By: Diane Benjamin
Below are the charges made in April and May 2019 – by person. I’m going to dissect each one.
- Sam’s Club – no receipt
- Lowes: The receipt is labeled “Skills USA”. It includes Sales Tax of $33.92.
- Home Depot: $598, the receipt doesn’t say what the “miter” equipment is for. No sales.
- Walmart: $65.15 at Walmart for “field easels”. Tax of $5.24 was paid.
- Lowes: $54.31. Sales Tax of $4.37.
- Subway – no receipt
- Papa John’s – no receipt
- Walgreen’s for photos: $28.73, no tax. Purchases at Walgreens earn points according to the receipt. Who gets to spend them?
This was a custom order – no tax. The receipt doesn’t say what it is for: 
- 22.28 for a book, including tax of $1.31
- 18.06 for another book. including sales tax of $1.06
- Amazon – no receipt
- Amazon $60.44 for markers including sales tax of $3.56
- Panera – no receipt
- 4TE intenet vehicle – plate renewal and $2.37 fee
- Farm and Fleet: 3 pairs of jeans plus a Keurig coffee brewer, no tax charged.See Barry Reilly below – he bought the coffee
- Illinois ASBO – 1 day at annual school district conference
- Amazon – no receipt
- ASBO – Colin Manahan membership dues
- Amazon – no receipt
- Amazon – no receipt
- Amtrak – Chicago, not marked why
- Amazon – no receipt
- IASB $35.00 looks like a book
- Lego – Summer Enrichment receipts total $859.64, not $1,178.98 Lego
- GoDaddy – Renewal of all the domains purchased last year
- Prime video – HBO
- Amazon – receipt doesn’t match charge – see all receipts for Amazon: Amazon purchases
- Amazon – $739.19 multiple receipts
- Amazon – AWS service charge (Amazon Web Services)
- GoDaddy – Renewal of all the domains purchased last year
- Amazon – an adapter, no sales tax
As far as I can tell, non of the domains purchased are being publicly used. FOIA needed.
- 6.69, non-descriptive receipt
- Keurig – 216 K-Cups. the coffee totaled $144.91. The rest is shipping and/or sales tax. A receipt with the total broken out wasn’t included.
- Amtrak is Chicago and back for various people, no reasons listed
- $32.75 was for four of these, no sales tax:
- Jimmy Johns – it looks like receipt says “PE Taskforce lunch:
- Caslon – all the receipt says is “for DW”. It doesn’t say what was bought
- Amazon – Apple pencil and case
- Amazon – 25 copies of the same book
- Amazon – 15 copies of the same book
- Delta – No receipt
- Hilton Disney World – No receipt
- Schnucks – 2 x “6 MUM Tri-Color”. Sales tax $2.27 + Rewards points “MTSS Thank you gift”
- Amazon – storage containers for classrooms
- Einstein’s – appreciation meeting, includes tax of $10.50
- PotBelly – includes tax of $13.98, receipt doesn’t say what it is for
- Amazon – Prime membership fee
- DIDAX – for teacher’s in-service
- Amazon – feminine hygiene products
- Holiday Inn – No receipt
Sales tax on the receipts I have totaled $76.21.
Are you tired of District 87 yet?
Should I keep going?
This is just awful. Do these people have no shame?
One thought about Amazon purchases. I’m not sure it’s possible to do a tax-exempt purchase through Amazon (and other online retailers). It may be the case that it is cheaper to order from Amazon and pay the sales tax than to buy in-person and get the sales tax exemption (especially if you include the time and mileage for the employee to do the shopping).
Some of the purchases weren’t charged sales tax.
ISU is able to do tax exempt Amazon purchases. This is just government employees stealing from children, of whom 58% or more live in poverty. Think Barry cares? I assure he does not.
He’s busy sipping expensive coffee evidently.
what ever happened to buy local? guess it doesnt apply to 87!
No kidding! Amazon is so much easier than supporting local businesses.
Some questions – WHY do they have to use Keurig cups coffee? Why can’t they use the reusable cups and cheaper coffee? Why can’t they use regular old style coffee pots like us peasants? Why do they have to order from only certain places to eat? (One would think they would get tired of the same places all the time) Why can’t they go to say McDs and order off the Dollar/Value menu or Taco Bell or the like now and then? WHY do they always eat at places like Anju etc. when they do their feeds? Why not some place like El Porton or Rosy’s Grill, or other lower priced but good food places? In fact, WHY do WE pay to feed them at ALL for that matter? I also often wonder if some of these no receipt Amazon etc charges are for PERSONAL use, I’m fairly sure at least SOME are to be honest.
Remember all this next time they want to raise our school district taxes!
Any comment from the District 87 Superintendent of Schools ? This is the usual blend of incompetence and corruption, and a complete scorn towards property tax payers. Should we all withhold the school tax portion of our property taxes? The time for free lunches needs to end. It is time for these genuine Jypsees to be tried in the court of public opinion. Diane , you are the best investigative reporter that I have read in a long time. I thank you again for your diligence and the high quality of your work.
Jim
No response so far.
WHY do WE THE PEOPLE even have to buy THEIR coffee AT ALL?? And WHO is going to use the JEANS??
I DO NOT recall in ALL my years at Bloomington schools ever seeing the school building wear jeans, and we even had to use our OWN for Halloween “monsters” & plays.. So that REALLY begs the question–BARRY???
It gets worse!
Obviously their use of public funds for (personal) expenses is being grossly abused. It’s high time we no longer buy lunches, or dinners, or any food products at all for these people. Eating is something that you have to do for basic survival. Why are we paying for this? As a kid when I went to school, MY PARENTS GAVE ME LUNCH MONEY or sent me to school with A SACK LUNCH!!! When I go to seminars, etc., I gotta pay for my own lunch! They need to pay for their own survival. Ya GOTTA eat every day and we shouldn’t have to pay for it! If they’re that poor let them stop off at a grocery store and get a loaf of white bread and some baloney. It’s so much more fitting!
This is repulsive. They have no right to live this large on the tax payers dime. They are careless and lazy. How dare they sit at the bargaining table as though they are poor and destitute when they clearly are not. As a matter of fact, it is no longer the case that teachers, in 2019, are poorly compensated slaves. I know several teachers, all of whom live extremely well in very nice home. They can take their old and tired “poor me” song & dance and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
Let me get this right, this is the same group that ushered beloved teacher Marc Tiritilli out of his position at D87 for trying to save the District $50,000?
Disgruntled – I am sure somebody was getting a sweetheart deal for themselves on the new equipment… therefore saving taxpayer money was certainly NOT a high priority.
And yet no one has at qualms about contributing to the coffers politicians wanted to be elected…..
The problem locally is very few do. It’s open season for leftists to take power. Good people hate asking for money and therefore don’t have any to pend but their own.