A years-long spat over school board member Melissa Kelley Black’s refusal to review Naperville District 203’s bills and claims resurfaced this week when she was again denied committee assignments for failing to do the monthly oversight task.
Kelley Black has repeatedly criticized the district’s process in which board members take a turn reviewing the monthly bills with finance staff before they are presented and voted on during a public meeting.
On Monday, the district released its annual rotation for the upcoming school year in which the seven board members are assigned a month for the bill review process. The annual committee and adopt-a-school assignments were also released — lists from which Kelley Black was excluded.
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This is the second school year Kelley Black was not given any assignments, but she remains in the rotation to review the bills with finance staff.
Committees are made up of community members to provide guidance, recommendations and feedback to the superintendent and staff, but they do not have any formal decision-making authority. Board members act as liaisons.
Kelley Black said she disagrees with the bills and claims review process, which requires the board member to examine a list of expenditures and certify they are valid.
“I will not put my name on the line when I don’t have enough information,” Kelley Black said.
She has criticized accounting practices and said information has been lacking and not provided to her when requested.
During Monday’s board meeting, she expressed frustration that she was assigned to review the bills and claims even though she objects to the process. She said she feels targeted.
“I’m apparently capable of making fiduciary decisions regarding millions and millions of dollars, but I can’t walk through a school and do a school visit,” Kelley Black said.
Board President Charles Cush said board policy states all board members are expected to participate in the bills and claims review process as part of their fiduciary responsibility. The board has received advice from both its law firm and auditing firm that the process is sound, he said.
Cush said the process allows the board members to review the district’s checkbook and ask questions of district’s staff. The policy has been agreed upon by the school board members.
“If I were on my job and I said to my colleagues, ‘You know what, I don’t want to do that. Make someone else do it,’ that wouldn’t go over well in a professional situation,” Cush said.
During the heated exchange, Cush said Kelley Black was not given committee and school assignments because she has shirked duties required by board policy.
“You as an elected official are entitled to the seat that you are in. You are entitled to vote on matters before the board, and you can go into the community and ask questions as many times as you want,” Cush said. “You are not assigned the responsibilities that are optional responsibilities because you’ve refused to do the required responsibilities.”
Board members have publicly rebuked Kelley Black’s refusal to provide oversight in the bills and claims process for nearly two years.
The board has provided a letter from its law firm that states the board members’ roles when reviewing the bills is not to make sure that all bills are paid and that all claims are processed correctly, but rather to make sure that the administration is complying with those procedures.
The board’s role is governance and supervisory. District officials are responsible for budget planning and implementation and for monthly financial reports, according to the letter dated Feb. 3, 2025, from the law firm Robbins Schwartz.
“To believe that an individual board member’s role is to personally ’sign off’ affirming that all the processing of the district’s bills and claims is correct is to lack a fundamental understanding of board governance,” the letter said. “Clearly, the proper processing of bills and claims is the responsibility of the administration.”
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.