I have recently found 2 new website I'd like to share.
The first is the Hinckley Big Rock -Concerned Cititzens blog. I wanted to share this so you can see we have problems in common with our neighboring communities and actually throughout IL. By making ourselves aware, we can possibly read and share information and strategies for getting results within our home districts.
Secondly......
CITIZENS FOR REASONABLE AND FAIR TAXES -see the links on the right side of this blog page.
I have not been able to check out everything they have on their site, I did appreciate an explanation on the tax cap. Many times Dr. Jerome Roberts and others have used the tax cap as a reason for not receiving enough money to support our schools.
I feel better informed after reading this and hope you will, too. Just for reference, it discusses Consumer Price Index. I was not sure what it meant or how it affected our taxes, so I have included a link to better explain.
What is CPI ?
I would like to add, though I recommend this site to become a better informed voter, I do not agree with some of the things I have read about teachers unions. I will admit, I am a UAW member, so I am more appreciative of unions and their function in our community.
All in all, I felt this site worth a visit.
Also check out www.coslawaukegan.org. They have a great website, and even post videos of EVERY school board meeting to YouTube as well as their site.
ReplyDeleteIt's something we are looking at doing over here at H-BR 429.
Keith Lawler
cchbr429.blogspot.com
Keith I find that the citizen at D131 as big as this great city of Aurora is would rather complain than do anything like having someone come in and video tape the school board but just complain about it. You seem to have made some valid statements about your school district but we are still in the dark ages.
ReplyDeleteFolks, What are we going to do about this train wreck?
ReplyDeleteI noticed two comments in today's Beacon (one letter to the editor & one openline call).
ReplyDeleteBoth were concerned that gang activity and crime rates would increase if extracurriculars (sports, clubs, etc.) were cut. That's a very valid concern--kids who are busy with sports, music, or drama have less idle time to get into trouble, and are more likely to have a group of friends who are involved in positive activities.
I challenge administrators to compare test scores of kids involved in arts or sports with kids who do not participate. Time and again it's been proven that music raises reading & math scores, and many athletes study harder so they can maintain eligibility for sports. Seems to me that if the School Board REALLY cares about educating the kids they will be able to find some options other than taking away these valuable programs.
Or is the Board more interested in, maybe, preserving their perks (like the trip to California they enjoyed on the taxpayers' dime)?
This is very true, it happened in the 80's when they pulled this "cutting of programs." With the resulted moves of students from fine arts programs being forced into other classes and study halls, discipline problems will rise, with the overcrowding and disgruntled students.
ReplyDeleteStudents and families with the most to lose with athletics and academics will pull their children from the public schools and put them elsewhere.
Board member Mr. Salinas told me-he would pull his children from the 131 public schools if we lose those band and athletics. He says he can afford it, but many can not. In the 80's families put their children in the Christian schools or registered them with relatives in nearby districts.
We lose families now, who have concern for their children’s education, and actually sell their homes to move to more reputable districts for music and education.
Administration would like us to think, we are making great strides in improvement and it is due to the "programs" they pay for and administer(with our taxes) . When in actuality we are only just passing the minimum requirements. We are not excelling or even doing well. We are just getting the minimum required.
Do you think if our taxes go up and homeowners are paying more and still not getting an excellent education for their students, they will stay in our district, when they could move elsewhere and reap better services for their dollars?
We are paying for better looking schools, higher paid admin. and many fringe benefits for admin and their retirees, along with building "fluff" that does not enhance our children's education.
If cuts happen as scheduled-There will be many of the top achievers leaving -resulting in a bigger gap in the scores required to get off the "watch list", but because these scores will not reflect immediately, the quality of our schools and the education they are offering will continue to decline. By time the full affect is realized- the culprits of the cuts will probably be retiring and we, who live here, with and without children in this district, will be left with the mess and higher taxes if the district has their way.
Phew, I can go on and on, but how do we get the district to pay attention? With another NO vote and LOTS of outcry from the public.
Over two hundred students and parents, along with many letters to the editor and open line did not get District 131 administration to bat an eye, when appeals were made about the band director.
So friends and neighbors, alumni and 131 employees.....I know you are out there. Let your voice be heard. Attend a meeting, call open line, write the Beacon, call or email Dr. Roberts.
Document or share your appeals with us in this blog, so we can support one another in our efforts.
May I ask you to also, Pray for our schools and those in authority over them!
I too read the openline and letters to the editor. The gentlmen hit the nail on the head saying the american children (all legal citizens)will suffer as a result of all the illegals in the East system. Until they get a handle on the stituation the East schools will only get worse. Even if a referendum did pass, by some sort of miracle, would that get us any further than where we are today, No. When will they come back and ask for more? The illegals keep coming in every year, more and more and we are suppossed to subsidize this? Why should my kid not be able to have band, or math club or accelerated classes because all the money is being spent on ESL and Bilingual classes and grant money is being used to pay for school breakfasts because some of their parents do not even feed their children before going to school. Well my bank account is closed. You raise my taxes without addressing the real issue and my family and I are out of here.
ReplyDeleteI will advocate giving people opportunities. I will encourage all of us to remember our ancestors are all immigrants. LEGAL immigrants!
ReplyDeleteI will generously give a "hand up", but the "hand outs" have to stop.
My European grandparents learned English and made sure their children spoke English,also. My mom and her siblings did not have bilingual classes, nor were their parents offered translators. Services & Products were not offered to them in their native language. This did not discourage the pride in their home country. Their traditions were reminiscent of their birth country.
They were not able to run back and forth across a border. They used all they had to get to the USA and were unable to return till many years later. They had found a new home in this privileged country and were proud to be a part of it.
They contributed to it's wealth through being productive citizens. They refused to accept handouts and would have been ashamed to ask for them. My Grandfather was the sole bread winner of a family with 10 children.
I'd like to add-Not all hispanics are illegals, not all are sympathetic to the demands of illegals. We need to look at the individuals and their families that have broke the law and encourage our reps to enforce it.
District 131 needs to stop being a social service agency. Refer the needy to agencies whose specialty it is to attend to those needs.
I found this article on The Champion.org website from the Chicago Tribune from 12/14/06 by Lisa Black and Freelance writer Brian Cox. I copied only part of it but you should read it all.
ReplyDelete"While we had to cut programs, we didn't at the same time turn around and give exorbitant golden parachutes to administrators," Klaiber said. "It would have been distasteful, at the least. And then to turn around and ask for more money. ... It's not right. It's affecting our kids."
Although administrative salaries are set every year, the school board has historically used the teachers contracts as a guide in doling out raises, basing the practice on this sentence that appears in the administrative benefits package: "In no instance will an administrator receive fewer benefits than those provided to teachers."
Employees typically announce their retirements in advance to receive the end-of-career raises. In Evanston, employees have received a 20 percent raise annually two years before retirement, and then a 10 percent raise in their final working year, according to district records.
In 2004-05, the year former superintendent Alson retired, his salary jumped 19 percent, to $242,889. In the two previous years, respectively, his salary went up 9 percent and down 2 percent.
Current Supt. Eric Witherspoon receives a $200,000 salary and will not be eligible for the end-of-career salary bumps, Stafford said.
Friedman said school board members did not consider cutting back on administrative salaries rather than student programs before state law changed in 2005.
"Administrators have depended on that" pay bump for retirement, he said. But he said that from now on, raises will be performance-based.
Beginning in January, administrators who choose to elect the district's preferred provider organization plan will pay 20 percent of their health insurance premiums, about $400 monthly, he said.
Evanston Township has four administrators who will retire within two years, Stafford said. He said the school board has negotiated raises for each that will be lower than the 20-10 percent combination, ranging from 3 percent to 9 percent.
Stafford said he believes the district could have faced a lawsuit otherwise, after setting a precedent under the prior system.
Bruski disagreed.
"What is despicable is for the [school] board to have the audacity to say, `We can't do anything about this because that is the way they've been doing it for years,'" said Bruski, an Evanston High School alumna whose children also graduated from the school.
"Meanwhile, we're cutting, cutting, cutting. Most people do not know about this and they do not care unless it affects their students."
I'm not sure when that new law comes in affect but I think someone said the some of the administrators got a nice little raise so does that mean the school district had to pay a fine.
The public is looked upon as a bunch of suckers and I am getting tired of it. What is Linda Chapa LaVia, Linda Holmes, Chris Lauzen, Dennis Hastert, etc doing about all of this. Oh yeah they want to raise our income tax to pay for schools on top of referendums. It has got to stop. Let East cut whatever the heck they want. Let the district bleed till it cannot bleed no more. Children will be hurt in the process yet in the end a huge spotlight need to shine upon this district and show everyone the injustice that is occurring to the East Aurora taxpayer and the legal students.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't visited cchbr429blogspot.com you should. It has some very good articles about the district which sounds just like ours. There is also a cute one for Christmas that I think people will like. Who ever runs this blog maybe could contact them and put some of what they are saying on this one because I know some will not look at it. Maybe we could all work together to help get some things done.
ReplyDeleteHello 9:21 am and others,
ReplyDeleteI added the link to CCHBR because of the similarities in our dilemas.
(for those unfamiliar with this blog, it is on the right hand side of the page under "links". Just click on to see what another local district has been dealing with.)
A lady I attended church with writes a column for the Beacon and she had wrote one of her columns on the blog for CCHBR, Concerned Cititzens for Hinckley Big Rock.
Many 131 community members had been writing on the openline blog, I thought we should have one just for 131, eastsiders. I had started the gound work when I saw the column in the Beacon, I contacted CCHBR through my church friend and told him I wished to construct a blog. He helped me with some tech advice.
That is how the birth of this 131 blog came to be. Please encourage others to read our blog and CCHBR's. Help people realize what is going on in our district is not new or unique, but a wide spread problem in many school districts.
Don't forget 131 board meeting changed to 1/3/07.