. Here are some of the things you can write about:
a. John and Monica support opening up our district to the community by not holding closed door meetings, releasing timely financial information about the district, and just being honest about the issues that our district faces.
b. John and Monica want to begin directing more resources to our classrooms. Administrators received HUGE retroactive bonuses after the referendum, but kids are still meant to leave books at home.
2.A NEGATIVE letter against Mary Fioretti, Dave Alessio, and Joe Stevens- all current board members. Again, here are some of the things you can write about:
a The district misleads voters on a regular basis. The referendum enrollment numbers were horribly inaccurate at best, and may very well be fraudulent at worst.
b. The district is taking on way too much debt for the community's good. For every dollar D-300 takes on in debt, they're putting the bill on the taxpayers to pay back $1.63. The statewide average for school districts is $1.55. That translates into literally millions of dollars of EXTRA taxes they could be spending on our kids - or better, not stealing from the taxpayers.
This is just a start! Whatever your issue is - write a Letter to the Editor. The following newspapers should be emailed, almost on a daily basis, to ensure that letters are printed until the election comes:
Northwest Herald
Website: http://www.nwherald.com/forms/letters/
Email: letters@nwherald.com
Fax No.: (815) 459-5640
Daily Herald
Website: http://www.dailyherald.com
Email: fencepost@dailyherald.com
Northwest Herald
Website: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/index.html
Email: Courier.Viewpoint@scn1.com
Fax No.: (815) 459-5640
Thanks for your efforts on behalf of real reform in District 300.
Sincerely,
Lidia Downs, Executive Director
Family Taxpayers Network
**************** End of email sent from Jack Roeser's FTN **************
Lidia Downs is an employee of Jack Roeser's PAC FTN. Curiously neither her existence, nor her salary has ever been reported to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
But why should we care if Jack Roeser Supports a Candidate?
Because Jack Roeser does not care about our kids. He only cares about Jack Roeser.
Here are exerpts from an article titled "TMA member influences business policy from inside" published in the "Tool and Maunfacturing Assn. "news Bulletins"" in February of 2001:
"In 1961, Jack Roeser founded Otto Engineering..... Jack soon discovered that he had business partners, namely local, state and federal governments, who made doing business more costly and difficult. As a businessman and citizen, Jack became involved in local, state and national politics, often making financial contributions to 'pro-business' candidates."
"In 1968, Otto Engineering moved to Carpentersville. The business thrived. Today, with the leadership of Jack's son Tom, Otto Engineering is a leading manufacturer of electronic switches, employing over 450 people. In 1989, after decades of frustration with the political status quo, Jack founded Family Taxpayers Network."
"Headquartered in the Otto Engineering building, Family Taxpayers Network has a three-member professional staff, a computer network that includes a database of every registered voter in the state of Illinois.....FTN focuses on recruiting and training candidates for public office. As Jack Roeser says, 'If you help a good, conservative, pro-business candidate win public office, you can count on that person to be much more responsive when your issues are on the table.'"
"At FTN, we want to work with business groups, to encourage business people to run for local or state office," says Joe Wiegand, executive director of FTN.
"We have the expertise and the tools to help someone win a race for school board, city council, county board, state legislature or Congress...... With our database of voters and our experience in elections, we are ready to help get business people elected," says Wiegand."
February 23, 2001 - Volume 59, Issue No. 8, http://www.tmanet.com/publication/news/viewvolume.asp? VOLUME_ID=216
Now Jack Roeser wants to get Monica Clark and John Ryan elected to our school board! Why? Apparently so that he'll have people on the D300 board who he can "count on" to "be much more responsive" when his "issues are on the table".
Jack Roeser does not live here in D300. He lives in Barrington. He does, however, own several large pieces of property and several houses in Carpentersville, upon which he pays property taxes.
For decades, Roeser has fought referenda here in D300 to try to keep from having his taxes raised. He's been frustrated because he doesn't, as he says, have anyone on the inside - now, apparently, he's found two candidates that he likes - Monica Clark and John Ryan.
The fact that Ms. Clark is being backed by FTN and the fact that she has failed to disclose that backing begs the question - What is Ms. Clark's real agenda for wanting to be on the board and who's interest will she really represent if elected?
Do you have more information on this candidate?
Additional Information
We will continue to provide you with information on Ms. Clark when and if it becomes available.
If you have additional information that we should publish on this candidate, please contact us at advance300yes@yahoo.com.
However as we have stated all along, we will NOT post unsupported rumors, innuendo, or opinion not based in fact. We will tell you when candidates have not been forthcoming (which we believe is in itself information for you to consider), and we WILL pose questions for you to consider in light of their lack of response.
It is our belief that the voters of this district are capable of making the right decision once provided with the available facts - POSITIVE or NEGATIVE.
Click here for side-by-side answers to our candidate survey. Note however that Ms. Clark did not respond to that survey. Click here for a menu of the other candidate pages.
We are aware of the following endorsements for Ms. Clark: Daily Herald
You can see what all the candidates said to the Daily Herald at:
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=299056
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