Gilman Star & Iroquois West Superintendent avoid truth-refuse to correct misinformation

Iroquois Co. (ECWd) –

During our past coverage of the games being played by Iroquois West School Superintendent Dvorak, the local paper printed information that was factually false.  We demanded a correction to be published by the paper and also demanded an apology from the Superintendent for the lies that were told.

Neither the editor of the Gilman Star, nor the Superintendent have responded to our communications on this matter.

I attended a recent board meeting to confront the Superintendent on the misinformation and she said she would not apologize and now her position is she “misunderstood” what I was asking for.

“A copy of all records pertaining to the costs of responding to FOIA responses in 2018.”

Considering she read that request to mean I was only seeking costs to 1 FOIA rather than all FOIA’s in 2018 and the fact she even got the math wrong on the reported cost by claiming 8 hrs of work at $100 an hour to be a cost of $804.48 instead of $800.00, her resignation may be the best thing for the children of the District.

The secondary problem with this chain of events is the local reporting by the Gilman Star and its owner, John Elliot.

Years ago people were able to trust the local reporting.  It would appear that is no longer the case because it is clear the Gilman Star has allowed misinformation and hidden agendas to drive the narrative rather than truth. Even when people sent him responses or letters to the Editor, he chose to keep that information from the public and instead insinuate he has some entitlement to know who was involved in assisting a local citizen to expose the truth about his reporting and issues at Iroquois West.

We presented numerous questions to the Editor, all pertaining to very troubling reporting, including questions of concern regarding what appeared to be threats being made by Mr. Elliot towards a candidate for the School Board.  We also raised the issue of Elliot doing business with the City of Gilman where he sits as an alderman which is an alleged  conflict of interest unless key laws are complied with. We even pointed to the very statute of concern and Elliot has yet to respond.

The public should demand answers from their local paper and we encourage they seek answers to the same questions we did in our communication to Elliot. The fact he has yet to respond to a single question should tell people what they need to know about their local paper.

As far as the alleged conflicts of interest by Mr. Elliot doing business with the city while he is a voting member of the city council, we will lay out the case as to why Mr. Elliot would be better off resigning than continuing to do business with the city.

You can download our communication to Mr. Elliot at this link or view below.

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