Monday, January 8, 2007
District News
You can be put on the mailing list for District 131 by contacting Clayton Muhammad at cmuhammad@d131.org. When on the mailing list you will periodically receive a news of things going on in 131, press releases and "131 E-NEWS: SUPERINTENDENT'S WEEKLY MESSAGE"
In the Supt.'s message Dr. Roberts relays personal info and a bit of his weekly agenda.
I appreciate these personal glimpses and weekly updates.
I thought I'd share this with you in part, for the week of January 8th he tells us:
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District News
As the new year starts, I will continue the “Tuesday Talks with the Superintendent” with the community regarding the possibility of an April Referendum. The next talk is on Tuesday, January 16 at 12:00p.m. at East Aurora High School. Thank you to our principal, Sheila Conrad for hosting this meeting.
■If you are interested in working on the Referendum Review Council, the team that reviews the efforts of the last referendum campaign,please contact the Office of Community Relations. More information will be sent this week to those who have already signed up. Thank you for your concern about the district.
■We continue to meet to work on the district's Strategic Visioning Plan. The process is lengthy, but once it is complete, we will have a strong foundation for future planning.
Tuesday 01/09/07
• Meeting with District 129 Supt., Dr.Jim Rydland re: Referendum Talks
• Spanish Class
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I am wishful that during the talks with West Supt.
Dr. Roberts may return to 131 with some of West Aurora's long term goals and dedication to their band program.
Beacon News Dec. 23, 2006 "West compares it's taxes with other districts."
The statement made by Kevin Wegner-the West Aurora district's assistant supt. of finance.
"A successful referendum would be enough to fix the financial foundation for the long term and enable the district to start a refresh cycle for things like buses, computers, security cameras and band instruments."
District 131 has gotten grant money through the help of Chapa-LaVia for security items. Options could be for purchases of cameras and internet security and things of that nature. We have no buses, District 131 has not given money to band for instruments until they committed the high school band homicide. Then a one time amount was budgeted for the middle schools. Not sure why or how that happened. Will call it a gift horse.
Just putting a few things out there to think about while trying to figure out......what does East Aurora need more money for?
(Subliminal message-administration?)
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16 comments:
From what I've read recently in the Beacon, West High can really be proud of their band program. They recently played at the Chick-Fil-A college bowl game, which got them national recognition.
Meanwhile, over on the East Side, the "new, improved" high school band director can't even manage to get his band to Disney World.
Remind me again how this particular decision ("band homicide"!) was better for the students?? And why taxpayers are supposed to "trust" the School Board to suddenly be open and aboveboard in their dealings with the public?
what was the actual reason why the band director was removed? what did he do??
From what I understand, the whole thing started about 4 years ago when the Director of Secondary Education at the time (let's call him G.P.) began coming before the Board with "issues & concerns related to the leadership of the East High band". G.P. was a former principal at East (before Dr. Roberts) who seemed to have a personal vendetta against the band director going back several years. G.P., along with his pals from Minooka (the superintendent and a high-school athletic director/assistant principal), were able to convince the Board to get rid of SEVERAL good teachers (remember Roger Scott?) simply because these teachers were unwilling to kiss administrators' a$$es. And I remember that one specific issue was the band director's refusal to provide a pep band for last-minute scheduled basketball games (he asked the band members for input, and respected the parents' and kids' previous commitments).
In the case of the band director, hundreds of students, parents, former students, and fellow teachers wrote letters of support, put signs in their yards, called Openline, and organized a march to the service center to try to reason with the administrators. These concerned citizens were simply told "the issue is over" and "no comment".
I'm sure that some folks thought at the time, "Maybe the Board has some special insight into the situation, and a new band director is necessary to make the program better". Well, School Board, it's been two years--specifically HOW is the East High band program better? How do you justify ignoring all those hundreds of taxpayers and then expect us to "forget" being disrespected and disregarded?
As Ricky used to tell Lucy, "You got some 'splainin' to do"!
When the administrators ask for a passing of another referendum, we the concern citizens should say, "the issue is over, no comment".
Maybe while they are thinking about the referendum they could explain why for the past 4 years their General Administration cost are so high. The state average is 2.6 for 2005. D131 is 9.3, for 2004 9.1, for 2003 9.4 and 2002 7.1. Now D129 wants to compare taxes but I don't see any mention of the general administration cost of other districts which are really much lower than ours. D204's general administration cost for 2005 was 0.8 and they have much higher tax base.
From the office of Sheila Conrad-EAHS Principal
EA Community Advisory Committee meeting is scheduled for January 16th at 12:00 noon.
Superintendent, Dr. Jerome Roberts, will be hosting a community budget forum in lieu of the usual meeting.
Since more people are expected to be in attendance, they will be serving snacks instead of lunch on this date. The meeting location will be at East High School room 239 in order to accommodate the larger group.
Hope to see you there!
It was quoted from the Beacon in this post- "A successful referendum would be enough to fix the financial foundation
............security cameras and band instruments."
Today's Beacon adds to that, quoting the Supt.of the Westside as saying "They're fundamental, They're not frills."
What a refreshing outlook to the things our community and children fell important to us.
Rather than the 131 attitude of- To hell with the community opinion,let's slash and cut.
Proof that the ball was rolling on Kaisershot at least 3 years ago:
(partial copied for pertinent info only)
PERSONNEL/POLICY
BOARD COMMITTEE MINUTES
MEETING DATE: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 @ 5:30pm
VII. District Band Program Implications (Closed Session)
Mr.Gordon Postlewaite discussed the issues and concerns involving the leadership on the EHS Band Program in Executive Session at the April 5th. Detailed documentation and information exchanges were provided. A meeting has established in an attempt reach an acceptable improvement plan of action. The Board will be kept apprised.
Now you see who G.P. is
I was at Booster meetings when G.P. was in attendance on 1-2 occasions attempting to question the way K. ran things. K. did as his students and their families requested, when it came to committing to performances.
Rick Johnson and others tried to bully K. into doing more and spread the word that K. "would not do as he was told" making him sound like an insubordinate.
When in actuality he was a dedicated instructor with family values. Family values-Not something on the 131 agenda. Maybe in word but not deed.
Does anyone know if you still need to rsvp for the the forum at east high?
Yes, you do need to R.S.V.P. for this. Sorry, cannot give you the # for this but call the service center to do this. I R.S.V.P and got a voice mail and as of yet this has not been acknowledged. Good luck to you.
I am wondering where the money is coming from for what is going to be served at this meeting. What Dr. Roberts makes, he could pay for this out of his own pocket, after all, we the ones who is being asked for this referendum do not make 1/3 a yerar what he does and he does not even live here.
Marin Gonzales is also one who was agaisnt K. Why? She lives on the west side and her child is having problems. Also, was the position that she has now been made for her at the salary she is earning? She is making alot of money for what?
I see West's Ryland has a nice little spread in the paper. Still not sure if he is any better than Roberts. I will say he is slicker and nows how to market a tax increase. If I hear this justification that "we have not had a tax rate increase in ** years" I am going to ______. This means absolutely nothing and should be a poor reflection on our current board and administration.
I received a Bush joke today in my email and have modified it to fit the local upset over certain "governing" bodies. For amusement only, enjoy.
A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science. The new element has been named "eastauroracronium” Eastauroracronium has one neutron, 17 principal neutrons, 75 assistant neutrons and 38 assistant assistant neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 131.
These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.
The symbol for eastauroracronium is "EA". Eastauroracronium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant neutrons in a eastauroracronium molecule, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that eastauroracronium is formed when morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "critical morass." When catalyzed with money, eastauroracronium activates beaconewsium, an element that radiates orders of magnitude and more energy, albeit as incoherent noise. Beaconewsium has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.
I'm amazed with some of the new information that has been posted on this board, regarding people such as Gonzalez and people on the board.
I really agree with other people on this blog, that the only way to actually cause things to happen, is to begin removing some of the people that are currently on the board. I know for a fact that some of them have been on the board since I was in gradeschool (I'm currently a college sophomore).
The district is extremely dissapointing to me, and I wish that there were more people could do to change things---no matter how much people do, and how much they protest against the board does, nothing ever budges. Everything seems to go over their head, as they just condescendingly pat us on the shoulders and continue ignoring us.
There is nothing new on this blog. The same old stuff. What happened to k and the band director is done and we have to move on. I'm not saying what happened is right but we have to move on and stop the maddness. We have to look into the things that we know that they have done wrong and go to the proper agency to report these things. There is just more going on than the problems with the band, overspending for one thing. When companies are going through cash flow problems they cut back on things like when the super has his Tuesday talk people bring their own lunch or snacks. We have to when our managers have lunch time talks. Check that petty cash fund I bet that is being used for things it shouldn't be. This district does seem to spend alot on general administration funds more that most districts.
To the college sophomore, you are a very insightful young person. It would be refreshing to have some new younger people show up at some of the meetings and let the admin. and board know that you are registered voters, educating yourself and paying attention and want answers.
The "band" stuff cannot be forgotten, especially when we read about West trying to give to their program and East is trying to kill the whole program. From what I read, about East, it sounds like it was not something that was decided because of the budget, but rather personal issues.
Just more proof of power plays and mismanagement.
We have "looked into the things that we know that they have done wrong and gone to the proper agency to report those things." We need to keep educating anyone that asks, (like blog #2 above) and repeating and reminding people of all the indiscretions.
Do not let people be fooled by all the new promises. You are right, there IS more going on than the problems with the band, overspending for one thing, is true. We need to be worrying about more than snacks. Keep the history of this board in the forefront so people do not forget at election time.
This is NOT about how much the administration wants to do for our kids but what our kids educational funds can do for our administration.
Great input from everyone and to anon 7:42 am I love it! Sums everything up pretty well I think.
To the college sophomore, kudo's to you for speaking your mind. I also encourage you to come to a meeting OR if you are away at school, please email your comments into the board or if you like send them to me via this blog and I would be more than happy to express your thoughts to the board myself.
To all, lets not get discouraged. This board and administration has had their way for a very long time and we as community members have let them. Change does not come around easily or quickly but all good things are worth working and waiting for. I am so encouraged by what I read and those joining this march for change. Let's learn from our past mistakes and go forward in the knowledge that we are doing something extremely important.
Once again.
I am proud to be an East Aurora Alumni and an East Aurora resident. I am proud to be with this group of people that want to make a difference and believe in the quality of all who reside here. Change has been a long time coming but will be sweet in the end. We Eastsiders are fighters and we have a big battle before us but not impossible. I welcome all to come and join us. The more the merrier!
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