The previous post was getting rather lengthy with comments, so I thought for ease of reading I would start a new posting.
I have taken the last few comments and posted them here from the previous blog to keep the dialog going.
Feel free to post comments to any of the blogs.
I would like to hear suggestions/ comments from all members of the eastside community and the school communities. Parents, teachers and residents in general, we need your input. Come on in and post your thoughts.
173 comments:
Anonymous said...
Where are the minutes from the 11/19 school board meeting? They where approved at the 12/3 meeting so they should be on the website.
January 8, 2008 10:09 AM
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Anonymous said...
I take it nothing happened in regards to Clayton and Boys II Men at last nights board meeting?
January 8, 2008 12:48 PM
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Anonymous said...
It is out of the board hands now that the Regional Superintendent is looking into it. The least this school board could do is saying something about it.
January 8, 2008 2:53 PM
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Anonymous said...
Date set today.
A board workshop Is scheduled to take place on Thursday, January 10th at 6:00 p.m.
The topic of discussion will be “Referendum Discussion”.
It would be nice to have community input so when a consensus of the board is taken, we know how to vote on behalf of those we represent.
Please spread the word and try to attend. I will attempt to get more info to you before Thursday.
Sincerely,
Rayanne
January 8, 2008 6:07 PM
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Anonymous said...
Who called this workshop meeting and where is it being held? The district administrators are all scrambling to find out who organized this. Has it been sanctioned by the district or is an outside source sponsoring it?
January 9, 2008 12:56 PM
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Rayanne said...
The workshop was suggested at the Monday board meeting.
Plans were coordinated through the service center and board president to set a date agreeable to all board members.
Thursday was the date agreed upon.
It was to have been posted yesterday afternoon.
January 9, 2008 3:46 PM
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Rayanne said...
Please check the district website and you should now find the Board Bits for November 19th and December 17th.
January 6, 2008 3:54 PM asked:
Rayanne normally has alot to say here. Why have you been so quiet on this Clayton Issue?
I have not been quiet, I have been asking questions elsewhere. Those posting here seemed to be taking care of matters. I do not fully understand how to prove a violation of this law, and how to enforce it when it may be broken. A poster commented this concern has been reported, so there is not much else to do at this point. I know Clayton and his boss are aware of the concern. What more can I say?
I have been working hard, also trying to find common ground with others in admin and the board so we may find solutions for 131's financial woes, other than borrowing more $$ or cutting students programs or teachers. If you have paid attention to what goes on in district, you should be well aware, there is discussion going on about another referendum being put on the ballot, and the plans for cuts.
I personally feel we have looked for ways around that and many folks have prayed for answers. We have received additional tax revenue for one year (2 million)and additional $$ from the state have been allocated to the schools.
We should count those blessings.
I feel there are other answers to our financial problems, we just have to be open to new and different ideas other than those currently under construction.
It would truly help to have community input, whether you blog it, attend a meeting or contact me personally. I am speaking for 131 community when I cast a vote from the board table, let me know your thoughts on any & all issues, please.
January 11, 2008 2:56 AM
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Anonymous said...
If I remember correctly, when the district wanted to pass the referendum originally they claimed that they needed to cut 2 million dollars for each of the next three years to balance the budget. That totals 6 million dollars.
The district received over 2 million dollars "more than expected" in local property taxes. I understand that I and everybody I know pays property taxes each and every year so I don't understand how the district can claim that they get this "extra money" in property taxes for only one year. Further, the state has allocated $400 per pupil per year in extra funding. This means in a district of 13,000 students, the district will receive an extra 5.2 million dollars per year. This totals somewhere between 7.5 and 8 million dollars per year in extra funding.
Unless the district has given Dr. Roberts a several million dollar raise when becoming superintendent or they have been hiding more severe financial problems from the community, the numbers just don't add up.
They needed to cut 2 million dollars a year to balance the budget and they are receiving nearly 8 million dollars a year more than they were expecting. I know I studied real math (instead of the new math our students now receive) growing up but that should add up to a 6 million dollar surplus.
The only other possibility was that they needed to cut 2 million plus 2 million plus 2 million so that over time they were cutting 6 million a year, in which case we should still have a couple of million dollars in surplus funds every year.
I don't understand how they can still be talking referendum and cutting programs and teachers.
January 11, 2008 7:22 AM
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Anonymous said...
I see in the 12/17 minutes that is says Juanita Well as secretary which isn't true cause Bud was still it on that date so when did she get picked to be secretary?
January 11, 2008 7:47 AM
In response to January 11, 7:47.
I am unable to access the website at this time. I hope it is due to updating. I am anxious to read the minutes,and will get back to you.
As for 7:22pm, we were thinking along the same lines, you and I. I asked very similar questions during the discussion at last nights meeting.
Jay Augustine, the persson in charge of the districts finances, tells me, yes we did receive $2 million from property taxes.
I am unsure as to why we will not continue to have this "extra" money in each future years tax monies.
I know Russ, a previous board member, explained something to the fact, some of the money was money that was owed by folks late in paying taxes, etc. and has just now been received. If anyone reading this has a better understanding, please jump in.
As for the $400. Jay explained this amount includes the $150. we were already receiving and is actually a $250. increase. BUT...he says this $400 amount was already budgeted when they came up with the $6 million shortage.
I will try to relay the revised budget numbers as they are relayed to me.
Till later
Why would they budget something they really didn't know they had? Also at the one meeting that Russell talked he also said that they cann't bring in more money than the said they where going to get when they where talking about the 2 million. Don't know what he meant by that. I think some double talk is going on here. We need someone who knows how to really knows how to run a school district.
Even if we take Jay Augustines words at face value, it doesn't explain how we can be receiving 6 to 8 million dollars more this year than last year and still be short approximately 2 million dollars. In other words what is costing the district 10 million dollars more this year than last year. This has not been explained.
The next point I want to make is that when the district had Anthony Turiciano as our district buisiness manager we had a budget that ran in the black year after year. Since hiring Jay Augustine the budget has been running in the red every year.
The building level budgets have been slashed to the point where we are spending almost nothing on students, the teachers are the lowest paid in the county, and we are receiving 8 million dollars a year more now than we were before.
WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING???
THESE NUMBERS ARE JUST NOT ADDING UP!!!
Rayanne--
Thanks for the info about the Board Bits from Nov. & Dec. being posted.
What about the missing "bits" from 2005 and 2006? Is someone trying to hide something, d'ya think??
If you want the board bits that are missing you should FOIA them. As stated before legally they only have to leave the board bits on for 60 days and with the way that website is do you really want them messing around with it to put them on. So if you really want them get them that way.
Rayanne and Dee may faith help you in the next few days with the picking of the new board member. I know you will do your best to get a good replacement. I also hope the other board members will do there best to get the right choice and not someone that will always agree with them until they ask the right questions.
To anon 5:24 Thank you! I appreciate your thoughts and prayers.
This week will be a busy one. I have a calendar set up at http://calendar.yahoo.com/dweavfam6@sbcglobal.net. I have board meetings, committee meetings. school info (that I have). I have asked for a board calendar but have yet to receive one so I have set this up myself. As I am informed, you will be informed.
Whenever a vacancy occurs, the remaining members shall notify the regional superintendent of that vacancy within 5 days after its occurrence and shall proceed to fill the vacancy until the next regular school election, at which election a successor shall be elected to serve the remainder of the unexpired term. However, if the vacancy occurs with less than 868 days remaining in the term, or if the vacancy occurs less than 88 days before the next regularly scheduled election for this office then the person so appointed shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term, and no election to fill the vacancy shall be held. Should they fail so to act, within 45 days after the vacancy occurs, the regional superintendent of schools under whose supervision and control the district is operating, as defined in Section 3‑14.2 of this Act, shall within 30 days after the remaining members have failed to fill the vacancy, fill the vacancy as provided for herein. Upon the regional superintendent's failure to fill the vacancy, the vacancy shall be filled at the next regularly scheduled election. Whether elected or appointed by the remaining members or regional superintendent, the successor shall be an inhabitant of the particular area from which his or her predecessor was elected if the residential requirements contained in Section 10‑10.5 or 12‑2 of this Code apply
What does that mean. Did you do the math, cruch the number, did the school board "break this code" and you are upset about it. Do you want to hold an election that costs who knows how much for 1,000 people to show up and replace Bud when in fact most people do care enough to even devote 1 minute of thought to the East Aurora Schools. You don't even know what that code means. You just found it online and thought it sounded offical so you posted it here.
6:11--
Thank you for posting this. Unlike the previous poster at 8:24 a.m., I appreciate knowing exactly what the law requires regarding replacing a board member. After all, we need to make sure that the rules are followed and that everyone is informed about procedures.
Maybe 8:24 prefers ignorance to knowledge.
Again, thanks for posting this info!
You can find it in the school code look it up.
I do prefere ignorance. I find it refreshing to lying and stupidity.
Illinois Compiled Statutes
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(105 ILCS 5/10‑10) (from Ch. 122, par. 10‑10)
Sec. 10‑10. Board of education; Term; Vacancy. All school districts having a population of not fewer than 1,000 and not more than 500,000 inhabitants, as ascertained by any special or general census, and not governed by special Acts, shall be governed by a board of education consisting of 7 members, serving without compensation except as herein provided. Each member shall be elected for a term of 4 years for the initial members of the board of education of a combined school district to which that subsection applies. If 5 members are elected in 1983 pursuant to the extension of terms provided by law for transition to the consolidated election schedule under the general election law, 2 of those members shall be elected to serve terms of 2 years and 3 shall be elected to serve terms of 4 years; their successors shall serve for a 4 year term. When the voters of a district have voted to elect members of the board of education for 6 year terms, as provided in Section 9‑5, the terms of office of members of the board of education of that district expire when their successors assume office but not later than 7 days after such election. If at the regular school election held in the first odd‑numbered year after the determination to elect members for 6 year terms 2 members are elected, they shall serve for a 6 year term; and of the members elected at the next regular school election 3 shall serve for a term of 6 years and 2 shall serve a term of 2 years. Thereafter members elected in such districts shall be elected to a 6 year term. If at the regular school election held in the first odd‑numbered year after the determination to elect members for 6 year terms 3 members are elected, they shall serve for a 6 year term; and of the members elected at the next regular school election 2 shall serve for a term of 2 years and 2 shall serve for a term of 6 years. Thereafter members elected in such districts shall be elected to a 6 year term. If at the regular school election held in the first odd‑numbered year after the determination to elect members for 6 year terms 4 members are elected, 3 shall serve for a term of 6 years and one shall serve for a term of 2 years; and of the members elected at the next regular school election 2 shall serve for terms of 6 years and 2 shall serve for terms of 2 years. Thereafter members elected in such districts shall be elected to a 6 year term. If at the regular school election held in the first odd‑numbered year after the determination to elect members for a 6 year term 5 members are elected, 3 shall serve for a term of 6 years and 2 shall serve for a term of 2 years; and of the members elected at the next regular school election 2 shall serve for terms of 6 years and 2 shall serve for terms of 2 years. Thereafter members elected in such districts shall be elected to a 6 year term. An election for board members shall not be held in school districts which by consolidation, annexation or otherwise shall cease to exist as a school district within 6 months after the election date, and the term of all board members which would otherwise terminate shall be continued until such district shall cease to exist. Each member, on the date of his or her election, shall be a citizen of the United States of the age of 18 years or over, shall be a resident of the State and the territory of the district for at least one year immediately preceding his or her election, shall be a registered voter as provided in the general election law, shall not be a school trustee or a school treasurer, and shall not be a child sex offender as defined in Section 11‑9.3 of the Criminal Code of 1961. When the board of education is the successor of the school directors, all rights of property, and all rights regarding causes of action existing or vested in such directors, shall vest in it as fully as they were vested in the school directors. Terms of members are subject to Section 2A‑54 of the Election Code.
Nomination papers filed under this Section are not valid unless the candidate named therein files with the secretary of the board of education or with a person designated by the board to receive nominating petitions a receipt from the county clerk showing that the candidate has filed a statement of economic interests as required by the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act. Such receipt shall be so filed either previously during the calendar year in which his nomination papers were filed or within the period for the filing of nomination papers in accordance with the general election law.
Whenever a vacancy occurs, the remaining members shall notify the regional superintendent of that vacancy within 5 days after its occurrence and shall proceed to fill the vacancy until the next regular school election, at which election a successor shall be elected to serve the remainder of the unexpired term. However, if the vacancy occurs with less than 868 days remaining in the term, or if the vacancy occurs less than 88 days before the next regularly scheduled election for this office then the person so appointed shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term, and no election to fill the vacancy shall be held. Should they fail so to act, within 45 days after the vacancy occurs, the regional superintendent of schools under whose supervision and control the district is operating, as defined in Section 3‑14.2 of this Act, shall within 30 days after the remaining members have failed to fill the vacancy, fill the vacancy as provided for herein. Upon the regional superintendent's failure to fill the vacancy, the vacancy shall be filled at the next regularly scheduled election. Whether elected or appointed by the remaining members or regional superintendent, the successor shall be an inhabitant of the particular area from which his or her predecessor was elected if the residential requirements contained in Section 10‑10.5 or 12‑2 of this Code apply.
A board of education may appoint a student to the board to serve in an advisory capacity. The student member shall serve for a term as determined by the board. The board may not grant the student member any voting privileges, but shall consider the student member as an advisor. The student member may not participate in or attend any executive session of the board.
(Source: P.A. 93‑309, eff. 1‑1‑04; 94‑231, eff. 7‑14‑05; 94‑1019, eff. 7‑10‑06.)
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It has been exactly one month and counting since the regional superintendant has been investigating whether the Boys II Men Fraternity is a fraternity. Is this really something that should take more than a month to decide? I wish I had a job where I could take a month or more to make simple decisions and get paid $80,000 a year to do it.
Yes well the regional superintendant is at least pretending to do something about this illegal situation. Our district leaders knew about this for years and did absolutely nothing.
And our administrators get paid a whole lot more than $80,000 for doing nothing.
How about the RETIRED administrators who get $100,000+ per year for doing absolutely nothing? Like "Serial Bully" Radakovich, who did nothing good for the kids in the district while he was superintendent?
In looking into the B2M have found out that it is Clayton's supervisor that needs to be addressed in this. The school board itself cannot become involved and this is probably why they never have addressed it. Although this is of interest to me, it is the referendum that is getting my priority right now. Until this board can answer truthfully why they need this money without making some obvious adjustments, they will never get my vote for it. One suggestion would be for the administrators and superintendant to have a ceiling put on their salaries for awhile. It certainly is not right to expect us in such a poverty area to pay more, when their salaries keep raising and there is nothing to show for it. I find this true especially for Dr.Roberts, who just keeps trying to get a referendum to pass, and it will certainly not affect him since he does not live here and from what I have seen, is not looking for anyway to make cuts that is obivious to many others. He still has not come up with the stratigic plan(Ryland had his right away and he started not to long after Roberts)he was supposed to. I certainly do not see that he is doing a good job at all-and I am putting that nicely. Where is his involvement in this community? I really believe he should be fired as he has more than proven not to be doing his job at all and if was any of us working this way, we would have been with no severance pay.
The administrator salaries don't need a ceiling, they need the floor to be removed from below them. To give you an example of how out of whack administrator salaries have been you only have to look at the most obvious salary.
The last published district superintendent salary was Dr. Radakovich's. He made $261,000 for his last years salary. Compare that to Chicago Public Schools Superintendant salary. For the same year the CPS superintendent made $183,000.
Our superintendent supervises 16 schools and about 13,000 students while the CPS superintendent leads over 600 schools and over 435,000 students.
Our board wants us to believe that the only way we can get a superintendent of quality is to pay ridiculous amounts of money in salaries. Well we have been paying ridiculous amounts of money but the quality hasn't improved, it has actually gotten worse. It is no wonder last years Kane County Regional Superintendent, Clem Majia, was making public comments about how out of line our administrator salaries had become.
There were 8 administrators on the east side that made roughly the same or more pay than the superintendent on the west side. The west side superintendent made $123,000 for 2006. on the east side of town:
Radakovich Michael $261,451.00Vaughn James $190,215.00
Struck John $185,603.00
Augustine Jay $131,200.00
Roberts Jerome $126,000.00
Navota Mary $125,861.00
White Mary $122,730.00
Benevides Anne $122,647.00
By the way John Struck didn't work in 2006 but he continued to collect his salary for the year. I am not sure if Jim Vaughn worked or not.
Also Mary Dudzienski (the union president) made $134,755.00
for this sum of money, she taught one class of students.
Is there any wonder why the district is having financial problems? Why do we even have a school board if the boards first responsibility, which is to keep the administrators and their decisions in check, is not being accomplished.
These salaries are obscene for a district such as this. There are still a few more board members that need to be replaced by community members with common sense.
Aurora Community Candidate Forum
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 @ 7pm
Prisco Center
150 W. Illinois Ave; Aurora
Join A+ Illinois for a converstaion with state legislative
candidates.
Emil Jones from Chicago is a big supporter of A+ and the only children they are concerned for is the ones from Chicago so don't believe if they say they want to help any other district.
Yes the salaries for the administration in this district is way out of line for what we get in return. The salary for Roberts is for when he was assistant superintendent and he is making way more now for what? In fact any of the administrators in this district since they are so worried about how this new testing this year is going to be. If the state has to put santions in next year so be it maybe they can show them how this district should be runned. It also takes the community to stand up and say they want changes and I don't believe they will. They complain but they do not stand up to this district and tell them. It takes more than voting no for a referendum to show them
You post these things on the blog but do you have enough nerve to go to a school board meeting and say it to there faces? Nothing will be done until this happens.
The Sup. on the west side now makes more than 180K plus has a car allowance and other perks.
Dr. Roberts, while well paid, makes about 170k and is reimbursed for mileage. The Oswego Sup. makes over 205K and the 204 sup. makes over 225K. Just to put things in perspective.
Where did you find this information on Roberts? He should not be reimbursed for mileage, as it is HIS CHOICE not to move to this district. Also, at a board meeting when Russell was speaking right before he left, he mentioned that Roberts just got a raise, but it was not mentioned how much it was. Yes, some have spoken to the boards faces, but it falls on mostly deaf ears and any board member or person who goes to meetings is aware of the few who do and this would include the beacon reporter, every administrator that is there, teachers, Clayton and the superintentdant.
Dr. Roberts seems to have integrity, and works hard for this district.
What did Radakovich ever do that was good for the kids?
Many of us may believe that Dr.Roberts has integrity, but he is just not doing his job as a superintendant should be doing.
To: 6:00 PM
It is interesting that all three districts that you mentioned have passed referendums in recent years and their districts are all showing surplus funds. They all also well below what we paid Radakovich.
It also makes one wonder how many of them went to their districts and said "Hey, look at what they are paying superintendents in 131 I guess I deserve more".
Let's put these salaries in better perspective and compare them to others you may have heard of:
Illinois Govenor Rod Blagojevic
$150,691
Secretary of State Jessie White
$132,963
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan $132,963
Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias $115,235
Kane County Regional Superintendent of Schools Doug Johnson Approximately $80,000
School superintendent salaries have gotten way out of hand and not only in this district. Here is another way of looking at it. In my classroom I receive approximately $1.50 per student to spend on each child and those funds are collected as student fees. In other words the district spends nothing on supplies or equipment. On the other hand when you figure Radakovich's salary of $261,000 that is equivalent to $20.00 for each and every student in the district. I think that money can be much better spent on the children.
One more way to think about it, If you paid Radakovich $161,000 instead of the $261,000 he still would have mad more money than the govenor made but we would have had enough money to fund all the sports, clubs and activities for the entire district for an entire year.
When you look at it in these ways, you realize just how sick these salaries have become. This money belongs to the community and it's children. I can't believe the school board can look at these salaries and think this sounds reasonable by any stretch of the imagination.
I am sure if these salaries actually came out their own pockets instead of the communities, they might think twice about them.
Dr. Roberts is reimbursed for mileage while driving on school district business, not from his house to work. Radakovich's salary was inflated due to a retirement bonus that no longer exist. The school board was suckered on his salary, but it could has been worse. Elgin is paying their sup. over 500K and she moved to Missouri last fall on a "medical leave", leaving the school district in a real bind, and had the gall to bill them for the moving expenses which they paid (part of her contract).
Well if that's the standard you are setting, then our students are doing wonderful. Let's look at East St. Louis or some Chicago Public Schools, in comparison our students are doing just fine. Standards are pretty low in this district if we look at the worst case scenario and as long as we're better than that that we feel we're doing just fine.
Elgin did get screwed on that deal because their school board were idiots. Now the entire town is in an uproar and the case is in court. Do we always have to compare ourselves to the worst out ther?
No, as a matter of fact, we do not have to compare ourselves to the worse or best out there. We need to set our own standards and adhere to them. That can only be done with the committees involvement, which we do not have. There is nothing wrong with looking into what out districts have done to see how we may avoid something or to get some good ideas. Again, until this committee steps up we cannot expect, I know I don't, for the few who have to be able to do it all. They are trying to handle sitituations or to change things, that are being ignored by the others that could do something, obsticals are being put in their way, given things to find out answeres about that the superintendant and administration should be doing in a very short time(almost impossible,but much to these ones dismay is being accomplished),etc. There are board members and a very few community people who are trying to do their best on this, but it takes involvement of all.
Sorry, I put committees where I meant communities.
This magnet school idea has pluses and minuses. On the surface it looks wonderful. Provide outstanding services for our best students. The down side is that:
1) If you take all the students that are in the meets and exceeds catagories and place them in one school, every other school is now full of students that don't meet or exceed. That invites further sanctions from the state and feds. for having failing schools.
2) What do you think these classes are going to cost and where do you think the money is going to come from. If we spend extra money at the magnet school to make their class sizes smaller, the shortfall of cash is going to translate into larger class sizes at the other schools.
So now we have 1 school with the best and brightest working in a new facilitie with the best teachers and the smallest class sizes. The remaining students of the district are in the older buildings, with not the best teachers, in classes that are overpopulated, full of the lowest performing students and the state and feds imposing sanctions for having to high a percentage of students in the does not meets catagory.
This plan looks good for the news sound bites but the community and board better take a hard look at the probable repercussions of such a move.
Yes, I have mixed feelings to about the gifted kids and the kids that need help with school work that are just alittle above the spanish to english students that don't get help.
As far as maybe later they have a school of there own the district will first need to fix the schools we have and make sure there is enough room for the students in those schools. I wonder if they are thinking they might get that 5.3 acres that bigelow donated? I for one would never vote for a building referendum for that.
This is a good idea but we first need to fix the middle schools and high schools test scores.
I think before we have outstanding services for our best students we should have outstanding services for all our children. As the district stated in the paper after this years testing they will proably be on a watch list and have state sancions so don't you think they should work on this first.
The money factor is also a concern. They say we need more anyway so why start something like this up now when they don't even know a referendum will pass.
Here is a link that explains magnet schools.
http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/2
It's a very interesting article and I think everyone should read it before you make a decsion for one in this district.
What do you think Roberts wants that referendum for?
If he has more money to play with (cash in the bank) it is easier to juggle funds around and use "surplus" to do with as he sees fit.
Reminder: there was a $20 million surplus, that Roberts admittedly "spent down" knowing they could not come to the voting public and ask for money if there was some in the bank.
History repeating itself in short order, maybe??
I do have problems with Roberts but he was not in there when they had the 20 million. That must of been when the serial bully and the old board was in there. What we need in this district is more parents to come in and make them be accountable.
There is alot of the old board still left. Roberts was around at the end of the 20 million. Roberts is not making an attempt to find a better solution for what is going on, at this point he is only trying to get the new board members to agree to this. He should remember that he is their only employee and the school board is his empoyer instead of running the show. It is not his decision.
HA!
He is their employee.
Tell those boot lickin' board members that.
A couple of them fall all over themselves for his favor. Like a dog waiting for a pat on the head.
It would be nice to know who put in fjbhqmfxor new school board member.
What do you mean by that statement @ 1/16 @8:09? Do you think that the next one will be better? We have enough problems in this district without those kind of statements.
I'm not 8:09, but I agree that it would be "nice to know" who is applying for the vacant School Board position.
Keeping the community informed about the decision-making process would go a long way to counteract the reputation this administration has for secrecy. As Martha Stewart might say, information is "a good thing"!
Yes, it would be nice to know. When they run for office the papers publish one signed up so the ones that are filling a vacancy should be done the same.
Didn't the Beacon publish the names of the people who applied for Mr. Pietrowiak's position? I'm pretty sure they did--why not now?
I cann't remember but don't think they did. I think everyone was wondering about those too.
Went and looked at the archive articles of the Beacon and they did post the names. I couldn't get the whole article because I din't want to pay to see it but they give you the first paragraph of it and I remember they did list the names. They should of done it this time. We will never know how they came up with who they picked but at least we could of seen who was running.
........MORE COVERUP........
Now the Boys II Men website has been set to private. Apparently Clayton knowing that the community was reviewing the website and finding items that were completely inappropriate for children to be viewing has set up the web page so that the community can not see how he is corrupting these children. The only way a person can now view the website is if Clayton personally gives you permission to view the site.
This situation is completely unacceptable. No group that has district students as members should be conducting child based activities behind closed doors. Clayton has already shown a complete lack of professional judgement in the conducting of this illegal fraternity and the contents of the Boys II Men Fraternity Website.
Apparently, Clayton has no intention of cleaning up his actions as they pertain to this illegal fraternity, instead he has taken his inappropriate conduct behind closed doors. If Clayton was acting in an appropriate manner he wouldn't need to close the community out. This school district needs to act on this Boys II Men Fraternity situation. These are the children of our community that are being negetively affected.
What is going on with this group and why does Clayton feel that he needs to hide it. It's amazing, if this was being done by a teacher in the district it would have been ended long ago (most likely with their resignation). No one should be conducting any business with district students behind closed doors. If they can't conduct activies in the open they shouldn't be conducting any activities at all.
I agree, something needs to be done about this now. The board needs to stop planning their next "vacation" (I'm sorry, board improvement convention/workshops)to Miami and start doing what they've been appointed for. Deal with the issues going on in this district. The whole point of having a school board is to have a community based group that the administration is held accountable by. If the board members are going to sit around when there are illegal activities being conducted by the administration, then I say we might as well not have a school board.
Either do what you were appointed to do or have the decency to resign as Russel did.
By reading everything that everyone puts in here it is only tipping Clayton off about things to do. Again, the board cannot do anything about this to the best of my knowledge, it has to go straight to his supervisor. I do agree that if there was nothing to hide, that that website would still be open to everyone. Sharing certain information is good, but sometimes there is just alittle to much and things will happen like Clayton has done. I am sure that anyone with good computer techniques would be able to tap into this website and any parent who has a child involved in B2M should be monitoring what they are doing anyway when the are on a computer. Now everyone knows for sure that he and others are definitely reading this site and hope they know that Clayton and certain others have lost respect and trust in them completely. Since this is how the B2M website is being done now, I feel he should no longer be in the position that he has in the district. Makes me wonder what he says to the students at the schools if he feels that people have to get permission to read that website?
The only thing you forget is that Clayton and his illegal fraternity are supposedly geared to recruit the students most at risk or in other words those whose parents are probably the least involved in their childrens activities. I doubt most of these kids parents are doing much if any supervising of their childrens activities. If they were involved in their childrens activities 1) The children wouldn't be so at risk and 2) Their parents would have pulled them out of an organization that has been run in these ways.
I know my kids would not be involved in any illegal organization that encourages discrimination, has ads for substances illegal for minors on their site, is run by people performing activities that they are not qualified for, or in general have been run by individuals that have shown such poor judgement. Of course I would also have to consider pulling them out of a school district whose administration and school board have knowingly allowed these activities to continue. I honestly am not sure who is worse, Clayton for conducting himself and this group in these ways or the board and administration for allowing it to continue for so long. In my opinion they have all lost any credibility.
To Jan 17, 9:01PM
"Again, the board cannot do anything about this to the best of my knowledge, it has to go straight to his supervisor."
You may be correct that his supervisor should have been the first person who should be dealing with Clayton. However the board is supposed to be supervising all district activities and is therefor everyones supervisor.
It is the boards responsibility to hire and/or fire every employee. The administrators can only recommend to the board the actions they want to take, it is the boards responsibilty to take all the necessary actions for the district. Think about it, if it the boards responsibility to hire and fire the superintendent, don't you think that are ultimately responsible for every emplyee of the district. If Clayton's supervisor (Dr. Roberts) refuses to deal with Clayton's illegal action, the board should be considering the firing of both employees.
Unfortunately, the fact may actually be that the school board and administration are to personally involved with Clayton to do the right thing. If the board and administration were being objective about this situation, Clayton would have been long gone. No teacher would have been allowed to conduct a club or other organization in these ways.
Has anyone went to the board and spoke to them about this? If not how can they do anything? The Regional Superintendent is the one that got the call to investagte it so if the school board was not offically informed or if a citizen did not talk to them about it they can do nothing.
Maybe Mr. Muhammad has set the website to private in order to have more control over the "spam ads" that can pop up (like the ones for male enhancement) without the knowledge or consent of the person supposedly posting. There are good reasons for a "private" setting on MySpace.
But I do think that Mr. M. should consider redefining Boys II Men as a "service organization" instead of a "fraternity", and make an effort to include young Caucasian men. I know plenty of "at-risk" White kids who would benefit from his organization as well as Black and Latino boys.
8:30 p.m.--
You mentioned something about the School Board going to Miami.
When will this happen, and how much (of our) money will it cost?
I notice on the agenda for this Monday's board meeting is the swearing-in of the new board member.
Why is the board being so secretive about who has been interviewed for Bud's position? Doesn't the public deserve to know??
The board meeting is on Tuesday not Monday. Monday is a Holiday.
The ad for the male enhancement drug (BOKIG.COM) wasn't spam, it was placed on the site by someone who identified themselves as a Boys II Men Fraternity member.
Of course now we can't see what items are being shared with and by Boys II Men Fraternity members. Clayton has hidden all of their activities from public view. What other illegal activities does he not want the community seeing. It's usually only criminals that need to hide their activities from public scrutiny.
This action just further supports that this IS an illegal organization. They discriminate, they apparently condone the use of illegal substances, The judgement of their leader is highly questionable. And now he doesn't want anyone seeing what he is doing with these children.
I can't believe the district hasn't asked for his resignation yet.
It is strange that the district is not investigating this whole Boys II Men Fraternity situatiion. It has always been the policy of this school district to do an internal investigation when there is an alegation of wrongdoing by any employee of the district.
When there has been an allegation against a teacher, there have been three seperate investigations simutaneously, one by the district, one by DCFS and one by the police. They share information of any wrongdoing found from any of the three investigations.
I don't understand why the district and board are claiming that they can not act on this situation. The fact is that they can and have acted in prior cases of illegal activity when it relates to district employees.
The administration needs to act and the board needs to quit hiding behind the skirts of the Roberts and the regional superintendent in regards to this illegal fraternity.
It just shows the bias of the administration and board. They are not investigating this matter because they are choosing not to investigate it.
You are right, if there was an allegation of criminal activity by any other employee, the district would have investigated and acted by now. The community needs to hold all involved accountable.
Even though the B2M is important, someone has started something and many are thankful for this. For me, right now the important thing is who the new board member is and how he or she will impact decision makings, such as the referendum that is being talked about. Is the person someone new or a board member that was not voted back in at the last election. If the person is new then maybe they will have some new ideas that will help the ones that are trying to come up with a solution instead of maybe an previous board member that was for the last referendum and did not work on trying to find alternative ideas or methods to straighten out what was going on and therefore be back into the same old stituation for the ones who are trying to do what is best for all and not just go for a referendum.
I would worry about the new board member but the board has already and recently demonstrated that they don't give a damn what the public thinks in regards to them picking new board members. They will again go behind closed doors and pick who they want to pick.
Apparently that's standard operating procedure for this district. The administration does whatever they want to do legal or not and when anyone questions their judgement, they take their activities behind closed doors. And then they shake their heads and wonder why they get little community involvement.
They also wonder why community members go to outside agencies to investigate the districts questionable activities like allowing an illegal fraternity.
Yes, this is why this school district is in the mess they are in. People try to get things done but they cann't because the old guard still stands strong. The board I believe voted for a new board member but they haven't let anyone know. This is why I will always fight against a referendum. May other people will too they are silent but they vote. Maybe if we had a superintendent that lived in this district they would have a feeling of how the people felt. But when they are living in another district and there children are getting a better education then he is giving this district children we wonder what his motives are. He will get a nice retirement probally a nice retirement and he can laugh all the way to the bank and know that he didn't do anything to advance this district.
Well, the person that runs this blog is a board memeber and not one of the "Old gaurd". Shouldn't she be telling you everything you want to know?
When it comes to this Clayton and Boys II Men Fraternity issue, the new members are sounding like the old guard, they don't want to say anything publicly.
The reason that there are school boards is so that we have a venue of making school business public. If the board is going to do everything behind closed doors, why do we even have a board?
Russel may have been the only intelligent one of the bunch. He realized that the system in this district is broken beyond repair and got his family out of 131 so that his children could have a chance at a quality education.
The B2M is not a school club it is an outside club with members from other schools. I believe if you are in a club at your school noone from another can join. So the board really doesn't have the right to do anything. I believe if someone contacts his supervisor then they can look into it. You have to go through the chain of comand to get things done right. The supervisor if someone makes a complaint might be able to do something but since it went to the regional office it is in there hands. The one thing that his supervisor might be able to handle is his use of districts emails and phone and that is only if someone turns him in. Just because you post this on the blog doesn't mean they can do something. So be like the person that contacted ISBE about the faternity if you want something done about it.
OK, following your logic let's give an example. Let's say a district employee commits an illegal act like using drugs or molesting a child. Further the incident is reported to police. According to your logic the school district is powerless to investigate or act on this employees illegal actions. The school district would be required to keep this employee working with children.
That is ridiculous, if the superintendent knew of illegal actions that can affect the well being of children and refused to act upon that information, there would be all kinds of legal ramifications for the district.
The fact is that the district administration and board are required to investigate all actions illegal and otherwise that can negatively affect the well being of the districts children. This is just another case the the district placing the well being of the administrators (this one not even certified in administration)far ahead of the well being of the children of this community.
Have you heard that a person is innocent until proven guilty? This case is alittle different than those you described. Has the district been officially notified of this? No it was the regional that was. Do I think the district should look into it maybe maybe not since this is not a school program. What was said was they where investagating if this was a fraternity not investagating Clayton. Again if you are so concerned that the administrators and board are doing anything wrong you can contact ISBE and they will tell you. You can also contact them if you think Clayton is not certified and they will tell you what you can do or if they will handle it.
It is about time people who complain about the things going on in this district to do something about it.
Does anyone know who they picked for the new board member? The last time something came out in the district news letter? I wonder why they did not put in the paper the ones that sent a letter of intent. So much secerts this board keeps.
Have you ever heard that children come first.
Apparently you are not familiar with the law as it pertains to child safety. "Innocent until proven guilty" and "beyond a reasonable doubt" only pertain to criminals facing prison. The law as it pertains to adults dealing with children is simple probability just like civil court. In other words if in your mind you are leaning toward guilt 51% or more, then you protect the child. If there is a reasonable assumption that a child might be as risk of harm, you must do everything within reason to protect that child. You don't wait for some outside agency to prove beyond all doubt a persons guilt and leave a child at risk during the process.
As far as the district being notified, they WERE notified by a community member. Even if they were not contacted by a member of the community, the story has been in the newspaper. They ARE aware of the situation. Further, school law is a required course of all administration degree programs. They SHOULD have known that fraternities at the high school level are illegal.
Here are few more thoughts about Clayton Kinard (that's the name you need to look up on TheChampion.org if you want to find his salary). According to Clayton's district bio. he taught in the district for three years. According to TheChampion.org he was paid for four.
In his bio he claims that lots of parents wanted their child in his class. According to TheChampion.org he taught self-contained behavior disordered children (which means he probably had no more than ten kids that he taught). Would you request your child to be placed in special education program just for Clayton? There were only one self-contained BD program per grade level at the middle schools. All self-contained BD children in a grade level would have already been in his class. Who would have been requesting to be placed in his class? Regular ed. kids?
According to his bio he received the Rookie Teacher of the Year Award. I have been with the district for over a decade I had never even heard of the award. I've asked approximately twenty teachers who collectively have more than 300 years experience teaching in this district, not one of them had ever heard of this award either. If he did receive the award, he is the only teacher who ever did.
In his bio he claims that he is a "certified motivational speaker". Please name one LEGITIMATE organization that actually certifies motivational speakers.
According to his bio he became the "Director of the Aurora Middle School Academy" they realized his worth and created a vice president position just for him. According to TheChampion.org he worked for Aurora 131 through 2002, his bio states that he returned to the district in June 2004. So in less than 2 years he proved himself as such a great director that they promoted him to a vice president position. He then thanked them by coming to Aurora 131. Clayton left a position as head of an entire organization so that he could create press releases for district 131.
According to the district website Clayton is a district administrator. I have personally seen Clayton leading meetings of district principals. His bio makes no mention of obtaining an administration degree nor being certified in administration by the State of Illinois. He proudly states that he is a certified motivational speaker but makes no mention of being a certified administrator?
All educators must be not only certified but also highly qualified for the position for which they have been hired.
Apparently Clayton Kinard has no such qualifications and we have been paying this frauds salary for years.
You wonder why the district has made no investigation of this guy. If they did open an investigation, it would make all sorts of embarrassing facts public. They hired a person for a job for which he is not qualified or certified. He has been exagerating his credentials. He has been running an illegal organization for years. ETC. ETC. ETC.
When is this community going to wake up?
Your post is interesting. I wonder too about parents asking to be in his classes but at the time didn't know what he was teaching and your right why would a parent want their child in a BD class if they didn't have to be.
I wonder why he thought it was more important to put he was a certified motivational speaker and not that he had an administration degree nor being certified in administration by the State of Illinois. In fact I don;t think any of the administrators bio had that you would think it would be something to be proud of. Most of them put stuff we really don't need to know and it sounds like they are only tooting their own horn.
I don't know why he would be having an meetings with principles since he is a PR person.
I don't know if someone went to the board they would do anything because the president seems to run it her own way. Is there anyway the general public could look into seeing if he has those degrees?
Yes, the rookie of the year is something else. To me it's a slap in the faces of the good teachers we have in this district that started new and they just did that for him. It really shows how they have created a job for him because someone maybe owed him a favor.
Note: Public Act 93-0679 changed the certificate renewal requirements for teachers and administrators. Please take a minute to review the new changes:
Administrators are still required to use "CeRTS for Administrators" system to record their professional development activities.
Administrators are no longer required to submit a plan or claim for credit. The role of reviewer and peer review panel has been eliminated from the system.
Administrators must keep a hard copy evidence of completion for all professional development recorded on CeRTS (except Administrators' Academy courses).
Administrators (other than regional superintendent) need to submit a request for verification to their regional superintendent. Regional Superintents should submit their request for verification to the State Superintendent.
ISBE and the Regional Office of Education will randomly audit administrators. Administrators should be able to produce evidence of completion for the activities recorded (except Administrators' Academy courses).
"CeRTS for Administrators" was modified on September 17th, 2004 to accommodate all the new
We need someone in administration to look into Clayton but I don't think they will.
From: STATESUP
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 12:22 PM
To: zzALL
Subject: Weekly Message from Interim State Superintendent Randy J. Dunn 1-10-05
As a courtesy to staff, Public Information will be sending the weekly Supertintendent's message to everyone at ISBE. These are also kept and posted on the Intranet.
Greetings,
I bid you all a happy 2005! I hope your holidays were enjoyable, and that you aren’t having too much trouble easing back into the routine as we thaw out from the latest round of winter weather.
I would like to touch on two or three items in today’s update:
P.A. 93-0679 changed the requirements for renewal of administrator certificates on June 30th of last year. I understand there is still some confusion regarding the renewal of certificates for school and district administrators (i.e. those serving in public schools; there are no renewal requirements for administrators not working in public schools).
Basically, holders of administrator certificates who work in administrative positions in public schools must complete one Administrator’s Academy course annually and professional development activity (averaging out to 20 hours per year) for each year worked in an administrative position. Administrators have no forms to complete, and need only use the Certificate Renewal Tracking System (CeRTS) to record the professional development completed and to submit an assurance statement at the end of the certificate’s validity period. More details can be found on the ISBE website at:
I wonder since Clayton is a certified motivational speaker he used this as one of his courses? You would think he would do something that had to do with children.
A Certified Speaking Professional brings a proven track record of continuing speaking experience and expertise. CSPs are committed to ongoing education, outstanding service and ethical behavior. CSPs offer wide varieties of approaches, topics and styles. Only you can determine which speaker will best fit your needs. A Certified Speaking Professional provides a solid place with which to begin your search.What Are the Criteria?
Every CSP must...
* Maintain membership and subscribe to the Code of Professional Ethics.
* Serve a minimum of 100 different clients within 5 years.
* Present a minimum of 250 professional speaking engagements within this same 5-year period.
* Submit testimonial letters from clients served.
* Submit professionally prepared promotional materials
.
* Receive excellent ratings from past clients on professional performance evaluations.
* Continue education in the professional speaking field.
to 1/19 5:12
Interesting comments. I have one question though. Why, if YOU have all this information and the facts, do you feel it is someone else's responsibility to tell someone? You are obviously an employee of d131 and if you are not an administrator you have a union rep. Tell them . Keep telling them. If this information is not brought before the board, the board CANNOT act upon something just posted on this blog or "told" to the paper. That would be called a "witch hunt". It is the responsibility of the community and those that work within the district to report what they feel to be illegal or immoral. It is thru documentation and investigation that wrongs can be righted. No one can just wave a wand or fire anyone just because "someone" told them they were doing something wrong. Get involved. Report your findings to the proper location and then follow up to make sure they are investigated. It is by staying quiest that those who are committing these offenses have strength. No different from how the gangs succeed. They are just "mainstream" gangsters. Lets close up shop!
I think the main concern of someone from the district is that they are afarid of what might happen the them if they knew who made the request. If you have the information contact ISBE and talk to them about what you said and see if you say something they would have to use your name and why you don't want to. The ISBE seems willing to do what they can to get things right.
10:29, you are so right!
The D131 administration and (old-guard) school board members have a history in recent years of supporting personal vendettas over the wishes of parents & taxpayers.
It should be no surprise that some of us are unwilling to speak up against injustices in this district unless we can remain anonymous.
As more and more of us keep calling the ISBE about this and other things,I am sure that it is going to make them wonder what is going on here and start looking into alot of things. The other avenues to go to is the Attorney General(very helpful and informational) and the States Attorney.
If you have the information start calling the different agencies and see if you can do it anonymousy. I think there are people out there looking into how they can get the word across.
Rumor has it that Salinas is the new school board member. Sweet!
Mr. or Mrs. Salinas must be commenting on the blog again.
The only ones that would think that was "sweet" besides the old farts Carol, Juanita and Bob.
Does any of the other ones that put in for it know they don't have it or where they contacted at all?
Does any of the other ones that put in for it know they don't have it or where they contacted at all?
The only ones who probably think "how sweet this is", is whomever voted for him on the board and Salinas wife who works for the school board. As usual, the ones who voted for him did not take into consideration of the community, who did not vote him back in. For whomever thinks this is sweet, many had already heard that he was the one and not happy about this at all. For the ones who voted no, if any, please let the community know this at the school board minutes and make sure it makes it in the minutes, so that we know that you did listen to us and respect our wishes. Since the community does not come to the minutes, at least it will be there in the board bits for those who read them and they will get the word around. Also, if you do not let the community know, you will lead them to believe that you have gone to the "dark side" and lose all respect and trust of the community. I know it must be hard for some of you, but believe this or not, we trust you to what is best of this community and this is certainly not the best, due to his record. God Bless those of you who listen and take into account what we want even though hardly anyone shows up to support you.
Isn't it sad that we have to depend upon "rumor has it" to inform us who the new School Board member might be.
If it is indeed Mr. Salinas, that would be just one more example of certain board members' disrespect and disregard for the people they supposedly represent.
8:49--
Where did you hear that Salinas was chosen?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Can't find the board bits from the 1/07/08 meeting. If they are there I sure do not see them. If anyone else has noticed them, please state where they are, thanks.
When they chose the last one it was in the district news letter and in the beacon so what is it with this one do they want to keep it a secert for some reason? What is different this time than last?
The 1/07/08 minutes will be approved at the next meeting and then they should be on the website. They cann't post them until they approve them. But it took longer to get the 11/19/07 and the next one on longer than it should. They should have them on the website seven days after approval.
That is a good question why haven't they let the public know who they picked. I would think they would want to be more honest and open since they are going for another referendum/
Why haven't our beloved Rayanne or Dee said anything? They are the "New Gaurd" and can do no wrong. I have not seen much change since these new district savers have gotten on the board. The answer is that it takes time but we are closing in on a year now. I think it takes time AND good ideas and I guess we are missing one of those aspects.
If you would go to a school board meeting maybe you would see what they have to put up with. They do have new ideas and speak up about things but when you have four other people that will not work with you or do not want change there isn't much you can do. I don't go to many school board meetings myself but I do read the minutes. It takes the input of the communtiy to help them and we are not giving them much support. The last statement seems to be someone from the board. If we want change we as a community need to help them and with who they picked for the new member I think it will be a uphill battle. I have been to a couple of meetings and seem then try to step up to them but they always get shut down. Maybe if someone was recording the minutes we could get them to put it on this blog and let people hear for themselfs.I think most of the board lets the superintendent run this district and the board hasn't said what they want for the district except a few. If they come up with ideas will you support them is they have ideas how to cut the budget? They have said things at the meetings if you look at the meeting minutes which sometimes all they say isn't in them. Why do we still let a superintendent run this district when he doesn't even live here. He negociates the teachers salaries and the administrators salries which ties into his. Don't you think he will try to do his best so he gets a big raise too. Do you really believe he deserves it.
Hasn't Salinas left the community yet? He very publicly stated many times that if the referendum did not pass he and his wife were going to take their children out of the East Side Schools.
The board is considering this individual? He has publicly turned his back on this district and the public overwhemingly decided that they did not want him representing the community at the last election.
If the board members are seriously considering placing Salinas back on the board, it shows just how completely out of touch they have become with the community.
Maybe the board is honoring Bud's wishes to put Salinas back on the board. Bud probably had a hunch that they might need to replace him, as his health wasn't good. I'm not saying that that's the best reason for choosing a new board member, but it could have been a factor.
Ok, how come they are doing this differently than the last time? What are they up too?
Really glad to see in the paper today that the really important question that the ones being interviewed for Bud's position was how the candidates felt about the upcoming referendum that is being discussed. Guess there is nothing else that needs to be addressed in this perfect school district that the candidates could have been asked. Oh, well--------------
I can understand that they would make it a one issue race as that is what the voters made it at the last election. What's unfortunate is that they won't be voting the same way the voters did at that election.
The board and administration have their own agenda and the wishes of the community are not on the list of considerations at all. This board does not represent this community. They do as they wish.
It is no wonder people no longer attend board. How long do you have to speak to a deaf person before you realize that there is no one listening. They are like the rest of the politicians out, they are very concerned with you only at election time.
You are right they seem to do what they want but if people just give up then thats not helping either. We need to find ways to have them listen. For those who address the board they are suppose to responed to you or I think it's the attorney generals office you can contact if they don't.
I still wonder why they are doing it different this time. With Maurice they had picked him in the Board Call closed session and at the next meeting they gave him the oath of office and then he was on the board. Why so different this time.
I have been going to board meetings for about 2 yrs. now. I will admit it something to happen to get me to start going, but in the time I have been going, it is almost always the same ones who go and that may be 2 to 4 people. The only other time someone from this community goes is if their child is getting somekind of award or honorable mention about something and then Carol Faurm will say the rest of the meeting is boring, so if anyone wants to leave feel free to and you bet they leave. Any other time someone comes it is only about an issue usually pertaining to their child. You never see them again after that. This community does not support whoever tries to do some good. Most of the school board feels that voting no is not community interest, so they will keep trying to put something through. Bet only the regulars will be there tonight with maybe a few exceptions. I thank the ones who applied for the position, but were they in the past when it came to school board meetings. The only name that I recognized that used to come to meetings regularly in the names listed was that Bob K. For the other ones that applied, please run next year when we will be voting again to replace the ones we want to. For anyone, if you would just go to a few meetings, it would be very helpful and probably at times way more knowledgeable than you realize.
A request please, could you start another "The comments continue", as this one is getting very lengthy again.
All I can say is, if they pick Salinas they can kiss any hope of passing a referendum goodbye.
Salinas is one of "Serial Bully" Radakovich's old-guard buddies, and could be depended upon to rubber-stamp whatever ill-advised decision was presented, regardless of how the public felt.
It's Salinas, the Beacon just posted it on their website.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/752905,AU22_EAST_WEB.article
This board has their head up their A$$.
See sometimes rumors are really the truth.
Looks like the "old guard" had their way--they snuck one of their own back onto the board.
Seems to me the voters expressed their views last spring at the ballot box, but here's just one more example of disrespect and disregard for what the people wanted.
And I wonder what the "controversial issues" were that Mr. Barreiro referred to in this morning's Beacon--and how did Mr. Salinas' support for such "issues" result in any improvement or benefit for the students in this district? Hmm--can someone enlighten me??
I could enlighten but will not. There was many things talked about at that meeting that is of great concern to this community and one is the early retirement that was addressed. It was on the agenda. Jay Agustine explained it. It is for administrators and teachers. What is purposed is not good. The majority of the community that was there were Boy Scouts that is working on a badge(?) and stayed for the whole meeting. My things were brought out in the financial committee report that is very important to this committee,ie.,how money can be saved in this community and it was done by Rayanne and Dee. In this I felt that Ken Maurice input was good also. The facts are getting out there folks, but remember not everything gets into the board bits. The converstaion in this was very good None that were not there would know about the closed session that was called that was not on the agenda. The way it was done was proper to the best of my knowledge, as no action would be taken. The topic was not stated, but after knowing what is in the paper today, this might have been the topic. This is just a guess. Those young men got to see a good meeting and learn alot. Would love to see their report on it. Maybe people who want to know what was said and went on can contact these young men. Anyone can always FOIA the whole minutes of the meeting and hope you get it word for word.
You have to love it. The board and administration claim they can't look at the illegal Boys II Men Fraternity issue because the regional superintendent is investigating the issue. Now the regional superintendent passes the buck and says the board and administration have to look at the issue, they don't want it. And we know the board and administration will be fair and impartial when it comes to dealing with one of their own.
Then you have Clayton running around in his egocentric mind saying that the issue has nothing to do with the running of an illegal fraternity, but rather is a personal attack on him and his job. Of course if he wasn't running an illegal fraternity, he wouldn't be open to such attacks.
Clayton Kinard Muhammad is further still trying to claim that the law doesn't apply because the group is not exclusively tied to one district. But if you read the law, it makes no such distinction for the legality of the group. In other words, it doesn't need to be tied to one district for it to be illegal.
If you have a group of high school aged students that have the organizations members selected on the vote of their members instead of equal rules for all, IT IS ILLEGAL. Worse yet, this group only accepts blacks and latinos. They discriminate based on race.
You only have to look as far as the Boys II Men Fraternity symbol to see this. The symbol is a II with a circle around it. If you look closely, the II symbol is black and brown. It represents the skin color of it's members.
This is blatant racism. It has no business anywhere near a public school.
Where does one go on line to get the ISAB(?) survey that is mentioned in Dee Weaver's calendar?
If it was so obvious that Boys II Men is an illegal frat. then the ROE or Kane County State's Attorney’s office would have made such a determination. Perhaps what you think is obviously illegal is in fact not so clear cut. The Beacon article stated the school board would more or less create a new policy to more clearly define the boundaries between the district and outside clubs, etc. It did not suggest that anything illegal has occurred or that the ROE had made any determinations of wrong doing.
To those who suggest that choosing Salinas is in some way disrespecting taxpayers I don’t understand that logic. In the last school board election 2 of the “old guard” was re-elected. The community didn’t elect all new members. Whether or not Salinas is the best choice is unclear, was the vote unanimous? What was the vote on the previous appointed member? If the board was not in agreement on a replacement member than the community should know that, if it was than that is an action that they will need to be held accountable on just like any other vote. The Rayanne and Dee have been awfully quiet on the Boys II Men and board member appointment. They seem to have time to post here regarding the proposed referendum, what about the other issues or are you just one trick ponies
If this district allows this to continue on district time and dime then any possiblilty of a referendum will definitely fail. No more using the districts computers, cell phones, work phones, things like this. The first thing the school board(most of)will do is threaten to take away the clubs, fine arts and sports to pass a referendum. This would just not be justifiable. Clayton should do this on his own time, he also needs to sign out from his district job when he is doing his B2M. Clayton should step up and with an answer for this himself that is acceptable to all. This is really becoming a conflict of interest in regards to his job. In this Clayton might have to decide what he wants to do, work for the district or do B2M and this is a decision the board needs to think about also and Dr.Roberts. This is one issue that this community really will be paying attention to.
The regional superintendent didn't rule that this fraternity is legal. They simply passed the buck back to the district. Apparently, the buck doesn't stop anywhere in this community.
This is the website you where asking about. What is the survey?
http://www.iasb.com/
The problem is that the law is written basically with a zero tolerance policy. No one wants to be the one to call the fraternity illegal because it gives them no choice but to suspend or expell every member of that fraternity. Who wants to take the political fallout of suspending or expelling more than a hundred students?
Is the fraternity illegal? you betcha. Is there an administrator in the county with the cajones to deal with this debacle? No way.
If Clayton Kinard had any ethics or integrity, he would publicly resign his position and quietly disband this illegal and discriminatory fraternity. If he really loved East Aurora as he claims he does, there would be no question that these are the only acceptable actions than can be taken.
I just question if the B2M is really an East Aurora Board problem because it is not an East Aurora club. So if it is illegal isn't that a job for the cops to come bust it up.
If I am smoking crack and I work at Meijer, it is not Meijers job to get me to stop smoking crack. It is the cops job to come arrest me. So I guess if somebody knows when they meet to call the cops.
I might be wrong on this thinking, I'm not a lawyer but maybe.
I am far less concerned about Boy’s II Men (at least they are trying to help the youth of this community) than I am about the appointment of the new board member, the district's finance's, a possible referendum, and the lack of academic progress at the middle school's and high school.
The Boy's II Men issue just isn't that big of a deal compared to these other issues. Move on already. Even if the Boy’s II Men issue gets resolved other, larger issues still remain.
It's not Meier's job to arrest you or get you to stop doing illegal things. It is Meier's job to protect their own reputation by firing you when they find you are doing illegal things. Their first responsibility is to the organization.
In a school district, the well being of the children should be first followed by the reputation of the district. Protecting an employee when they are committing illegal acts should not even be a thought that district administration or the school board should entertain.
If the administration and board can not agree when it is clear that the law is being broken how can they ever accomplish anything of substance. I assure you if this was Naperville or St. Charles, this would not be an ongoing issue. They would have asked Clayton for his resignation immediately.
I can assure you that if this were Naperville or St. Charles we would have already passed a referendum, have more parental involvement, have more successful sports and academic's, etc. East rarely acts like other communities so don't go there.
EVERY PROBLEM that East Aurora has is a product of the lack of support from the East Aurora Community. We all say we know that. Well guess what, knowing something and doing something are two different things.
You could have a brand new school board and all new administrators and the schools would still be below average because parents don't care which translates to students don't care.
The parents in this community should be put in jail for their lack of supporting thier children. What is going to be better for your kid, an 8th grade education and a job a Taco Bell, or a college education and a job and house out of the East Side of Aurora?
If this was Naperville or St.Charles, the board and aministration would have looked into other ways to make cuts and all possible avenues before going to the public and asking for a referendum. They also would be open and transparent and above board with the community before taking that step. Even the West side has done this.
1/25-1:30
You are absolutely right except it should be the whole community and not just the parents.
If you go to a board meeting you will see that some are trying to get them to make cuts but with this old gaurd it won't happen. The administrators still want to go on their trips and take there families at the tax payers expense. Every little expense needs to be looked at and they don't want to do it. They need to have a budget that tells what they pay for everything and they will not do it. There are no free rides anymore anywhere. Companies are cutting back and yes schools are not companies but they put out a product and that is our children. They do answer to someone and that is the taxpayers and as we all get our wages cut or get laid off we need to adjust what we send and so does the district. How about some of these administrators that haven't got this district out of a watch list do the same. They are thinking about giving an early retirement to some that would give them in a three year time before there retirement a 6% raise to bump up there retirement pay at the districts expense. How many of you that work get that? There retirement is 75% of there pay and thats on our dime. What is this referendum really for. It's not the kids or for teachers it's for the administrators.
Wow I am excited to see some people have taken advantage of my calendar. I hope it helps!
I updated the information for the IASB survey though. This is for all staff of d131 not community. Sorry for the confusion.
I would like to clarify some things out here. We (meaning the board) have not discussed the Boys II Men situation at all. The information and questions being asked here have been directed to the president and Clayton but no official discussions have taken plane NOR have I been informed of any discussions in the future. What appeared in the article in the Beacon today was news to me!
Any questions you have regarding our new board member should be directed to our board president. Policy on this issue has been questioned and process that was used was by direction of the board president.
The next big issues are the possible referendum, the magnet school, the website, and new retirement package for administrators. These issues will be discussed at our next board meeting Monday Feburary 4th.
From Openline Blog:
For that early retirement package, this 6% raise that they are talking about is to be over a 3 year period. 2% for each year. If it is 3% or even 2.01% for each year, it comes out of D131 money, and not the states. This is from a school district that the current school board and Dr.Roberts says we need a referendum! Everyone needs to be aware of this! Other places OFFER early retirement when they are trying to save other people from being laid off. How many places do you know let you take early retirement and figure out what your raises MIGHT have been and then give that amount to you? We need teachers not ones taking early retirement and getting a "bonus" for doing it. Administrators make enough(overpaid)as it is without this "bonus" especially when they are failing putting out good product. If anyone of these wants early retirement they should be treated just as you or I would when it comes to their retirement pay!
1/23/08 9:13 PM
Should have stated above taken from a posting on Openline blog.
I read the Beacon yesterday and I am confused. How do you establish a policy for dealing with an illegal and discriminatory fraternity.
How do you establish a policy for dealing with a group that has endorsed substances on their website illegal for consumption by minors.
How do you condone a group that publicly states that they are an organization for only black and latino students. The Boys II Men symbol is even black and brown to represent the skin color of their members. They therefor discriminate against all other cultures.
Any group that selects it members by group vote and not by fair and impartial rules for all is an illegal fraternity. How do you establish a policy for dealing with illegal activities.
The Boys II Men Website is closed to the public. How do you establish a policy for dealing with a group that conducts their highly questionable activities with district students in secrecy.
How do you establish a policy for dealing with a groups leader who has shown such poor decision making abilities. How can anyone in good conscience allow such a person to have private and closed door contact with district students.
The answer is that there is no way that a responsible and ethical board member could possibly attempt to establish policies with such a group. A group such as this must be barred from conducting such activities with district students.
What message does it send to our children if we allow illegal and discriminatory practices to continue?
This is from openline.blog
There is a lot of good info here' however would like to comment about some ofit First Kifowit is not the issue here lets stick to district problems. To the person who said that complete minutes are available is wrong there are no complete minutes. For example I have never seen a set of minutes that report any comments from tne floor. However tape recorded minutes of closed sessions are avaailable thru FOIA. As far as picking on Fernandos wife she has stepped into the referendum issue and in fact does get paid more then the pay scale allows. The facts are the facts .I wonder if any one knows what we have to do to impeach whole board. With the appointments of Maurice and Fernando they no longer have any credabilty The theart they made to pass the referendum was that if it didn't pass the state would take over the district. I am going to write the governor and state reps/sen and ask them to take over now because this board has no public support and the poor education our children are getting proves it.
1/24/08 5:57 PM
This is from another blog.
For people that used to go to school board meetings and don't anymore shame on them. That's what some of the board wants for you to just quit. If we just quit what does that make us. For those that don't go and complain than start going. Remember they are going for another referendum and most of us know it's nopt about the kids or teacher it's about there retirements and for most of the school board and superintendent to keep what they are doing and filling there pockets. Just like that school board president said she was going for that class or what ever in Feb. in Florida and she would vocher it. She would rather go to things she will never use instead of getting helpers or teachers for the children. It is just for her own amusement that she is on this board. Shame on the people when you elect someone just because they are the first on the list or for what ever and not looking into who will do this district right. Carol and Roberts are running a game for there own benifit and not for the children. As I see it last time when there was a referendum the west side got theres because Ryland was out there talking to the public and I think he did cut some of the budget and all Roberts did was talk about how it would only cost a couple of white castle hambugers for ours. I don'r know if they realize that people are losing there homes in this district. We have a 18% poverty rate and most of the children get free lunches. So why when most of these administrators make three times more than the average income of the east side which is 40,000. do they think we will give them more money when they can retire with 75% of there pay and not live in this district give them money we don't have to keep having a failing district.
You are kidding about the white castle burgers?
I am not the person who put that post from openline.blob, but I was at the meeting when Roberts showed the White Castle hamburgers. Yes, it is true. Why is not this superintentant not looking into other avenues to cut costs instead of hit the hearts of the parents and students by threatening cutting sports and classes. Could it be that it might just effect his raise-which he does not deserve,much less any salary at all at this point AND the district IS still waiting for his strategic plan which was supposed to be done when he was hired-and he lives out of the district and his stepson will not be affected in all of this? In fact, I would like to know just what this man has done to get his pay except to try to get the referendum to pass and face it, the money really is for him and the administrators.
Where is the board bits from 8/20/07?
I have been a part of this community for many years and have heard the stories that make us all so very proud. Aurora 131 was the very first and therefor oldest school district in the State of Illinois. Further this district has been desegregated/integrated since the very beginning. Discrimination had never been an acceptable practice in this district.
It is a really shameful moment in our city's history that this community is dealing with a district employee that has been leading a student organization that has encouraged racist practices in its membership. This is a person that has publicly stated that his organization is for blacks and latinos. How blatant does a persons racist/discriminatory actions have to be before this district and board take action?
We must all stand up and boldly state that discrimination will not be tolerated and those that would encourage such behavior have no place in a civilized society.
8:04 p.m.--
Probably the same place the other dozen or so "Board Bits" are that SHOULD have been published, out of respect and consideration for the taxpayers.
In limbo. As in secretive, "if you want them you'll have to FOIA them", typical D131 business-as-usual limbo.
:(
There's more than a dozen missing. There are 69 agendas, but only 46 board bits.
I see that the West Side is upgrading their computer systems. I really like the way they speak about how antiquated the T-1 lines that they are currently using are. They compare them to an old gravel road and the new system is like a paved highway. The fiber system they are installing is a much faster system that allows for much improved instruction for their classrooms, teachers, students, etc. Students will be able to see class assignments, parents can easily monitor their childrens grades.
I also like the way that they describe the T-1 system as outdated and useless. That is the system that we in East Aurora are using. Not only are we using outdated technology, we are looking at cutting computer education courses.
We will still offer cooking and sewing and other courses that will have no influence on the childrens future success but the computer and technology courses that are essential to being successful in this modern world are being cut from our programs. We will have students entering high school that have never had a formal computer or technology class.
This is one of those shining examples of equality in the Illinois school funding method.
The West Side is looking at individual accounts/web pages for each and every student. On the East Side we can't even put together a decent district web page. If at the district level we can't understand basic technology, how can our students ever succeed.
I am not from the school board and as stated before if you really want them FOIA them. We know people from the board reads this blog maybe they should tell Lisa to put them on there. Or you can go to this website that shows violations of the open meeting acts and the minutes are part of that and look if it says anything about it and where to contact if you have a complaint since it seems you don't want to say anything to the board.
http://www.ag.state.il.us/government/Public_Access_Counselor_Annual_Report.pdf
I found this interesting because a few cases on there I believe this school board did too.
http://www.ag.state.il.us/government/Public_Access_Counselor_Annual_Report.pdf
http://www.ag.state.il.us/government/Public_Access_Counselor_Annual_Report.pdf
Sorry for the last two times the url would show all of it for some reason.
It still won't show so here's what to do. Go to the Attorney Generals wesite and on the left there Ensuring open and honest goverment. Click on that and you will see Public Access Conuselor and you will see the report.
Just read Weaver's calendar about deadline for cuts and have a question. Who is giving the information to Roberts for where to make the cuts? Is it the whole school board or just certain members of the school board? I could be wrong, but should it not be the other way around since he is the school boards employee and I would think it would be his job. After all it would be his job to have and know this information, would it not, from his employees which are the assitant superintendants, administrators and teachers?
How can they talk about cuts then turn around and want this magnet school? The cut should always come first from other places except teachers. I bet they have some people at the service center they could cut. Maybe try keeping some and then bring in a temp service.
I found this statement on openline.blog. You those that think Rayanne and Dee are trying to do something for this district go on it and let whoever is posting on there know.
Folk's wake up, the community is why East is the way it is. The board has been made almost irrelevant by the community who refuses to be involved in educating their kids.
BTW Dee and Rayanne are simply not that sharp. They ask questions but if you don't know what the relevant questions to ask are or what to do with the answers then how are they helping. They really have trouble grasping most of the information given to them. Go to a board meeting and what you will see is them acting as though they are still siting in the audience and not like board members. Read their comments in the board bits and you’ll get a flavor for how they “think”. Try as they might they don’t know what they are doing and their nickel and dime “solutions” to the district’s fiscal problems are only going to cause more long term problems without solving the current problems.
I agree. Rayanne and Dee aren't that smart. Thanks.
People please go and read on openlineblog and read what is under the last posting that was transferred here. Would be glad to do it but it is getting lengthy here.
At least they didn't misuse 20 million dollars and sell land for less than it was worth.
A big part of "being smart" is being willing to listen. Dee and Rayanne are both willing to listen to the public and welcome our input.
I think that some people mistake arrogance for "smarts".
No, I think people mistake "being new to the school board" with "having answers to solve problems with the school district."
That might not be as nice and tidy as your phrase, but I think it works just the same.
And yes, this is a board member or somebody related to them yadda yadda yadda. (Seriously I have no realtion to the board or anything I just think Rayanne and Dee are a waste of time)
To the person that put in that Dee and Rayann are a waste of time and not a member of the board or related to any of them, do you go to the meetings and did you apply for the last vacancy? If you do not go to the meetings, then how do you know they are a waste of time? If you by chance you did apply, then good for you, but if you did not how can you be a help for any solution?
Is it possible to put in below publish your comment, to put in the word below or last comment, something like that, then we could click on it and we would go to the last entry or comment and then scroll up to where we have left off reading?
Your keyboard has that functon (at least most do) To the right of the main typing area you should have keys that say "Home" and "End" - The "End" key takes you to the bottom and the "Home" key takes you right to the top.
Taken from Openlineblog:
Anonymous said...
To 1/25 1:15pm
I do not think that one thing that was mentioned at last board meeting was a "nickel and dime" solution as you stated. It was about the workshops. Fact one, the board went against its' own policy for the last one in Chicago. Wonder how many times this could have been done in the past? Mrs. Weaver stated she could get no break down on the fianance reports to tell how much money was spent on this? Is this not a relevant question? I do think she might know alittle bit about questions like this she is asking, since it has been stated before that she works for a company that does corporations payroll and taxes. She now is on the fianace committe and does not get answers. This leads me to believe she might be asking relevant questions and maybe that is why she is not getting answers? She and Rayann both stated how they do not get answers when they ask and email questions. If you are not privy to the questions they ask and information not given to them, how can you make the statements you have made? For the last workshops and more than likely ones in the past, the savings on this would not be "nickel and dime" if we knew exactly how much it cost this district, especially when whomever was taking their families along with and has not been revealed if the district paid for it and their travel expences. If they have violated the policies on this all the time, think of how much this district has lost and that money could have gone for teachers and other things we need for the students. Do the math 1:15pm if you by any chance can get the information on how much it has cost this district. I am glad that they ask these "non-relevant" questions you refer to.
1/26/08 9:03 AM
Anonymous said...
Forgot to put in last posting-let us see if this information comes out in the board bits. If their actions were like when they were in the audience, then good for them because this shows they did a fine job there also.
1/26/08 9:06 AM
To 1/26 6:36am
Thank you for telling me this
about the keyboard! I really did not know this. This information is more helpful to me that you know!
Wow, I haven't looked at this blog for while. It had been dying. It took quite a while to go through almost 300 posts.
Some of it is the same complaining about the board and administration. Some of it new.
It was nice to see that something might be done about Clayton. He has been using this district for his own ends for too long.
The one thing I couldn't believe no one caught even though pieces were mentioned was that there were bible verses and prayers on the Boys II Men Fraternity Website.
If this fraternity has been meeting at public schools including East High and the ordained minister Clayton has led any of these prayers he's is violating the law. Public school employees can not advance religion with public school students. It violates First Amendment as has been established in Lemon vs. Kurtzman.
Lemon test
The Court's decision in this case established the "Lemon test", which details the requirements for legislation concerning religion. It consists of three prongs:
1)The government's action must have a legitimate secular purpose.
2)The government's action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion.
3)The government's action must not result in an "excessive government entanglement" with religion.
If any of these 3 prongs is violated, the government's action is deemed unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
School bible/religious clubs are allowed in public schools after hours. The clubs MUST BE STUDENT LED. There may be a staff member assigned a supervisory role with such a club but they are forbidden to participate in or lead in any religious ceremony, prayers, etc. They must only supervise.
By Clayton posting prayers and bible verses on his fraternity website and this fraternity has these public school students as members and further he is a public school employee, he is in violation of Federal Law as well.
WOW!!! my first time reading this. I have heard about it but I am speechless! First of all to waste over 40 mins reading on how Clayton is being attacked is unreal! So here I go....For those of you who wonder what the parents of these sutdents in Clayton's club do.. I will tell you that I am very much aware of what my child does. Not because of B2M, but because I am a very concerned parent(get it)and I talk to my child and ask everyday, How was school? Do you have homework? What did you have for lunch today? I bet you that there no parents out there could care what their child eats. Well I care about every move my child makes and takes in this world. So to let you out there know, YES, we parents do care what our children are doing outside of school and at B2M. Maybe you don't. But this lady here sure does! As for Clayton! Clayton is very wonderful man! I have all of my respect for him. I have known him for over 5 years and has come around for us. At home my husband and I think very highly of him. All this other little nip picking is wasting time when we should worry about what can we do to keep our kids safe away from drugs and gangs, etc. I am a staff member and see how so many parents do not know anything about thier kids. How do I know this, you muight ask? Well, working at a scholl you can get close to kids, I ask the students, I talk to them, I ask them how their relationship is at home with their parents. I have children and grandchildren. So I worry.
Racism!!! wow that is a strong word to be throwing out here that B2M is all about Black and Latino. Have you stopped to look at how many organizations, scholarships org.,clubs etc are out there that are just for one nationality? Let me give you an example: I called a place for a scholarhip application and before the lady would send it to me she asked 2 important questions. Was my child 18yrs old and Mexican. Boy I was insulted! Would you consider that racism? At first I did then I did some digging and found out scholarships for puerto ricans, for blacks, etc. Then wow, there I found the hispanic website, opened to all, white, black, latino, etc.
Come now, open your eyes. Do we really need to spend so much time on Clayton and his B2M, when there are other things we can be doing. Like, what can we do to pass the next referendum. Speaking about that, do you know that B2M were out there helping us pass the word around for the last referendum? Where were you??? One more thing, these kids are not all from East Aurora. Maybe you should consider attending a meeting. That is if they let you in. So you see, praying is not wrong, no matter where you are.
You have us on your side Clayton!!
I also think highly of Clayton. I do think that B2M should be separate from the school. And is it not true that the members are only black and Latino? This is not meant to be a racist statement, just a question. I am aware that there were many students and others out there to help pass the last referendum. The sad thing is they did not have all the facts from both sides and certainly was not encouraged to find them out. There is no way many of us will help to get that referendum passed until some of the questions and issues that has been brought up on this blog and the other and addressed at the school board meetings been given good answers to and a halt coming to certain things, and not clubs and sports.
It is to bad that everyone cannot unite and find answers that will help. One thing would be for the superintendant, asst. superintendants and administrators to be willing not get a raise. They are very highly paid. This would show that they are really concerned about the students and their education. If they cannot live on what they make now-many are married and have another income coming in also-then they have over extended theirselves and need to tighten their belts. The lower income residents, poverty level residents, seniors, people on disablility do not even have a buckle to tighten anymore. This district is going say "it will only be this much", but also so is every other entity that is asking for a referendum. Add all that "it will only be this much" together and it becomes alot. Yes, it think the children deserve a good education, but first we need to know that the monies that this district is getting is being used for what it should be used for and not for everything that has been coming out in these blogs. For the few that do attend meetings once in awhile know there is more to this than reaches the hears. For those of us who read the board bits we know there must be more to what is going on than our eyes are seeing in this information or lack of.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with prayers. God Bless
To january 27 5:55 AM
It infuriates me to hear you talk about how wonderful Clayton is and how he is keeping students out of gangs. Are yoy aware that there are over a thousand staff members in this district and the vast majority of the teachers are running clubs, coaching sports and doing a multitude of activities that are all geared at providing the at-risk students of this district positive activities. They all conduct themselves in a professional manner and run their activities in a legal manner. They also don't need to run to the press every chance they get to advance their own careers.
Only Clayton is running an illegal fraternity. Only Clayton is running a group that picks their members by the color of their skin. Only Clayton is using his position to advance religion. Only Clayton has had ads for illegal substances on his website. Only Clayton has set his groups website to private to keep the community from seeing his clubs activities. Only Clayton is working in a position for which he is not highly qualified.
It is a slap in the face to every hard working staff member who goes to work every day and comes in early and stays late and follows the school code and every other law of the land, to have someone like Clayton who violates the principles that we, as a nation, have come to cherish.
I can't speak to the intent. Only one person will ever know for sure what the intent was when commiting these illegal acts. I can only judge the actions that can be seen. The fact is the Boys II Men Fraternity and Clayton are violating several laws. Laws that have been written to protect vulnerable and impressionable children. Laws that our political leaders have found necessary for the good of all. Laws that can't be dismissed just because you like Clayton.
I agree that Clayton gets alot of attention about his B2M. I have thought my self that they really lay it on at school board meetings exspecially the superentindent and some of the board members. I'm sure that there are other staff members running clubs at the school that deserve that kind of attention. I bet if any of them have a myspace page they don't make it so there parents or if the staff needs to see it they can. I did find it odd that after someone found the B2M on my space they did it and it makes you wonder why if they are doing such good things they don't want to let people know. As far as the B2M out helping to pass the referendum these kids have no idea really about what is going on. How about more of the superintendent out there speaking about it.
For the person that talks about federal laws being broken and you have the proof try and contact the attorney general and talk to them.
Actually, if Clayton had the Boys II Men Fraternity members out there pushing the referendum then that is another law he has violated. Board and staff members are not allowed to tell people to vote YES on the referendum. So if Clayton told the Boys II Men members to go out and tell the community to vote YES for the referendum, then that is one more law that he is in violation of.
How many laws does this guy need to break before this administration and board do something about it? If any other employee had broken even one law, they would have been asked to resign.
This guy has violated Illinois School Code (Fraternities), the Federal First Amendment (Advancing Religion), State and Federal Discrimination Laws (Running a Club for Blacks and Latinos Only), Contributing to the Delinquency of Minors (Ads for illegal substances on his website), and now election laws (using his position to have Boys II Men members advance the referendum).
The more we hear about Clayton's actions the more we realize he does everything illegally. The Beacon quoted Clayton last week, "The truth of the program ... comes out of its actions,". That is certainly true. Clayton can claim all he wants about how this is a wonderful organization but the more we hear about it's true actions, the more we realize that most everything that has been done is illegal. Maybe that's why he relates so well with children who are involved with gangs and criminal activity.
I found this website when doing a search about fraternities in high schools. Even though Clayton is saying this is a acadmy now I think it is more a fraterity.
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=1131
It doesn't matter what Clayton calls his groups. If they are still being run the same way with members selecting their membership and not by a fair and impartial system that treats all equally, it is still breaking the fraternity law. Further, if Clayton has changed the name of Boys II Men as you state. That can be construed as nothing but an admission that his organization was breaking the law. It is an admission of guilt.
I wonder why ROE didn't do more than just throw it back at the board. If you have all this information why don't you contact the states attorney they will do more than the board ever will.
I looked at the url posted and there is some good dialog about fraternities. It is from 1999 but it is college students talking to high school kids about a fraternity.
I am waiting to see what the ROE, Board and District do about the situation or more likely don't do about it. If those in authority do nothing as expected, I will file complaints about that at the same time I file a complaint about Clayton. In other words I'll give those in charge a chance to first do the right thing.
You might as well go ahead and do it because I don't think the board will do anything. Have you tried contacting a newspaper about this and I don't mean the beacon. The Daliy Herarlds seem to do good articles on school districts.
Yes I agree. I read the Beacon articles. We know it's against the law but we'll call the law outdated because we like Clayton. Of course we're being fair and impartial. Get real. Maybe I will try the Kane County Chronicle.
Found this on ISBE.
School districts are eligible if during the two most recent school years their enrollment has increased by greater than 1.5 percent for districts with more than 10,000 students or greater than 7.5 percent or more for districts with an enrollment under 10,000.
The 43 school districts receiving the grants are:
Plainfield School District 202 – $1,624,493
Oswego Community Unit School District 308 – $819,394
Indian Prairie Community Unit School District 204 – $538,447
Huntley Consolidated School District 158 – $499,858
Yorkville Community Unit School District 115 – $431,822
Community Unit School District 300 – $400,941
Valley View CUSD #365U – $318,769
Minooka Community Consolidated School District 201 – $300,287
McLean County Unit District No. 5 – $280,233
Aurora East Unit School District 131 – $203,312
Plano Community Unit School District 88 – $203,304
Central Community Unit School District 301 – $202,652
Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 – $201,499
Berwyn South School District 100 – $185,391
Minooka Community High School District 111 – $139,836
Lansing School District 158 – $124,540
Fast growing districts often find themselves with more students than resources. They may not have enough classroom and other materials or may have to hire additional faculty and staff to meet the increasing student demand. The grants can be used to pay for salaries, books, computers, supplies and classroom materials.
Lets hope the district uses this money for that.
You know what the board and adminstrators are now thinking. $1.5 Million dollars, Now we have money to give the administrators even bigger raises. Personally, I would be cutting salaries, especially Dr. Roberts.
One of Dr. Roberts responsibilities is employee supervision. If Dr. Roberts has no clue that the person in the next office (Clayton) is conducting all sorts of illegal activities and then when it becomes more than obvious to everyone, chooses not to do anything about it, he doesn't deserve a six figure salary. If Dr. Roberts doesn't know what is going on in the very next office, how can he possibly know what is going on in 16 different schools and with more than 1000 employees.
Dr. Roberts should have known that the activities Clayton has been conducting are illegal. Clayton was announcing his illegal groups actions publicly. Maybe Dr. Roberts was absent the day they taught school law at administration school. Oh wait, that should have been at least a semester long course. May he slept through that semester. Or more likely, Dr. Roberts knew exactly what was happening and chose not to follow school code in this district. Either way, he hasn't earned his salary the past couple of months.
Roberts does not want to see anything espcially if it has to do with Clayton. Nor does some of the board members. To sit around and wait for them is wastefull. If you know so much start calling around and see who can help you.
If you actually believe Clayton is a man of his word, you only have to go back a few months to his opinion/editorial article in the Beacon.
On October 19th he wrote the article called COMPETENCE BEFORE COLOR. he stated in the article and I quote "I can unequivocally say that I would never be the spokesman or even a staff member of any district or company where discrimination of any sort is the order of the day".
Clayton is not a man of his word. If he was a man of his word, he would step down as he himself stated he would do rather than be a part of any organization that discriminates.
Instead, at the very same time he was writing this article, Clayton had been running an illegal fraternity that had been discriminating against anyone not Black or Latino for years.
Clayton needs to follow his own words and separate himself from any organization that discriminates.
Clayton's own actions have seriously damaged his reputation. Continuing as though nothing wrong has happened only makes that damage permanent. Clayton needs to resign and disband this illegal fraternity.
I am new to this blog and spent hours pouring over everyone's comments. Regarding Clayton's website, I have a question. Exactly what were the ads for illegal drugs? Were those ads that simply popped up on his server, or did Clayton specifically place the ads on his site? If his site was on myspace, there isn't much one can do to block the ads. On the other hand, knowing this fact, it might have been better for Clayton to have purchased a website. while it would have cost him a few hundred dollars for the site, there would have been no pop-up advertising.
They were in the comments section of the myspace. Like one of the "friends" posted. But the were NOT ILLEGAL DRUGS. They were pills to enlarge a mans special area. You will need to understand that people on this blog exagerate the truth, blow thing out of scale, and dwon right lie to get people to believe them.
Thanks for your quick response. From what you have said, it sounds like the advertising was more the work of hackers than anything else. Even if Clayton did not allow those types of advertising, if ads appeared on his site which may have made students uncomfortable, he should have done something about it.
Did his site list who was webmaster? There is always a chance that one of the students was in charge of keeping it up to date. A student might not have known what to do about bad ads appearing out of nowhere.
In defense of the use of myspace.
I have a "myspace" address:
myspace.com/eahsalumni
I created it to find EA Alumni and it has been quite successful. People from all over the country, ranging in ages 15-60 have wrote to my alumni space.
Just like any email, people hack into it and can send mail with your name on it. I believe it happens more often due to the larger audience base in individual myspaces and the frequency with which information flows through these spaces.
My alumni space has frequently gotten penis enhancement and pot ads on my friends comment section.
Once I become aware of them, I delete them.
I prefer not to set safe guards that are available because that would defeat the purpose of having the alumni myspace open to all who care to keep in touch.
My children helped me set this up and those (young people) who use it are aware of the ways they may be subject to getting "spammed" and also how to fix the problem when it happens. ( as my children had to show & tell me when myspace got hit).
Just responding to clarify. Hope it helped.
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