On Jan. 31, 2023, Mahomet-Seymour Board President Max McComb wrote an opinion piece for the News-Gazette in rebuttal to what board member Meghan Hennesy said at the Jan. 17, 2023, regularly scheduled board of education meeting. The following are just excerpts from those pieces. Hennesy’s speech (Jan. 17) can be found here. McComb’s opinion piece (Jan. 31) can be found here.
This project is not an attempt to look at every issue that was brought up in its entirety. This publication has reported on some of these issues before. In those cases, links are provided so that each reader can learn more about the issue. The articles that follow are an attempt to look at the claims each board member brought up. In some cases, one board member named others. In those cases, this publication looked at what happened surrounding those claims. All of the articles can be found on this page. Each article also includes documents and videos referenced.
We understand that this piece comes two months after these events took place. We have taken time to watch discussions of every topic over the last three years, to look at board agendas and minutes from the same time period, to read emails, to send FOIA requests and to undertake a major project in analyzing TIF data. This work took time, and that is why it took so long to complete.
Quotes from McComb
“There is a reason that Mrs. Hennesy did not run for another term this April on either the school board or on the Sangamon Valley Public Water District board. Good, solid candidates who care deeply about our schools, including myself, won by 2-to-1 margins — or better — two years ago over candidates she backed.”
Meghan Hennesy
Looking Back
In the state of Illinois, school board elections are meant to be non-partisan, meaning candidates do not run as Republicans or Democrats. Supposedly, they run for the betterment of schools and the community.
The intention behind why each candidate in Mahomet-Seymour runs for office can only be found in their heart, but McComb’s statement cast two segments of candidates: those who care and those who don’t.
While school board elections are supposed to be non-partisan, some people quickly put Mahomet-Seymour candidates into two groups: Republicans and Democrats or recently, Meghan’s candidates or Max’s candidates.
It’s not hard to see these distinctions.
Who to support is a likely topic during election season at the Mahomet Republican’s Saturday morning breakfast. Letters from community members are sent out, saying “Vote for our ‘team.'” It is clear that candidates often have similar signage or group their signs together, they hold informational meetings and promote each other on social media.
But unlike McComb, Hennesy did not support any candidates in an election she was not a candidate in while sitting on the board. She did not sign any petitions for candidates in 2021, nor did she take to social media to voice her opinion on how constituents should vote. She did not go to meetings where candidates were talking about their issues and give her endorsement. From what we can see, there is no record of Hennesy supporting any candidate in 2021.
Prior to putting their names on the ballot, Keefe and Hennesy often talked about similar issues, including curriculum, classroom size, and technology at Mahomet-Seymour School Board meetings. They also held meetings for the public to talk about important issues like clearing the classroom and drug use in Mahomet-Seymour, but they did not run for the school board together. If Hennesy ran “with” anyone, it would have been Colleen Schultz, as the two shared a Facebook page, made videos together, and put their names on signs together.
In this, there certainly were connections, just as there were with four of the other candidates (Jeremy Henrichs, Jenny Park, Lance Raver, and Jason Tompkins). But this campaign was part of an organized effort that continued in the 2021 and 2023 elections. These candidates had nearly identical petition sheets, their signage popped up all over town overnight, and all four were backed by board president Max McComb.
When Hennesy ran for the board in 2019, McComb was not on the ballot. He did, though, run ads on his Mahomet-Seymour School Board President page for the candidates he endorsed (Henrichs, Park, Raver and Tompkins). The following are screenshots of ads found on the Facebook Ad Library.
In McComb’s statement to the News-Gazette, he wrote that Hennesy did not run for the 2023 election because the candidates “she backed” did not win in 2021. Again, Hennesy never supported any 2021 candidate, but three of the four candidates McComb supported in 2019 did lose. Yet, McComb still ran in 2021.
Supporting candidates or running with other candidates is not illegal unless district resources are being used to do so. The ethics of it seem to be within the eye of the beholder. Still, McComb’s statement is false. Hennesy did not support past candidates. McComb clearly did.
Furthermore, he stated that “good, solid candidates who care deeply about our schools” won in 2021, suggesting the other three candidates in 2021 were bad candidates or did not care about the schools, although they appeared to have just as much passion and interest in the school district becoming the best it could be during their campaign.
McComb did run in 2021 and clearly established running mates in Justin Lamb and Sunny McMurry. The three ran with the same “core values.”
And he did not mention two referendums that he visibly supported in 2022 that failed by sizable margins.
As to why Hennesy decided not to run in 2023, we asked. She submitted the following statement via email:
I’ve thought a lot about whether or not I should say anything in regards to my decision not to run for the Mahomet-Seymour School Board and the Sangamon Valley Public Water District board in 2023. I’ve decided to submit this statement in order to make it clear as to why I made the decision to step back because I want to use my voice rather than let others speak for me.
In the January 17, 2023 school board meeting, I once again outlined the frustrations I have felt with the priorities of this school board. I have stated time and again how not addressing the needs of kids and staff hurt all of us and I don’t feel the need to repeat it all again. Max McComb felt it appropriate to speak as to the reasons I am leaving, that somehow I have been defeated, by him and those who align with his priorities – but his audacity to speak for me was not only inappropriate, and is factually wrong on all levels.
My father is a Marine who fought in Vietnam. He, like so many others who have served our country, fought and paid untold prices to defend our ability to vote in our representatives. I have always believed that the job of a civil servant is an important one, and in 2019, I decided to serve those in my community who were in pain and asking for help. I believe that everyone deserves a voice and thought I would lend my voice to those unable or afraid to use their own. To represent and give focus to those students, teachers, parents, and taxpayers who were coming to me to ask for help and change. I believe that government entities, funded by taxpayer dollars, that are tasked with educating our youth should prioritize the needs of those students over all else. But if you look at the meetings, agenda items, discussions, and outcomes it is clear that the Mahomet-Seymour school board does not share this belief or my priorities. So as it came time to turn in ballots for the upcoming election, I decided that I needed to turn my energy and service in a different direction.
Before I got on the board, I was able to be part of the Mahomet-Seymour community in a way that I have not been allowed to for the last four years. Yes, I said allowed. I volunteered in my children’s schools, I held meetings to gather information from community members, I partnered with groups to try to make the day-to-day lives of our neighbors better. I now know that nothing I say on any board will make any difference if the others on that board prioritize special interests and the needs of only a few above the need to make our community stronger and better for everyone. Those who don’t like it pointed out: that their priorities are not the betterment of everyone, have attempted to silence me, villainize me and have certainly outvoted me. Still, it was important to me to say and do the things that I believed were right in order to open a space for others where there had not been space before.
Now, rather than serve on boards that don’t work to serve the needs of everyone, it is time to get back to raising my boys, to laugh with my friends, to use my creative energy in a more positive way, and to figure out new ways to engage in the community. I promise to continue the conversation and to hope that Mahomet-Seymour can one day become the community it has the potential to be. I’m not quitting, just taking the fork in the road.
Meghan Hennesy
