Letter To The Editor

I'm a parent of a student at Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake. As a public charter school, our school board includes nine members, six selected by seated board members, and three elected by the parents. We're in the process of our parent election right now.

There are two candidates, one is incumbent, and the other is new to the process.

Our PSO (Parent Staff Organization) had a candidate forum last Friday, and under direct questioning, the incumbent Dean Thorsen, a resident of the Prairie Crossing subdivision, admitted that some of the information included in the application package that he submitted was not true.

Specifically, a letter of recommendation from one of his Prairie Crossing neighbors, Michelle Helle, indicated that Dean "worked together with the PCCS teachers as they established a new union contract and helped complete the bond refinancing saving the school thousands of dollars".

Under direct questioning from parents who were familiar with these processes, Thorsen admitted that the information was false, that he wasn't involved at all in these significant milestones for our school, but he blamed (by name) the person who wrote the letter of recommendation for him.

Our PSO has struggled with the right course of action, and under the review of board president and Prairie Crossing resident Steve Achtemeier, has apparently decided to do nothing other than to simply highlight the false information if parents should choose to click on a separate link to review the candidate's applications again before they vote on our on-line electronic balloting website.

Unfortunately, parents have already been provided with a copy of the applications at the onset of the election process, and would have no real reason to look to see that information has changed.

Here's our dilemma. A candidate has provided false information in conjunction with his application, and most voting parents will never know.

As a public servant, it is my sense that honesty and integrity are important.

Laura Elizabeth Fay

Mundelein resident and former PCCS Board member.