'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.

Wishing all of you an enjoyable, love filled Christmas!

Sincerely,
Rayanne

Are we getting what we are paying for?

While researching I found a Teacher & Administrator Salary Database. Of the top 200 salaries for 2009 in IL listed was District 131 superintendent Jerome Roberts.

The 100 highest-paid school administrators in Illinois in 2006 had salaries ranging from $205,590 to $380,227. Seventeen made more than a quarter million dollars. One of those individuals was none other than Michael Radakovich.
While employed by 131 School Board he was one of 17 superintendents in the Quarter Million dollar Club for 2006

What should determine a superintendents salary?
Should it be linked to teachers salary increase? District improvement? Achievement?

An update of salaries and break down of D131 administrative salaries can be viewed at: http://d131.org/Employment/Admin%20List%20for%20Posting%202009-2010.pdf

More info may be found at:
http://www.illinoisloop.org/salary.html
http://www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php

For the stars hiding in the shadows

It has been requested of the district, at least a few times, to acknowledge those unsung heroes & those shining stars who hide in the shadow of others. There are many who want to place blame why we don't recognize all these folks. Instead, lets try to shout out praise to those students excelling even when no one is looking, those teachers/ staff who go above and beyond without incentive from pay or recognition from their superiors. Let's start early by giving thanks to those, you know, deserving of a story in the paper or a community award or honored as best example of all around great student.

What was that old song they used to sing? "If they don’t ask, we won’t tell?"

The previous 131 School Board president was the scapegoat for many controversial discussions. She dared to question- why?

Nearly all new faces are on the 131 School Board since the Bigelow & Indian Trail discussions. It seems it is back to business as usual. The few small steps forward for transparency have gone to the wayside.

I recall the Magnet Academy parents packing the Board room when there was a possibility of their children being denied that ”special place” for learning. I wonder if those parents will attend the Board meeting on Monday to offer the district their monetary contributions should there be a rent increase on the space that houses the Magnet Academy?

According to Dan Barriero, the city has asked the district to respond to the rent increase by Oct 1st, prior to the Board meeting on Oct. 4th. Should this 131 decision have warranted a vote by the School Board in open session?

The Board president was quoted in the news. She thinks a dollar a year rent would be fine. I am sure she does, as she has stated on several occasions her contacts with the Mayor left her confident there would be no additional costs to the district for this school. Seems like that song has been sung before. Arguments in favor of opening the Academy included the fact "no additional costs to the district for this school."
The new face at the gavel has reverted to singing the songs of yesteryear.

For those "arm chair" board members-here's your opportunity

Condensed from the district press release:

Residents of East Aurora School District 131 who interested in running for a seat on the East Aurora Board of Education can begin the process next week.

Nominating Petitions will be available beginning on 9/21/2010 and can be obtained at the School Service Center @ 417 5th Street in Aurora.

The next election for the East Aurora Board of Education will be held on 4/5/2011.

Nominating Petitions of School Board Candidates must be filed at the School Service Center no earlier than 12/13/2010 at 7:30am and no later than 12/20/2010 at 5pm

For more info you may contact:

Lisa Morales Executive Assistant / School Board Election Official

630.299.5554 ● lmorales@d131.org

Suggested link from previous post: A Tale of Three School Districts

A Tale of Three School Districts
Once upon a time there were three school districts, two of the districts were right next to each other and one was a few miles away and they were all informed that they could get new federal funding to help them retain teachers.

But once the school districts got to see the numbers they got three very different stories. The three districts were the Aurora East, Oswego and Yorkville school districts, all were consolidated districts so they taught K-12. The federal funding numbers come from the Beacon News.

But lets look at some of the numbers. First the amount that the new funding will provide to each district.


Oswego 308 $2,900,000
East Aurora $6,500,000
Yorkville $211,222

Ok, you may think that seems logical the Aurora East district has to be bigger than the Oswego and Yorkville districts... Well not really.

(Financial numbers and student numbers come from the Interactive Illinois School Report Card at NIU)

Well how many students does each district have?
Oswego 15,002
Aurora E 12,767
Yorkville 5,054

So new federal money per student
Oswego $193
Aurora E $509
Yorkville $41

New federal money as a % of instructional expenditure per student the amount in () is the instructional expenditure per student

Oswego ($4,763) about 4%
Aurora E ($4,827) about 11%
Yorkville ($4,477) so about 1%

That's right Aurora East will get about 11% of what they spend on each student in instructional expenses and Yorkville gets about 1%.

Another way to think about it, about 2 netbooks (inexpensive laptops) per student in Aurora East vs. a textbook for each student in the Yorkville district.

Well this is supposed to pay to rehire teachers, so using the average teacher salary and multiplying by 1.5 (to include benefits) how many teachers will each district be able to re-hire/add.

Number of teachers the money would pay for...
Oswego 32
Aurora 81
Yorkville 3

The Oswego district has 20 schools ( so a bit less than 1.5 teachers per school) the Aurora district has 16 schools (so over 4 teachers per school), Yorkville has 9 schools so about a 1/3rd of a teacher for each school.


So it seems that Aurora East is getting a much better deal out of this than Oswego and Yorkville is really getting the short end of the stick.

In some ways it is even worse because of Quinn's transportation cuts will impact Oswego and Yorkville more the Aurora East district. The Aurora East district does not bus so it has a much lower transportation cost per student than the other two and it appears you can not use the federal money for transportation.

— OneMan

“First they came..."

The origins of this poem have been traced to a speech given by Pastor Niemöller in 1946. Since then, the contents have often been altered to produce numerous variations. My alteration- represents the effects as it continues to be done “their” way?

First they came after the gifted program
and we did not speak out, afterall our children were not gifted.

Then they came after the fine arts programs
and we did not speak out, our children were not artists.

Then they came after the sports programs
and we did not speak out, our children were not athletes.

They have failed our children.
Is there anyone left who will speak out for them?

There is an opportunity twice a month.
Board meeting August 16, @ 7:00 PM

A District on behalf of it's children

School District 129 has filed a brief opposing a motion for dismissal in a court case that challenges the constitutionality of Illinois’ education funding system.
The lawsuit contends that the State has abandoned local control of schools in favor of centralized decision-making by the ISBE. Because of this, the unequal tax burdens on property-poor school districts caused by the state education funding system violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution of the State of IL.
The defendants contend the existing system serves the goal of promoting “local control” over decision making. They are seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed in advance of any fact discovery.
The brief argues that preservation of local control of education can no longer be a rational basis for the State’s educational funding system since the state has stripped districts of local control by imposing State-mandated Learning Standards and numerous additional State mandates.
D129 Supt. Rydland explained at the Aug Board meeting “Since the state is responsible to see that there is a quality, foundational education for all students, it also has an obligation to fund education,” Rydland said. “However, because the state funding formula relies more heavily on local funding sources, the discrepancy between the property-rich districts and property-poor districts continues to grow.”
(this is an abbreviated version of an announcement sent thru D129 parentsnews emails)

Fair & Equitable?

While on the school board, information was shared with me by another board member.
She claimed the district was keeping the daycare within our buildings to give the appearance of buildings being more populated than they actually are. She also shared, though many repairs are needed in our buildings, there was a long range plan that was suddenly made short. This too was for appearances. If more money was budget for more repairs in the upcoming year rather than five year plan, the district could claim a financial hardship due to unforeseen expenses. All these “appearances” would be for the sake of avoiding a 4% raise to the teachers, which they surely could afford. The tactic would be to cry poor and threaten overcrowding classrooms.

Admittedly, this was hearsay. What do the teachers and community hear and have to say about negotiations and giving our teachers a fair wage and a work environment conducive to educating the children in 131? We have the potential. Do we have the leadership?

Wishing the EA band a safe and enjoyable experience

I am currently out of town and unable to read the 100's of comments that has shown up on the blog. I scanned through and see some sincere dialog going on. I appreciate that. I am creating this new post just to shorten the scrolling for ongoing dialog.
I hope the students are too busy in FL to post but look forward to their return and comments about their experiences.

Till later..................

Farewell, Mrs. Nadel, thanks for the memories!

"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness." ~Maya Angelou

Lynne Nadel touched the lives of countless EA students. Many found "refuge" in her classroom. She went beyond the duties of her job as a choir director. Mrs. Nadel was an adviser and inspiration to her students. She listened to their woes, shared joy in their accomplishments. She will truly be missed.

Here's wishing Lynne the best in her new home and her next season of life!

Speaking of Board meetings

I know many people don't like the dead horse being beaten but I was curious, and felt like I hadn't gotten the end of the story. So I went to the Board meeting and commented.

"While sorting through papers I found an article. Aug 2006 the Beacon's “Our View” commented: Promises made should be promises kept. Referring to a promise of 8.3 acres of land to be donated to D131. One year later in July 2007 results were approx. 5 acres worth about $1 million.

Now, nearly 4 years later, I want to ask, have the improvements to connecting properties, sites & infrastructure been made? Since the agreement was reached in 2007 who has been paying the taxes, insurance and maintaining the property? What is the present appraised value?

I know recently the district compiled a list of property owned by the district and paid for either market analysis and/or defining the lines and amount of actual property in the districts possession. What is being done with all these properties, specifically the one that was used as a carrot to encourage voters to favor D131 plans and to justify demolishing the drive-in?"

Nothing new........

Just starting new post to shorten length of comment stream.
Sorry, no new post at this time.

What's more important-a good credit rating or high acheivment?

I looked for a D131 budget update. What I found on the website page for the Superintendents office were goals that have been re-dated for 2009-2010, but it if you look at the paragraph above you will see it was all written last school year and which is evidenced by his quarterly goals summary at the bottom of the page which shows his last summary as being the 2nd quarter of 2008-2009.

District 204 has twice as many schools and twice as many students as D131.
Yet D204 Superintendent is informing it‘s community:

“When you are forced to trim $21.4 million from your budget in a single year, it becomes impossible to not have an impact on our students.
We began looking for cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. This includes a plan to reduce 14.4 percent of our central office staff and 6 percent of our building level administrators. We are also proposing a pay freeze for all administrators next year and cutting all administrators' budgets.”

For the full text of the D204 Supt's letter:
http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/News.aspx?id=28616
or go to; http://www.ipsd.org and click: Superintendent's Budget Update

From D131 website: “prior to the passage of the referendum in 2008, the Board of Education and administration made nearly $7 million in budget cuts in order to balance the budget and improve the district’s overall financial landscape. In the midst of a struggling economy, East Aurora Schools made no budget reductions for the current school year, making it the only district in the county to do so. (”http://d131.org/ D131 Gets A+ Grade on Finances)

Last point: D204-Overall Meeting or Exceeding State Standards (ISAT): 93%
State Average: 79%

Refresh

I apologize to those who asked for information concerning the answers I received from my FOIA request of D131 and in response to questions presented at the board meeting concerning additional positions being added to the payroll.

It would not be feasible to post the questions and answers due to the length of content. If anyone wishes a copy, my email address is accessible from my blog profile. I will glady send a copy via USPS.

In the mean time, please continue to share your POV.

Chapter one- Is the Boards work really all about the students?

When the decision was made to run for the school board, I was not acquainted with anyone on the board. I attended board meetings in support of and while encouraging the students in their campaign for Mr. K. All the while Dee was attending board meetings for team uniforms and new textbooks. As a booster & a parent attending events at the HS –Dee, Anita and my paths had crossed many times.
At one point, Annette, her mom, Dee, her sisters and a few neighbors from throughout EA joined a group I organized campaigning to vote NO for the 131 referendums. Through these times, Dee & I realized both of us were contemplating a run for the school board.

Though, Dee & I have been lumped as one by our critics, we have only met socially once. We met for dinner with a couple of the newly elected board members prior to their being seated, last spring.
When I was the new person, I had been welcomed by a couple of the seasoned board members. Following their past practices, I did likewise. During dinner we chatted about the upcoming new board. We shared our hopes for 131 and our thoughts on the direction we’d like to see the board move. We all agreed we’d like to see change. Three of us strongly encouraged Dee to agree to accept the position of board president even when she was hesitant. The three of us expounded on why we felt she was the best option. Reluctantly, she conceded to our pleas, relying on the fact, she would have our continued support. She was nominated & elected, as were others, to the positions as we had all agreed would be a good fit & welcome change.

After a few months a fellow board member started a campaign to have Dee removed as Board President. This member relayed to me, she had political aspirations and felt she would be better suited as the board president. There were stories shared by this board member pointing to Dee as the reason for problems of information not being relayed that was cause for poor decisions being made by the board. Initially, many things were believed without being verified. It is easy when things are not going well, to look for a scapegoat to be the fault. I finally questioned this member of the specifics of the reasons Dee should be removed. She had no reasons relating to Dee’s performance of her duties.
Most of the reasons were relayed through rumors of things Dee purportedly had done.
She was specifically spiteful in comments of wanting Dee removed as president, before spring, so Dee would not be eligible to sign her son’s diploma. Seems she has continued to work towards this goal with the Resolution for Reorganization on this upcoming 131 board agenda.

My Dad walked 3 miles to school! Uphill-both ways!

East Aurora is top of the bottom ten in attendance rates.
According to the local paper*, per state reports “Out of 153 schools, only nine fell below or failed to match the state attendance average of 93.7 percent -- “ one of those being EAHS. The local paper used attendance rates for 445 schools for 4 years for comparison. East High was in the bottom three of the 445 schools. What has changed in 60 years?

My Grandparents were immigrants. They received no welfare or subsidized housing. Their children received no free or reduced lunch or breakfast at school. They had 10 children who walked to school from Pigeon Hill (Pierce Street) because they could not afford to take the bus which cost a nickel. They rarely missed school. One son had perfect attendance K-12, having never missed a day! He was never acknowledged for that accomplishment.

What's the difference between then & now? What responsibility does the school have in fixing this problem?

*http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/2020815,2_1_AU31_ATTENDANCE_S1-100131.article

When strangers start acting like neighbors... communities are reinvigorated.

A fun fair was held at Simmons to raise funds to help ease the burden of medical costs for an EA student who suffered an aneurysm and needs significant, continued treatment.
There was a genuine outpouring from the community. I was in awe of the number of volunteers. The various donations of prizes, games, food and entertainment was amazing! Everything was plentiful. The rooms were full of activity. It appeared to be a highly successful event.

The EA community has many families who are ready to step up when there is a need. They just need to feel they have value and are welcome.
This event was another illustration of the true character of East Aurora that seems to be obscured by outsiders within 131 boundaries that have not taken time to get to know our students and their families.

POV wall

The previous post was getting a little long on comments.
No matter what the topic, bloggers seem to post their point of view (POV) on a variety of issues. So this will just be a new space for continuing those discussions.