Happy New Year to all! Let's make it the best year yet in our district!
188 comments:
Let's not take 131 back 10 years
said...
This is an quote taken out of the Illinois school attorneys guild lines and shows Mr Barrierro to be unethical. He hold a position of influence at the City of Aurora .
Can a board member be employed by another public body (e.g., a park district) that may have dealings with the school district?
If the employment position is one of authority or policy making, the analysis contained in the above answer would seem to indicate that a conflict exists.
Dan served when the Police property was sold along with the Hometown debacle. He influenced both decisions that became large financial loses to the district costing millions.
Have some ethics Dan and remove yourself from the ballot.
Dan did the mayors bidding. The same as Arroyo will be doing for Chapa -LaVia, should she win. Barreiro was on the Board of yes men. Which some have referred to as the "board from hell:" The voting community spoke before and did NOT vote him on. Now he thinks the residents of Ward one will get him in. If the rest of the community doesn't vote and make sure the best candidates are voted to the Board, business will continue as usual without putting students first.
The Aurora Ed Foundation is attempting to put in a Charter School. Lou Hernandez and Barraza have ties to Dan. I was told Muhammed and others have ties to the Charter. It looks like they are attempting to make money off 131 in the way of grants. Union employees need to step up and find out what the districts position is and ask the BOE to vote NO.
The mention of a charter school would not be relevant if the union wasn't doing such a masterful job. Continue supporting the disaster that is organized labor in the classroom . Im not so concerned who gets my portion of taxes if they can produce some positive results. I' have the data on the union and it not good. I know it's not their fault but if it's all someone else fault then why keep pouring into a bottomless pit
Lenart is part of the establishment and never did her job at the EA schools. Why would you support her? This is not a Charter School it is just away to make money
WHO is on the Greater Good education nonprofit board?? I can't find a single name associated with it (nor can my son, who has a degree in computer science and knows his way around the Web for a living). If certain people with D131 ties are so proud of this charter school idea then why aren't they proudly identifying themselves? Could it be that they realize the vast majority of the public opposes charter schools because of their lousy performance and reputation?
We are sorry that you had trouble finding our website. You can find more information at www.greatergooded.org. Please use the form on the website to submit any questions you have for us, we will be happy to respond to them.
I went to the Greater Good website, and was impressed. One of my concerns was that many charter schools take money away from public schools, but I read the following:
"I've heard charter schools take funding from public schools- is this true?
Charter schools are public schools. Like all public schools, they receive funding from the state for students they serve. In this case, most of our students have stopped attending school, so the school district doesn't receive funding for them. Funding funding for dropouts who have re-enrolled is recovered revenue."
Another concern I have about charter schools is that they don't protect teachers' job security, but I notice that one of the board members works for the electricians' union. That connection is reassuring.
They are paid weather or not the students attend school and they DO NOT pay union wages or are they required to have a bargaining unit.
Our union members should know Jessie Barazza and Robin are dating they cooked this up as a financial scam. They will also have access to the districts Title money and grants.
Lou Hernandez is a East Aurora Ed Foundation member and most people associated with that group come from the serial bully days. One of Robins mentors is the serial bully himself Michael Racaovich. It is just another way to steal.
I am very skeptical about charter schools in general, because they have a reputation for cherry-picking bright students away from public schools and denying teachers' job security. However, this proposal actually looks like it would be a good fit for our district and community. I think it's worth a try!
They take money away from districts and when the students go back to their home school the district has no way of recovering the funds.
If they are funded like the public school system they would receive money monthly.
Also ask yourself this how can someone provide such a large staff with students in a store front. Lehert had a bad reputation at Waldo for not following up and had every excuse in the world. She is and will always be a liar at best.
I don't know who Lehert is, but the comment above is correct. If a student signs up for a charter school, and returns to the public schools. The money for that student is already allocated to the charter and the public school does not get any monies for that students for that year. Same with those online schools. People be need to study these schools a bit harder. Don't buy into a sales pitch because that's,just what it is. They satisfy people's concerns with resolutions to all the woes in the main stream public schools.
Dennis Renner has been involved in stealing food from the school district yet others have been terminated for less. We are not sure why Kosek is covering for him but this is to inform the BOE start asking questions.
During the holidays he forced janitors to take our hundreds of dollars of food that should have gone to our students. When Wendell Jefferies asked to feed students he was told no food was left. Every night food that could have served 100 plus people was put in Renner SUV.
Its time for someone to check into this if administration is looking the other way.
Did you personally report this to the BOE? Because saying "this is to inform the BOE start asking questions" on a blog is NOT informing the BOE. If you have personal knowledge of this and YOU don't report it, you're part of the problem, not the solution.
So in reading the article about this charter school they say they want to target drop outs and those failing, BUT they want to start with a freshman class of 50 students......how exactly does that target drop outs and failures?!? What's their plan to handle special education students? Students with 504 plans?!? Students who need social work hours? Oh that's right, what they really want is to take 50 of our best and brightest every year and start taking away funding from our district. Charter schools are in it for the money, follow the money and you'll see why they want to do this.
Renner takes school district items and athletic gear home all the time. Stealing food is small in comparison. Kosak and Dennis are lunch buddies we all know the truth at EA.
From: R Padron Sent: Friday, January 6, 2017 3:57 PM To: Steve Megazzini Cc: Beatrice Reyes Childress; Mark McDonald; Marion Hoyda Subject: FOIA Request
Please povide the following documents Subject: Dennis Renner Credit Card Statements Time Line: July 1 2016 - Jan 6 2017
If Mr Renner used P Cards or other forms to make purchases please provide.
Also include actual receipts for each purchase
Please email & send via US Mail these documents If response will exceed 60 pages please notify me.
I just went to that website, www.greatergooded.org, and it appears to be a quickly put together website that provides info that directly answers the exact questions people have posted here and other spots, and nothing more. I mean, the WIX logo still shows up. If you want to be reputable, get an IT person to at least make your page look worth the time. There is barely any worthwhile information.
The Board page? It lists names & company affiliation only! Shouldn't you provide more? Like maybe why those people are interested in Education, what their goals are, etc? The email provided for their Ex. Dir? A GMAIL ACCOUNT. Super professional. Even the smallest of home businesses will setup email forwarding.
The "Instructional Model?" A pile of buzzwords crapped onto a page. Good work.
I am not necessarily opposed to this school - I teach in this district, and there are some students who DO. NOT. belong with the mainstream and could do better here - but when I see a high school tech class 101 project masquerading as a professional website, it's definitely a point in the NO column. If you want to come into this district, bring your best game. Our students deserve that.
Robin Lenert walked away from our students voiding her contract in the middle of the school year she was not vested. Tge district could have held her contract. Her board members as she claims are EA Allum so why not post their email addresses. They should understand her intentions. This Charter is a get rich Robin Lehart scam because we all know it is always about her.
It seems like the districts is back to not getting receipts from P cards from the statement Ralph has made. The district is suppose to have whoever uses the cards bring in the receipts to make sure purchases are legal. This is how they got in trouble before and there was an article in the paper and guess what those who misused the P cards never had to pay the district back. The board let them steal from the district.
The board did not let them do anything they cleaned up the cards. I as a taxpayer am pleased that the board addresses issues. Many positive changes have been made. It looks by previous posts, it is one individual, and it does not say the receipts are lost. Perhaps the receipts got him in trouble. Maybe Mr Padron could clarify what he is looking for.
One step backwards, is Dan Barrierro his many poor land deals, and the fact he campaigned on a referendum, because the district was going broke with insurance, and not researching why the insurance was costing the district near bankruptcy is why we can not let the district fall into the dark days.
What's up with Renner? He has taken may sports items out of our building for personal use. Everyone knows he runs a business out of his garage. His son Richie once sold golf clubs for $200 dollars that are worth over $800 because he needed the money. Everyone knows Renner is always loading his car up. He has a million excuses the BOE should not by them. He has allowed to get by toooooo long.
A charter school may be non profit, but it doesn't mean people cannot,or will not profit from it. The link below is an interesting read concerning Charter schools.
Many more articles out there explaining how and why charter schools are not always a fix for what ails a district, and how many actually fail. D131 is moving in a positive direction. Do we really want to start chalking up more failed attempts?
The problem is the Curriculum department already over purchased books and has them scattered throughout the district! So now we are going to have the same incompetent people ordering and leading new curriculum when they have not been held accountable for their blunders last year. Look in the Facilities warehouse! Look in the closets and storage of all the buildings! Millions of dollars wasted by Childress and now we are waiting on her to finish her education to be the next superintendent.
The right decision was definitely made last night! Charter schools are NOT a good option for our district, and the people spoke up in students' best interests.
Childress chooses the curriculum, therefore she has to work with the vendor to negotiate prices and how many consumables, so ultimate she runs curriculum. If you are in charge then you need to make sure proper numbers are ordered, and money not wasted. Plus look at the fiasco she made by having maintenance staff pulled from out summer projects to move her curriculum. That is a fact! oh, by the way, the fact is they also extended the interims for another year, and they are sending Childress to school to get certified to be the Superintendent. So why not post the position now, and get a sitting superintendent? Unless your saying EA faculty and students do not deserve experienced administrators. Why do we keep bringing in these third and second string prospects and then complain on the blog as these people learn their job versus know their job.
I worked on a committee that purchased Stem Scopes. All of the prices, materials and bids for our new middle school science labs have been done by Carla Johnson. Reyes Childress attended only one meeting because she does Title and has there to hear about a budget Carla Johnson created. SO no you SHOULD GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
I also love working with the new team and I am hoping there will be NO changes.
We had the same experience on the Go Math committee. Carla Johnson did the purchasing but all her orders got bumped up by Sara Waddell. Sara also orchestrated the move of Curriculum materials to Hill Ave. Sara then spent her day's organizing the materials and cleaning but she did not want to do teaching and learning, or meet with people. We lost track of what we had in inventory once all the supplies and materials ended up at Hill Ave. If supplies did get over ordered it was because of Waddell. Beatrice does not work at ASC and has nothing to do with hiring.
I also believe the district is headed in the right direction and Heather Kincade is making positive steps. She is able to communicate verses Waddell who used cleaning as a excuse not to work with staff.
Heather Kincaid was put in charge to hide the fact that Beatrice Reyes-Childress, the future Superintendent, allowed over a million dollars of extra curriculum to be ordered. This curriculum is now wasting away in the warehouse for everyone to see. This was done under Doctor McDonalds and Hoydas watch.
The consultant Mike Stapleton was heard briefing Dr. McDonald of the over ordering. McDonald not releasing this information under the orders of Annette Johnson. Beatrice is going to school on the District's dime, and is not around to do her responsibilities.
Interims, or should we call them permanents, as their contracts were extended to 2018, have no idea what is going on in the district. They spend the limited tine they have in the district doing the bidding of Annette Johnson, the only board member they listen too.
The Curriculum Materials are well documented that the purchases happened under the Popp administration. Again, many staff members protested the move to Hill Ave but Waddell did not listen. I am sure many Board and Curriculum minutes back up our information. The warehouse organization was ordered by McDonald and now they have an inventory. The materials will not waste away we will use them next year. We are keeping the curriculum and we always get additional students or curriculum materials get damaged. We have stability in this district and curriculum will not change . Many of us wish Dr Hoyda would stay forever.
Concerned is merely a shill for the troubled past of EA. These are truly lies all purchases came out of Curriculum last year with Wadell, Argetha and Carla Johnson. BErtice Childress had NOTHING to do with it . HOyda nor McDonald had ZERO authority until July 1st. The BOE only approves purchases but has ZERO idea of what we need. It is true nobody could inventory materials since it was moved to Hill.
Concerned is a liar and is making wild accusations.
The interim's have a contract til 2018 because we asked for consistency and the board listened. Many of my colleagues have seen Dr Hoyda more than our past three superintendents combined. She is open and a wealth of information on any topic. We have seen new ideas and teaching methods that address our population.
D131 is what you make of it and if you care to participate you will see the many great things going on.
On to the materials topic. The new materials are being used and this year it has reduced copying for teachers because there are enought materials to go around. Stop complaining.
Where do you work? I'm going to put in an anonymous faceless accusation in on you. Cowards. Simply amazing the lies, falsehoods and accusations we allow to fly around. Internet trolls unite! Ea alumni do you even have a job? Or are you just a miserable internet troll with a terrible life so you have to try to make everyone else miserable like yourself.
To blog admin-
How bout you don't post this crap unless they post a verifiable name and contact info so people can face their accusers in person. Bet the accusations would stop on here immediately. What a joke.
Manny is a hard working employee who was directed to do this by Renner. Renner on the other hand has been fired from three districts. I wonder why! Word is Dr McDonald fired him at a prior district. How dare the Renner troll MAnny. Renners ex brother at BSN has be involved a sports equipment ring. Maybe Steve Struckle should be reported to the owner of BSN
Who would want to hire someone who makes a career decision based on an anonymous blog? People can go to Facebook and talk to actual employees with faces if they want a strangers opinion. Some people do not like what the blog has had posted, so they try to blame it for many of the districts problems. Get real!!! <o€< (Troll)
If this is not the most cowardly act, and you're probably someone who goes out of his way to say hi to Manny Esparza too. Manny is a damn good, hard worker who always goes out of his way to help out and goes over and sometimes beyond in his job duties. Obviously you don't know him so well if you think he needs to be "stealing" food. It's so sad to know how many people point fingers because they know that's the only thing they're good at besides hiding behind a blog. Coward. Those who get a rise out of false accusations don't belong in this district or anywhere for that matter.
In the real world there's not a blog to be a coward and throw false accusations at someone and then they have the book thrown at them and are investigated off some trolls post on a blog. Smart, well educated teachers and admin would steer clear of this district know one troll could ruin their career and put their family in financial trouble. That's who. Only a troll would say if they can't handle a blog or make a career decision off the blog we're better off without them. And that's why trolls belong under a bridge. You're probably not in education. And just a hater. What do you do for a living? What's your name? Maybe we should call you work and report you with false accusations
Concerned Citizen... School Textbook money from the state and federal grant programs can not be used for purchases or materials not being used outside that funding year! So using 2017 funds in July of 2016 for use in Fiscal Year 2018 is not allowed under the grant programs. So buy using FY 2017 monies on wasteful unneeded materials and then saying we will use them in FY 2018 is waste, fraud, and abuse of title monies, state textbook monies, or any other grant money. I think the state should put in a Financial Oversight Panel!
Dr. Johnson presented to the committee. She explained process new math curriculum which involves getting raw enrollment numbers to the publisher to get preliminary numbers, which don’t include bilingual or resource, for example. Then she went to Infinite Campus to get student numbers which, depending on the time of year, can fluctuate, and also Dr. Waddell polled principals to get their take on what they believed enrollment would be next year. Those new numbers were then submitted to the publisher for comparison and as a sort of check and balance. The bottom line is that the district was able to reduce the amount by $116K. Total cost for the math materials ended up being $1,142,028.72 with $0 for shipping. Note that this adoption is K-8 vs. the Pearson language arts adoption which was K-5 and cost $1.4 million.
Here is a post from when Curriculum was purchased. They are public discussions and shows the purchases and how they are made. A couple notes no me tioo of Reyes Childress. It is fact based in enrollment. SO SHUT UP
I would be disappointed if the district placed a $1.1M order and couldn't negotiate with the vendor to waive shipping fees. I agree that Reyes Childress may not have been involved in THIS particular order but don't fool yourself that she has never wasted district funds. Ask anyone in central office about the THOUSANDS of brand new novels, books, etc. that were stored in the attic until about a year ago. Some of us are taxpayers and cringe at the waste of money while we are only getting 2% raises. Popp the Tyrant finally had them shipped to schools although no one could say what teacher, grade level, school the books were originally meant for. WHAT was he thinking putting books in the hands of our students?
And I really want to know if we are paying for Reyes Childress's doctorate's or giving her time off to go to classes. When will the process begin to look for our next superintendent? This is a long process and it I think it would be helpful to have some overlap with the new supt. and Hoyda and McDonald.
Popp came to the district and wanted to write his instructional units like he was accustomed to in 204. This required 131 to buy materials such as novels and grade level workbooks. Dr Johnson and Childress voiced their concern but that is what Popp the expert in curriculum wanted. Millions needed to be thrown away and many of us came to curriculum and protested. Waddell and Popp defended their choices and teachers will remember they could not find anyone to write curriculum. The board listened to teachers after many surveys had been taken and scraped the write your curriculum program. Hoyda was part of the decision and could not believe we had to teach with such bad materials.
I like many support Dr Hoyda staying another year she has taken on a difficult position but we can not change direction again with curriculum that is why many support her and want her to let the curriculum gel. I would suggest to the board asking her to come back to the buildings and check on the progress with our new curriculum. She is a wealth of educational and institutional knowledge.
I think the BOE is doing the right thing waiting until after election. Why should they hire someone that does not have the input from the entire board. Leonard (Good Riddance) and Strand are not running.
The district is stable and running better than in years.
Just heard that Joe Blasing Credit card was taken away from him for misuse. It's about time our leaders here at East Aurora start cleaning up some of these "BAD APPLES". Does anyone know what he was misusing the card for? He needs to be investigated as well as Manny Esparza. Amazing how those defending the guilty are so quick to respond. In addition Joe's attendance and performance is a zero at best. Get rid of these bums. Morale would go sky high here at our District.
Really? Joe's card was taken away for misuse? PROVE IT! He is the most honest person I have ever met. He is one of the ONLY people that cares enough to keep up with the snow removal and other things that need to be maintained around the district. His uncle used to be the Director of B&G and he takes the job seriously unlike many others there. I hear about it daily. All the equipment in disrepair especially up at Hill Ave. that he has been fixing for years? All of your golf carts etc? BTW He has to take days off to take care of his mother and wife in accordance with the FMLA Act. In fact, this IS his wife and if you like tossing about hearsay regarding the Family Medical Leave Act and my husband I would love to bring that up with your District's atty. Stop hiding behind your name "Keep up the pressure". Would you care to talk with our atty regarding your comments? And Manny? Wow! You mean the guy that calls our house at 4am to talk to Joe and make sure where and when to come in to make the school safe during bad weather (the fact that others do not come is not Joe's fault). You are waaaay off and I know it first hand. Please, give me your name and I will forward it on. If you are SO sure about making accusations then you should have no problem doing this.
This is what should have been going on all along. - People pointing out the morons. Draining the swamp is the only way to make District 131 good again!!!!! You have to also get rid of the teachers who are just counting the days until the next 4 day weekend or spring break or timing their elective surgery to make sure it occurs during the school year instead of in the summer. Getting rid of the incompetent teachers is just as critical as getting rid idiotic staff.
Morale will skyrocket even more when teachers are allowed to discipline troublemakers and actually expel them again.
Morale will reach its zenith when the teachers realize that they need to tell their union to get down to springfield and demand laws that curtail out of control teacher pensions and salaries, so that there will be public schools in the future. Looks like vouchers will be coming so it really is time to drain the swamp.
Boy you are buggin' out again- You don't like anyone!!!!! What person who works at a job doesn't count down to vacation. That doesn't mean while you are at your job you don't work your ass off. You are either a retiree, or just really have nothing to do but fault find about something you know nothing about. And yes genius when you did have a job, if you did, then I guess you marched to the Central Office and demanded that they cut your measly salary and took away your hard earned pension. What a brilliant idea!! You must have a Mensa ring!!You talk about swamps alot so you must be quite familiar with this ecosystem. Also, maybe people schedule surgery around vacations so they can really have time to mend. You talk about elective procedures. A nose job? I don't think so. The teachers I know that have had surgery are from cancer, or burst appendixes, or other non-elective surgeries. Keep spittng your bile but actually have some facts to back up the bullshit.
I am a friend of Joe Blasing's step-grandmother Marilyn. I believe that Joe is a hard-working man with integrity. I suspect that one of Feltes' supporters (or Feltes himself) is trying to discredit Joe because they are upset about Feltes finally being shown as the bully he is. Marilyn told me about how Feltes treated the B&G people terribly. For example, during extreme cold weather he turned the thermostat down to 50 degrees in the shop, while he relaxed in 72 degree comfort. He was very difficult to communicate with and often just plain mean to employees. Our district is lucky to be rid of him, and we should be thankful that good guys like Joe and Manny have decided to work here!
So let me get this straight teacher morale will be at an all time high when teachers get lower wages and less of a pension benefit?!? You must be a special kind of stupid! Only idiots think vouchers work?! You think parents are going to want their kids in 203 or 204 to be inundated with our kids?! They'll move and the school won't be any better. 203 and 204 can only hold so many kids. Vouchers solve nothing but keep chomping down the red meat from the right. Vouchers don't suddenly make good parents. Teachers at the high school have students for 5 hours a week, but it's definitely their fault kids don't know how to read and do poorly on tests. When parents start accepting blame and take classes on how to parent, the district might be able to focus on education for once.
I think that maybe "June Bugg" is saying that if vouchers are given - and that means that the kids can go to private schools in Aurora also, so there will be room for all the good students-, that the only students left will be the unteachable and that the only teachers left will be begging for any job, thus the plea for decreases in pay, etc. because those teachers suck even today.
maybe bugg is hoping that everyone at 131 will be pointing out the union members who are douche bags and cry bullies as well as "the bosses" who seem to take the brunt of the attacks.
Hopefully the "fake" hit pieces on people can stop on this site. There is enough fake news out there as it is.....
Godd title for yourself but you are probably overestimating the quantity of thoughts that you have - your reductionist thinking that charter schools will cater to all of the "good" students while public schools will house the "bad" teachers and students is absurd. Boy you are very covetous of teacher's money, pensions, etc. Why not question all job's salaries? Why no attacks on electricians and plumbers? Is the garbageman safe from your rant and speculative eye?Leave teachers alone. They do a job that you would not want to do. We get to be teachers, social workers, counselors, deans.This is not a volunteer position. You try teaching a kid with a first grade reading level who has been abused his whole life some of the classics and then maybe I will listen to you. Probably not, thoughtless. Because I love my kids, and there's no such thing as a bad kid. I don't really know any bad teachers. Just ones worn out from getting no support from people like you.
As a coach at the High School, I am very appreciative of the hard work Joe and Manny put in. These two guys have so many responsibilities including cutting the grass, chalking the lines, and maintaining the grounds at not only the HS but also the MS's as well. This kind of spreading thin of resources is a joke and it's amazing to see the quality of work they do. The district should really think about treating their employees like people and not just a number on a spreadsheet and then they would be amazed at the quality of work all of us would do. But when we have administration and leaders just interested in padding their resumes, the human element gets overlooked. And that's sad considering we work in a school district trying to cultivate young minds and emotional behaviors.
Knows the score sounds like they truly know the score. We have had many employees spread thin in 131. Many of those are the ones who have the most direct contact with our students. Those who impact and influence the students in and beyond the classroom. The district has been top heavy for a very long time, not just with admin, but with what we pay the admin. I am not an employee, but a taxpayer who watches "The score." It is looking better from my POV, from the outside looking in. I hope it is improving from the insiders perspective, also.
The administration would have more time if they did not have to chase thousands of pages from Padron. They pay at least three people a year just to keep up with him. What has he accomplished? The district should sign a deal to pay his insurance because he was stealing himself. It would be cheaper. He needs to just go away.
Wow, had to get in recliner mode in my easy chair as the BS from the last 3 posts had crap coming up on the floor.
Guess every teacher and "worker bee" at East is up for sainthood from the Vatican. Guess everyone except "admin" is performing at 100 percent all the time and EVERY student has some "issue" that needs special attention 24 hours a day. And those needs are served 24/7 by the heroic staff at the school. Cry me a river. Sounds like adolescent fantasy has crept into the adults. Look, getting up in the morning,putting on your clothes,coming to work and actually doing your job are not "quality" actions. You actually have to accomplish something while you are at the school.
Yes, Ralph and his merry band of nitwits (or bedwetters- as they have no control when it comes to taxpayers money) need to go play victim elsewhere.
Remember, 10 million plus in insurance premium payments for people who were supposed to know better and just let it continue to happen. They knew they were not supposed to be accepting that. But, they just 'paid what the district sent me". These were people who touted their college degrees (some advanced) made them superior "teachers" and therefore "smart" people. What insane arrogance.
How much is Ralph costing us? He and his wife had free insurance for years and he got mad and has made us suffer for years. Popp would have had a job saving the district his serverance but Ralph is trolling him and will not let the man get a job. Ralph needs to leave us alone but he will not because he is a stalker. His lastest is picking on maintenace employees that bearly make a living. Sad what does he want to do stalk everyone so they leave 131. No school district has to put up with this. This has been going on for 4 years anyone see a problem. Maybe its time we write a real newspaper about his harsement.
Ralph may have had good intentions somewhere along the line, but when he started doing it for his own glorification and in the hopes that he would get a job with the District, that is when it went south. Check him out on Linkedin as a "specialist" in school districts. The very unscrupulous people he started out trying to bring to light are now his pals. Dick Leonard, Marty Feltes etc., he does as they request even though it truly is the epitome of the very bullying he stated he was out to stop. He has no gratitude for the people that helped him, spoke for him when he was truly doing good work. This is his self-imposed "job" now and he enjoys it. I was notified that he is now starting in on the maintenance dept. at the request of one of his "EA contacts". I feel sorry for the people who he is targeting now. I know these people personally and will help them in any way to stop this type of harassment.
Wow, yea if he is the specialist he claims to be and an accountant you think he would know for sure that his insurance payments or nonpayments should I say were wrong!!! I see he is friends with dick on social media. He has alot of dirty laundry and maybe trying to distract us with his 1000 pages of foia requests. Maybe someone should investigate him!
If anyone recalls the facts about the insurance provided to district retirees, it was not only legal, it was board policy. Annette Johnson pulled their insurance out from under them with no warning. She then had to backtrack and change board policy to go along with her actions. You can debate all you want about whether this was the right decision or not but the one thing that is not debatable is that it was done without warning and it put a lot of our retirees in a bad spot trying to find insurance without warning.
Just stop but he is so sick he will never stop
said...
Why is Ralph Padron still after us. Does he not realize we have children to educate? Working at the SSC I see the toll it takes on staff. His copies have been estamated at over 600,000 pages At least three district employees touch them. Then the endless emails to superintendents, directors and staff. We all have to read his endless dribble because you are not never sure who he is going to attack. The technology department is also involved because now he searches emails, websites and phone records. This has been going on for five years and not a week goes by with out at least one request and an average of two plus in most weeks.
FOIA REQUEST Date: Jan 23 2017 Subject: Joe Blasing Records Time Line: Jan 1 2016 - Jan 20 2016
Credit Card Statments Receipts Signed Agreement agreeing to Terms & Conditions in Accepting Credit Card from EA 131 Document Justifying & Approval of Issuing Credit Card
Please email & send via US Mail results of this FOIA Thank You Ralph
There was never a policy just a practice for allowing retirees to get insurance. Many of them never paid insurance or paid the old rate for years. The retirees knew they got a break from the district. If the insurance continued we would have never had projects like our Fred Rodgers School or the Benevides All Day Kinder Center.
Ralph and his family benefited like many others like Arlene Hawks the self proclaimed busy body who's husband was a millionaire. Arlene and her husband never questioned the cheap rates as she drove her Bentley up the Mcknight Center to protest. Maybe it is time to expose the list of freeloaders. Ralph was one of many but he has taken it to a new extreme.
I am retired but pay my fair share and because I am IMRF we do not have the same sweet deal as the teachers had. Annette Johnson has taken her fair share of lumps some deserving but without her Roberts, Augustine (now a Born again minister), Trasano, Vaughn, Radakovich, Dubinsky, and others would have continued to steal from our children. So when I hear retirees like Ralph bash Annette I just laugh because I know the real story. They all knew but choose to steal.
BTW Community Charles Ponquient still gets free insurance because prior board members to Johnson wrote it in his contract. Another honored revered community members.
Ralph Padron pawn of Dick Leonard and associates and now an official bully and FOIA Abuser. I wish the district would take a stand against him. He has blatantly violated what the FOIA was intended for and has turned it into his personal tool for intimidation. Stop accepting his ridiculous numerous requests that are a financial burden on the district and go to court with him. And next time you see him enjoying lunch with Dick, give him a knowing wink. Ralph cannot keep a secret to save his life, so we all know where this comes from. Heck, most of the staff knows what he is up to! He plays both sides.
No longer is history rewrote, nor does AJ lie.....it is now referred to as alternate facts. My alternate facts tell me Mrs. Hawks is the millionaire. Alternate facts tell me that AJ made sure Roberts got a sweet deal before he retired, also. Even though Roberts was the one allowed the insurance "problem" to continue rather than fix it. Then the financial fella and his secretary took the fall. Roberts threw many under the bus before he rode the bus outa town and away from AJ and her attempt to alter facts to make herself appear the savior of the district. Alternate facts say we did not need Magnet, all day K or preschool. We need more teachers and space for all students not select groups and preK is not part of what is required of our school district. Fact, fabrication or alternative facts.....all just another's POV.
Does anyone have a number on how much Padron has cost the District in Foia fees inluding the legal dept. in the last 3 years? When the cost outweighs the public interest it is considered abuse. Trolling for revenge is not considered to be in the public interest.
Annette Johnson is a savior for speaking up. Many in the asforementioned knew about this but Augustine was paid to know better. Roberts should have been fired but played the race card and but Augustine under the bus.
If you are saying the money was not well spent on Kinder and Preschool you are crazy. The children need a head start in 131. Fred Rodgers gave students an opportunity and for once our district can proclaim great schools.
As for Ralph the copy cost alone is $60,000 that is what Xerox was billing if we used the SSC machines. There is also cost for secretaries, directors and lawyers. The prior posting are correct the insanity needs to stop.
If you know anything about FOIA's. Only the first few copies are free. If there is any significant copying costs, the person requesting the FOIA must pay those copying costs. It didn't cost the district $60,000 in copying costs and there is no way Ralph could afford $60,000 in copying costs. You are pulling numbers out of your A$$. You are equally missing nformed in your praise of Annette Johnson. Of course, since you probably are Annette, it's just delusions of grandeur.
Get real got it right! FOIA has guidelines and if all these posts were true, they could have and would have stopped Padron a long time ago. Praising of Annette and bashing others is going to become frequent on the blog. This is her biggest campaign platform. She is like Trump on twitter but anonymous.
No not Annette. I have worked at the SSC for years and participated in pulling paperwork when I could have worked on child centered projects because I had to answer Ralph. There are boxes of unpaid copies that Ralph had us pull and he refused to pay for. A waste of time and money because the little knoll can not let 131 alone. Your obsession with Annette is sick and your defense of Ralph untolerable. The differance is one saved the district millions and the other one cost millions.
I will not vote for Chapa Lavia because of this law. She not only sponsored this bill but in Springfield they do not live up to the same set of laws. You can not FOIA Chapa Lavia but she allows schools to get attacked by the same unfunded mandate.
Since I am the target of the most recent comments, I make the following statement
1 Joe Blasing's wife, Laurie, was one of the individuals submitting FOIA's on my behalf using screen names which would not implicate herself. Matt Hanley had kept track of the FOIA's and was able to prove the connection.
2 Health Insurance Insurance was not free and my wife confronted/scolded Mike Popp publicly at a BOE meeting and gave him copies of our payments to EA.
3 Other issues continue to be investigated.
To my Critics: The difference between you and I are can be summarized by this:
4 All my charges vs those individuals are proven with FOIA documents. Your allegations are never proven.
5 I post my name on this blog and you don't. As a result I receive threats thus react accordingly.
As a big advocate of Freedom of Speech please continue to express your opinion as you choose.
If you would like a comparison, look at the cost that Naperville had to incur because of all the FOIAing done on their smart grid program. That was 73,000 in much less time. Who picked up the tab? The taxpayer via increased utility bills. You must take into account the time spent by all employees, legal dept., doing the redactions etc. Google FOIA harassment, it is growing and becoming more problematic. Yes, I would hope we all believe in transparency in our government, but we all pay the price (literally) when certain people go nuts and start asking for information out of spite, revenge and because their pride was hurt because they could not find what they thought was there and they do it incessantly. It costs far more than the price of paper and ink. And when you do it to a school, the kids pay too but in a more costly way.
Yes, I did do a small amount of foiaing about Marty Feltes at YOUR request. I did so under a different name as I wanted there to be no conflict of interest with my husband and YOU agreed with it. That is NOT against ANY kind of foia law (since you love the foia so much) and considered myself, Dianne one other(not my husband)your "team". You do not even have to give your name or be a US citizen to use the foia. And it certainly did not cost even remotely as much as all the requests you have/had put in. In fact, you were frequently denied your foias because you requested too many in a certain time-span.
At this time I thought you were doing this for the good of the staff and students. Was I wrong. Oh, so wrong. Shame on me. And there was much more as you know. I have kept all of my emails and files so I am able to explain any further allegations from you.
Let me repeat Dianne and myself DEEPLY REGRET assisting you. You are in it purely for yourself.
So it's OK to FOIA the district with the intent to publicly shame an employee UNLESS it hits you where you live? Think of all the hardworking, honest people that were trying to move this district forward but were harassed enough to get out because of this tactic. Ralph and his crew couldn't get the whole story solely based on documents. They filled in the blanks with lies and presumptions that always assumed the worst.
And let's not forget that JB threatened Marty. Like Marty or not, he was still Joe's supervisor. Annette saved him, just like she's saved and supported other not so stellar employees.
Diane Thomas works with at the CSC. Lets ask why does she still have a job? When did the BOE vote on changing her job classification? After her man was elected to the BOE Diane started receiving favors from Suzanne and Beatrice. She hardly ever seems to do any actual work but she acts like the superintendent. Diane's actions are the joke of the District. She come to every BOE meeting offers up hand signals for her man Ken Darby and takes notes. The BOE should know that is more effort than she does to perform her job. The majority of us stay away from this cancer (Diane Thomas) but some do pump her for information. The hate and poison she spews towards admin and the other BOE members is sad. So what about Diane Thomas? Do you have information? Please share someone needs to investigate her. She is the Ralph Padron of employees.
Ah yes busing. When we have 12+ elementary schools that are there with the purpose of having walkable schools and 4 middle schools we need busing for the entire district? Say hello to a wage freeze in the district if busing is approved. The high school may be the only building that busing would be justified. But when cars are parked on both sides of the neighborhood streets and a bus cannot get down the street, then what?! So now a population that has no sense of time and showing up early to anything is going to get up even earlier to catch a bus? What happens when 10 kids show up on the bus and we're paying for 50 to be on there? Parents are already declining a bus to the kindergarten center that has proven to work and be great for the district but parents don't want their kids on a bus. The district had to find a use for all the extra space at the kindergarten center because of this. How about we get rid of school fee waivers and then the parents can actually contribute to their child's education and that can pay for busing?!? If they can afford $200 jordans, iPhones and everything else for their kids why can't they pay 2-300 bucks in school fees?!? The taxpayers will not approve any measure to raise taxes for buses. The time came and went for busing when the district declined tax money from the fox valley mall and the outlet mall.
Wage freeze means the cry bully teachers are already worried the district will look out for the students and give into busing. Sad that our teachers which have been given a 18% wage increase over their last three year contract will not help the students.
Sad that our teachers cost the district three curiculum changes last year.
Sad that our teachers asked and that the school board granted less evalulations, and less professional development.
Sad that the teachers can not manage their classrooms and the interims are having the same problems.
Sad that Renner was allowed to keep his job last year but it did not last.
D131 will see a mass amounts of AP and some good principals leaving. The letters of referance are out there folks.
It is interesting that Dr Popp and his fellow administration team is valued at other school districts that they have gone to work with even though Padron has attempted to spread lies
If d131 keeps the same teachers and the BOE backs them no amount of money will improve 131.
Only way it works is to either work with the city and PACE and/or shuttle from the grade schools. Street width just cannot take the buses and it is correct that there will be people missing the bus as for a large amount of the student population, time has no meaning. And it should be only for the high school.
We need to look back and see why the graduation rates were not as low as they are today. There was no school bus then. So, what is the issue today? The city of Aurora has not had true bus service for many decades. So, what is different today at the district. There is no direct correlation of busing and higher graduation rates. We just have students from other countries that do not value nor do they assimilate into the melting pot of America. Maybe we need to have the first year of education for our foreign students just be learning English and immerse them in what we expect out of people who come to this country. Not saying they have to be a Cubs fan the first year here, but they have to learn that they must assimilate and accept our customs. (do what you want at home) Just don't expect handouts for a lifetime or for generations.
The district has been really good at draining the swamp recently. So we can't stop the progress. Ralph and his merry band of nitwits(bedwetters) and their sucking ten million out of the district, getting some crybully teachers to leave the district, having a cash reserve, etc. (did you read in the Beacon that West Aurora 129 will have a deficit this year and they have no reserve!!!!!!)
So, busing has to be spending neutral. Which means no more teacher raises for the next 30 years as that is how much they are overpaid already.
Bus theory has a point. Roughly 4000 kids at the high school. They all pay 300 bucks for school fee and that's 1.2 million for busing. Parents want another handout?! They're already living in houses filled with more people than are allowed but it's not enforced. They also get school fees, id fees, athletic fees all waived. God forbid we ask them to pay something toward their child's education. I assume they just think the old guys in stone gate should pay for everything. Maybe if we force them to pay something then they would have a stake in the game and get their damn kids to stop roaming the halls and sit in class and learn. Until we force parents to invest personally preferably in the form of money, graduation rates will stay where they're at. The schools are a babysitting service for a lot of parents. God forbid they ever take away their child's cell phones one of the biggest inhibitors to learning. But their kids know all the words to the latest rap song, but can't pass a constitution test. Or a remedial math class. When everything is free, how does one perceive the value of something that is free?!?
How does a town that has a casino not have money for schools?!? Where does all that money go?!?
You suck and spread lies. The teachers work their asses off and get no support. Kids are violent and nobody cares. The hallways are a nightmare of bullying, screaming no help there. Kids are having sex and smoking pot in the bathrooms. Ask kids to put their phones away get an F you- You wouldn't last a day buddy. you are the crying bully of all the hard working teachers out there get an f'in life and quit opining about things you know nothing about.
How come there are no articles in the Beacon about the a$$hole behavior of the students every day of the week?? Why is it that only lame articles about busing for the snowflakes show up?? Why isn't the teacher union demanding a direct line with the Beacon so that this is constantly reported. If kids are acting like morons, why aren't there links to videos, so the world can see and identify the little cretins. As teachers, the press can protect your identity. This needs to be shown to the whole town. This would show that no more funds should be given to the district until the students actually act like human beings. Doesn't sound like lack of support but political correctness getting in the way of doing what needs to be done. If you are not bringing this to see the light of day you are part of the problem. No one is saying you need to be identified, you need to get this to the press immediately. No longer can taxpayers afford to keep paying for districts that in fact are failed school districts. Maybe the answer is that 131 needs to be assimilated into District 204 and the Naperville school districts. That may be the only thing that will change student behavior.
Sounds like there could be a reporter amongst us, trying to drum up some local news for old coworkers. Pot stirrer could be another name, but hardly common sense. First teachers are being called whiners, then they are told they are being too politically correct. I have seen many of the teachers suck it up and move forward with teaching the children that do show up to learn. There is barely enough time in the day to do the necessary tasks and now Common Sense wants teachers video taping and setting up links and calling the Beconfused to report this "news." The central office, board and Beacon have been notified many times over the years. No use, they were all in bed together and nothing was reported accurately, if at all.
Denise Crosby daughter works at our district she knows first hand what was going on. She preffered to make Popp the hero and not report the news.
Meanwhile on the other side of town two referendums passed in five years and they are broke. No reports on the corruption of Popp hiring Tyler so Angie Smith the former BOE member could get the job running the district. Vacations, expense accounts, dog sitting, and the loss of money pouring out of their district for fancy offices.
Dont count on the Beacon they are worthless. They think paying Matt Hanley a $40,000 raise is a good use of tax payer dollars.
Here is a tip Ralph FOIA credit cards in 129 it will make your head spin off.
Listen Common Sense we do report all of this- don't you get it? nothing gets done and the teachers who write referrals suffer recriminations. Talk about what you know about.. Combining districts is impossible. You go to school where you live..
Video are not the be all and end all. The police are filmed shooting, beating and mistreating citizens and their defenders say that 16 shots were justified. The video doesn't tell the whole story ,right. The reason I say be careful is that the students have cell phones as well. Unless every teacher is prepared to be taped too. They also have other staff with phones that record audio. How about your negative conversations that can be recorded. Google and hear audio tapes made at the republican summit last week. You will hear republicans who know that any plan to repeal the aca is a disaster if no replacement is available. They talk in private about their fears of trumps politics but they moles in their mist. Trump has leaks in the WH, be careful
The majority of student displine issues maybe our students but the Dr Popp era of watering down suspensions and repercussions has left the school district in distress.
Recently at Waldo one of our PPA's and teachers was pushed to the ground and a small suspension on the part of Morales happened. While the interiums did not know the student was returned to class. Mcdonald was brought in the loop and stated a minium of 10 days or possible explusion or a trip to the extension campus should have happened. Mcdonald made building administration appolize.
This is an example of teachers advocating for themselves if their building is not doing a good job. The days of admin retaliation seem to be over. Hoyda and Mcdonald are working on fixing issues but if we feel our admin did not do the right thing speak up. If that does not work go to a school board meeting. It appears the school board or at least most of them are committed to a safe working enviroment. Laesch and Strand maybe not so much as staff noticed they would expell a student who caught the school on fire at East putting students, staff and daycare students at risk in the cold.
If the Beacon sucks (which it does and it really hasn't been a newspaper for the last 30 years. But it is all we have in Aurora), then this student behavior needs to be shown on television, so that EVERYONE sees the little turds acting out. How do you get this to the Chicago networks??? I am sure Chicago schools could submit their own clips of insanity.
We have to get creative with answers to these problems. Maybe it is to combine districts, as this must cease. We all know that this is not the current way of handling these issues but it could be ..... (Plus that, Ralph would have this problem in Naperville!!!)
We are just wasting money with this kind of BS going on. We must stop investing in activities that appear to not be working and have not for a long long time. And the current public school system is an activity that is just plain is not working.
Well we'll, speaking of charter school and school choice. The new Secretary of Education Ms DeVos is going to give me a choice of where to educate my child; thank you Donald Trump. Some of you should start looking for work, woohoo
Wow, blah blah what an idiot thou art!! This isn't about choice it's about corporate takeover for the billionaires and the only reason De Vos got promoted was that her family gave Trump's campaign 400 million dollars. Look at you happy to see people in the middle class lose their jobs-- hope he doesn't come after a field where you and yours work.... don't think he will stop here...Oh and by the way, all of those Russians in the top level of security who leaked info about Trump have been found murdered... Nice guys huh?
Look and listen people the criminals in all of this is our union. Higher premiums for what! If you are not at Cowherd there is zero representation. We our lucky with climate and culture because of the interiums. However, they will not be around forever. Trump or Devos have very little influence on 131. Mestak and Garcia do and leadership in our union is at an all time low.
Yes, now we can actually get the education we deserve. Not the education that is being thrust down our throats. Look at all the comments about the kids being out of control at East. This could be a boon to the state budget as the number of public school teacher pensions would decrease dramatically. Hey, companies like Comcast, PepsiCo, Facebook, Disney, Pacific Gas and Electric, Apple, Microsoft, Google,Amazon etc under Obama have abused the visa system to decimate the middle class jobs in technology *and that is just one field that Obama has decimated for the middle class. At least you will have jobs with similar pay - just not the unsustainable pensions. When it comes to money, just look at the dollars that the executives of the aforementioned companies gave to Obama and Hillary, along with all the foreign government money that rolled into the Clinton companies. (Interesting that most of the "donations" to the Clinton Initiative have dried up).
The Democrats of today have never been for the working class or the middle class. They are not the party of FDR and have not been for some time. It is as if they want everyone just above the poverty line and educated just enough to not be considered illiterate. They were my party until a few years ago. Then I saw the decent jobs disappear and they did not lift a finger. According to them, we are all supposed to be working at the local fast food places, as those are the only jobs they produced the last 8 years.
The residents need to ask why is Dick Leonard still getting free internet? Why does Ralph not FOIA the sites he visits? He can because the internet in Dicks house is paid by 131. Ralph is friends with Dick so he will never do that. Ralph gets information from Jessie Vargas and then discredits hard working maintenance people. So when y'all questions for Ralph just remember he is getting information for Leonard.
Here is a challange Ralph FOIA Leonard and see if he ever logged into the boards website other than meetings that Lisa Morales logs him into.
If Ralph would be fair he would FOIA Leonard and his internet use. How does the district monitor what he searches when he is in his private home? Not one employee or board member have private internet use. Ralph will never FOIA Leonard because he praises him in public and everyone knows it is about Ralph.
Ralph has FOIA requests in on hourly employees bearly making minium wage. He is trying to get people fired because he gets a trill out of it. Leonard the Marty Feltes clown has been stealing from the tax payers for years. All the BOE members for years have paid their own internet only Leonard has nicled and dimed the district. Why has Ralph never gone to the podium on him? You have to wonder.
Obama decimated the middle class; really. What planet have you been on. The republican Wall Street white collar criminals cause middle class to lose their jobs , pensions and 401k. Obama and the congress let the banks off the hook because they always surround themselves with ex criminals from wall st. Trump is doing the same thing . He is hiring the billionaires who made money and got wealthier off the Wall Street thugs. Republicans used to call democrats and unions protectionist when they suggested what trump is championing now but then again he was a democrat for many years too. Republican Party is ran by the south and go and see what the wages are in the south; 12$ an hour is high pay if you not an engineer or doctor etc... that why the Japanese car dealers move to Tn, Ms. Florida wages are terrible and every one of the old confederacy pay just above slave wage I.e free.
Ralph should go after Leonard because of the basement at EAHS and ask why $500,000 in concrete needs to be ripped up after 3 years. Feltes had his pals install concrete and a humidity system. At the time maintence staff complained it was a waste of money. Popp and Marty plowed ahead today it is being demolished to make way for electric and a evalator system for new construction.
If Ralph is fair Leonard should be exposed and Ralph should also FOIA timeslips on Luis Salas. He works every weekend and does nothing but he is Ralphs mole.
Ralph likes to protect his crony Dick. He feeds him lots of "information" for foias which is complete bs as Leonard is not supposed to give any kind of private info. to Ralph since he is on the boe. Dick has grudges against this district for his buddy Marty being fired. We have yet to see one foia about Leonard.
With nameless faceless cowardly accusations on the blog. Why don't you state your name tip for Ralph? Ralph has published his number and email numerous times. Call him yourself. Stop taking the cowards way out because you don't like someone. The blog admin needs to stop posting these cowardly posts and attacks. The district will never move forward as long as this continues and this blog allows it to happen.
To: Here we go again With nameless faceless cowardly accusations blamimg the blog. Why don't you state your name? Stop taking the cowards way out because you don't like what some anonymous person said on the blog. The blog admin needs to let people post and let the community see what kind of people are in the community. Whether they are factual or cowardly posts and attacks, they are a glimpse of how people think and act about things in our district. Saying the district will never move forward as long as this continues and this blog allows it to happen is one persons opinion and not fact based, either.
I'll try this again. I posted this information once before, but the blog administrator did not approve it, presumably because this is info they'd like to hide. If anybody feels that a post on this blog is libelous, they can file a lawsuit and their lawyer can subpoena the blog host records to reveal the owner of the blog. The owner in turn can be subpoenaed to identify the blog administrator, who in turn can be subpoenaed to provide records that can then be traced to the poster. EVERYTHING we do on line leaves footprints (even if you're the Russian government!). So for employees and families being called thieves, find, identify, and go after those posters!
the problem is this blog administrator does discriminate posts and filters out what she deems against her views or her friends. I personally have posted about the idiot counselor at the extension campus(who is a lazy, terrible worker) who posted on facebook in support of king crespo and I commented on her transgressions with the rotc male teachers. But this blog admin censored me, obviously because she's a friend of the counselor. So she is not true and honoring what you even said. She blocks and censors to mold a story. This site is, as our president says, "fake news." the district can't move forward when nameless, faceless cowards are allowed to sling mud and go after people's jobs with no repercussions when they are found to be wrong. That's the problem with the blog. We have a blog administrator who filters posts to those she likes and wants talked about and silences the others. Whether the accuser is right or wrong, a person deserves the right to face their accuser. When the blog admin posts all posts, then another pov could be somewhat right in their post. Until then, this is all crap.
I did, indeed, censor several comments recently because they either included profanity or because they accused people (by name) of committing a crime. It's one thing to criticize a situation or position, and another to specifically name someone and accuse them of breaking the law.
And those naming and calling out Joe blasing, Manny Esparza and Dennis Renner?!? You seem to be okay with allowing people to call them out by name and accuse them of crimes. Hypocrisy 101 it looks like. You could censor all posts that call people out by name, or just do away with this blog totally, what positivity has this blog brought?!?
January 13 at 11:55 a.m. was deleted by a blog administrator. If I remember correctly it was a nasty personal attack on Mr. Esparza. Yes, some negative comments are allowed to remain but often people jump in and present their side and a discussion brings out the real story.
Date: Feb 14 2017 Subject: Transportation/Bussing Reports: Annual Financial Report School Yrs 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 *Please include # of students per year
Subject: Anthony Crespo 1 Resignation Letter 2 E- Log Jan 1 2017 - Feb 14 2017 To & From
Dan Barario used the City employee email list to solicite campaign contributions. Dan used City influence while on the board to sell the Indian Trail property to Walmart costing the distict about 4 million. Dan screwed us at Allan school by not getting any money from the development at Hometown . Dan was part of cutting teacher jobs and programs like art, music and clubs. I was part of the district back then that saw my wages frozen and now retired my pocketbook suffers daily because of pehople like him.
More ethics the old folks on the NE side with like
said...
Let's not return to the past is right!! Dan B. was part of some major bad decisions. He now wants back on the board to help keep his taxes down. Along with the other north east siders who believe they should not pay for public schools. (His child attended parochial schools) He believes other parts of EA are bad neighbors and do not keep their property up and are the fault for all that is wrong with his taxes being high.
Regretfully, there are not enough people running to make significant change. Dan is not a part of change we want to see on the EA school board. He has been the mayors mole and is not in the race for any reasons except those that will benefit himself, not the families of all of EA.
Read the BOE packet it seems Perry Bigalow is back and rumor is he wants to start building again. Really our neighborhood is already crap. That is why Dan B is back he needs to put himself in position of importance to do the new mayors bidding in a couple of months.
Please to DO NOT take the land and make them pay everything they owe.
Aurora itself will not be around to worry about the mistakes like the Walmart property. On Aurora's financial horizon is an annual payment of $70,000,000 per year into the pension fund for the overpaid city employees. We are paying $5,000,000 now?? There won't be anyone around to attend the schools. Check it out. This is not BS. Everyone in government has their hand out as if they are homeless. Why do we keep wanting retreads who screwed things up to be put back in a position to make things even worse.
We've gone a week without hate filled cowards and trolls trying to get people fired because they don't like them. I knew we could do it! Let's keep it to things that directly impact our district/community and positive news like having a wrestler go down state, our school hosting a mayoral debate,etc.
Let's make this blog a good thing even if the blog admin doesn't want it to be that!
Bravo, you are the one who spoiled the streak you claim was going. You call people names. Make claims without facts, then ya throw in a few positive things for good measure and end with more negativity that is unfounded.
If you want a blog that fits your kind of "good thing" Why not create one? Rather than "trolling" this one.
There will be a meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 7:00 at the service center to discuss busing for our district. This will be an especially important discussion for families who live more than 1 1/2 miles from the high school.
The following comment was not approved for publication (name obscured, otherwise exactly as received):
"When we hire the new BG Director, lets make sure he knows the history of ________. Police Reports, Warnings from HR. Hope he has the backbone to get rid of ___ once and for all !!!!"
Unsubstantiated personal attacks will NOT be published. Discussion of issues and information about our district and community are always welcome, however!
I facebooked Dan Barario and asked about the Charter School as to his support or not. I noticed his issue is HS dropout. It is funny that is the only issue he is running on at a time when they are bring a Charter in EA. He will not answer me on his thoughts. I think everyone needs to be very careful of who is running.
I went to the meeting and we can not give one million dollars to somebody that did not want to answer questions.
Very wise to check the candidates and sometimes even if they may have an opinion about an issue you are concerned with, you still need to look at their background. Where do their alliances lie? Where did he and his children go to school? In Dans case, he has history of being on the school board, ask around about his voting record on issues back then.
I wish all voters would take time to become informed voters. Good work, M Ochoa!
"The following comment was not approved for publication (name obscured, otherwise exactly as received):
"When we hire the new BG Director, lets make sure he knows the history of ________. Police Reports, Warnings from HR. Hope he has the backbone to get rid of ___ once and for all !!!!"
Unsubstantiated personal attacks will NOT be published. Discussion of issues and information about our district and community are always welcome, however!"
Let's hope that whom ever is the intended target of this individual that the school district follows Illinois Labor Law and School Code when following a Progressive Disciplinary Action. The current administrations actions of NOT following due process is a serious problem for our community.
I give the interiums credit! If they solved busing and understood the school code to do that they certainly never would violate labor laws. In fact they treat everyone with respect.
John Laesch must be a fraud and I will withdraw my membership in the Kane County Progressive Dems. I just received a card in the mail with the progressives backing Tricky Dick Leoanrd and Janita Wells. Two of the board members from hell. John you recruited me and now this. We all know Dick wanted to outsource maintainence. Look at his hate of district employees for his side kick Marty Feltes. Is this the best we have or when this endorsement happened did you miss another meeting?
A group is already forming to protest against Richard Leonard running for this position. We will be putting up online petitions and online Freedom of Information documents showing why someone with Mr. Leonard's background should not even be considered as a candidate. When the petition is up and the group better organized, we will also be forming a group protest. That is how strongly many people feel about Richard Leonard never being allowed to hold a public office again. We will announce plans and information in local area papers, Facebook as well as other online sites.
Driving on the East Side this morning I can not help but wonder what high end land deal is Dan Barreiro involved in and who is paying for his billboard signs.
I remember the Highlite 30 deal, Hometown and the police palace at a time when the school district was broke Dan who had the most knowledge looked the other way. The school district was never paid by Mr Bigalow costing overcrowding and no builders fees. Then there was the misstep with not appraising the Indian Trail in which the district lost 3 plus million. I remember Dan telling me they did not know Indian Trail would get extended. At the time I told him he was either blind or stupid because everyone knew Indian Trail would one day get extended let alone someone who worked for the City. Then there is Highlite 30 the rush to demo and take a business off the tax roles now the property is taxed as farm land costing hundreds of thousands.
What is he up to and why the need to get back on the BOE? The signs tell you something and it is not about drop outs. Big signs mean big money.
Billboard signs?! I hope, as before, Dan does not get elected. I read all the same "signs" in his history. Not a lot of choices for school board, he shouldn't be one.
Thursday March 23rd at 5:00 p.m., at East High. BE THERE for our kids!
said...
Say NO to the charter school appeal!
Why are we against the charter school? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sVD1IsQ-xJ9wAv9YngQyIxhsFw4zdZGXskeR4DlxBiU/edit?usp=sharing
Sign up to speak: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12MGq5tz14WBHJBiq9h6I1UK6iJ71gi19yPQAegLs4G4/edit?usp=sharing
If you do not want to speak, consider bringing a sign with a message and sitting in the audience. This would also make a powerful statement!
The Greater Good Charter School was given a NO vote by the entire school board. The teachers/staff of D131 and the community were against it but they are trying to force themselves on the community by appealing to the Illinois Charter Commission. The Comission has the power to override the board's no vote and push the charter school on us.
We need to pack the house during this public meeting. We need to speak and share our thoughts. We need to bring signs. We need to support the teachers/staff we already have. We can't allow an outside entity to suck resource and funds from our high school.
Please tell your people about this meeting and encourage them to attend. Where we see kids who need our help others see an opportunity to install their private business fueled by public funds.
Support those who are a part of the community and work everyday for our children. EA deserved better. TOGETHER we can make it happen.
The Highlight 30 also nicknamed the dirty 30 was targeted by Barrieo because of histies to Weisner. The question for the board should have been if you are tearing it down what tax generating property will you put in its place? Eastsider is correct today only a couple of hundred dollars are generated in taxes.
The Walmart property cost 3.5 MILLION in lost dollars just because Barriero and tge board from hell never appraised the property.
Then we have Hometown loads of students and dollars generated.
Barriero should have made sure when at a time the district was broke these monies should have been collected.
The East Side can not take another 4 years of Barriero
Barreirro lied to us tonight by insisting we had been given big raises when he was on the board. Does he think we are stipid we took a pay freeze. He also stated privatizing schools are good and it is my understanding he never sent his kids to EA schools. BARREIRRO IS DANGEROUS FOR EAST
Tech guy said... Alarm Detection is the Districts provider you can only use what they tell you or they can not monitor the building
NO THIS WAS MONEY SET ASIDE SINCE 2015 BUDGET! Look at the budget the $250,000 was there. There is no exemption in school code for alarms or HVAC, only technology. So once again the bid process was violated at d131. Alarm Detection has been given sole provider status in d131 and the lack of competition. This all Johnson awarding her supporters.
Alarm Detection has been at the meeting speaking against Johnson because the board awarded the Fire Alarms to Cintas. The bid was only about $300.00 lower but a lower bidder. Sorry Alarm Detection you are not spreading false news. The reality is the district signed evergreen contracts in early 2000 when the Serial Bully was given a alarm system for his house. It would cost the district millions to install new security alarm systems across the district.
Give credit to our Tech department for installing cameras and not wasting money with Alarm Detection on labor.
You are confusing Burglar Alarms, fire alarms, and camera systems. The Fire alarm went to bid and Cintas won it. Evergreen Contracts are auto renewing contracts, unless taken back to bid, but evergreen contracts do not preclude the bid process, they just have specific deadlines otherwise they auto renew.
The $250,000 was for a camera surveillance system and that project did not go to bid pursuant to board requirements, and the $50,000 limit set by state remodeling statute, as mandated. The work was not 100% done by the district IT staff, maybe the cable pulls, but the cameras and the video management system requires a security contractor. So where is Ralph on this?! The fact that the Nestor sat on this project for years put our faculty, staff, and students at risk.
So vote against Annette Johnson and her feckless thuggery.
"It was a unique and thrilling experience! The teachers/staff, administration, board members, community members, parents, former students, union members, even the Stonegate residents all STOOD TOGETHER in unity. I've never experienced anything quite like it. The speeches were almost ubiquitously powerful declarations of commitment to our common purpose, as well as testaments to the positive impact of the school on everyone involved. It warmed my heart and I didn't expect that was going to happen. I truly felt the Tomcat spirit tonight.
By the way, emails will be accepted by the Commission for seven days from Thursday 3/23 until Thursday 3/30. Direct them to: State.Charter.Commission@illinois.gov
The Commission will make its decision at the Aurora Library at 101 S River St. on 4/25 from 3 - 6 PM. The public will be able to speak at that meeting as well. Let's pack the house!
Annette Johnson and the board put the fire system out to bid and Cintas won the bid. We are requirred to bid anything that is $2,500 or approve.
The alarm systen is another story we can bid the cameras and we did however the alarm panels are owned by Alarm Detection and any company touching them will void our monitor contract. To fix this the district would have to repace the equipment panels. We did however hang the cameras that did get bid. Blame the Radovivich administration for not buying panels and getting ghe district into a bad contract.
These contracts date back to Mr Barriero when the district sogned lease agreements.
Annette is not a thug and if i lived in Aurora would vote for her. Sheldon Lu has moved our department forward and prehaps you are just another disgruntled incompetant employee who got dismissed for good cause.
I have seen the large signs pop up for Barrierro and even received a mailer. I look back on his time on the board and wonder Why? The bad land deals are not the only thing but thedecline of quality teaching in EA ramped up with him and the board from hell.
As an employee, i watched my salary frozen and teaching materials become scarce. The buildings did not get maintained but the focus was on demoting Mr K. Then there was the Spain FIASCO. The district focused on getting rid Bilingual teachers so Radocvich could get his yearly trip to Spain. The board knew that was his yearly vacation for administration to tour Europe.
Things in 131 have been slow to improve but they have and tge school board no longer spends on vacations or wastes money. I work at the HS and did witness our Tech Staff hanging cameras.
When we ask the board is reponsive to our needs We will even get busing. Please east siders we know the past lets not put Barrierro back and move us backwards.
Sign stealing has been going on for school board candidates Johnson and Ishmael. What does someone have to hide? Anyone who stops the Democratic process does not have my vote and it speaks to the creditability of others seeking that position.
My concerns in reviewing board minutes and committee minutes is that the High School renovation project was to cost $46 Million dollars is now over $70 million dollars, rapidly approaching $80 Million dollars. Remember that $12 Million dollars of $50 million dollar state loan is for the middle schools, so there are major cost over-runs and those costs will need to be covered. Cordogan, Clark & Associates are managing this project with all the cost overruns and it is the responsibility of Dr. McDonald to watch them. I am not sure why Dr. McDonald is not paying attention, and who is paying attention to the construct work. There is no one there to watch the work.
It is a well known fact that Annette Johnson and Dick Leonard have been meeting at Cordogan, Clark & Associates at 960 Ridgeway Ave. Aurora, without the other board and sub-committee members.
All you have to do is look at the public meeting minutes and they will confirm what I am saying.
Whoever is writing is just trying to get board members to fight. The board is.. one million under budget. The other money spent this summer will not only take care of the middle schools but almost every elementary school will have major work done. Leonard is not on the Building and Grounds committee. As for the discussion on construction the public is invited to come to the school board meeting on April 3rd. At that time everyone will hear how well the new interiums have planned construction. ALL DOLLARS ARE MADE PUBLIC.
Dan B is probably a very good husband and father. He seems to be a likable man. My opinion, he would not be a good choice for EA BOE. He has sent out a campaign mailer. It lists all his current service. It seems to me he is already spread a little thin on commitments to home, work and community. EA needs someone who is more focused on the district. Someone who does not have to worry about pleasing their employer with the work they do for the district. Dan may have went to EA, but his children did not. We have at least two candidates that have vested interest in the success of our district, whose focus is not primarily keeping their property taxes lower. Dan has been there and already proven his choices were not good for our district. We cannot afford to give him another chance. New blood, especially those with current ties to our schools would be a better addition to our school board. Please vote and vote for the benefit of the children.
Aurora has allowed Bigelow to build more homes here?! Hasn't the city council heard all the complaints from the Hometown residents all these years? If ya need history on this fiasco, ask Dan Barriero. He was part of the school board that made a deal with the devil, along with Supt. Jerome Roberts who claimed EA was going to get land from Bigelow and make big money from it. 131 has gotten nothing and all this time none of the boards have pushed for anything to be resolved. Bigelow had problems that left him owing the city for unfinished business at Hometown. Any member that has been on the Board for more than 7 years knew all these problems have existed and has sat doing nothing about it. So no pat on the back for this one. All I have to say is, what took ya so long?!
Hometown is the first subdivision in 10 plus years to come start rebuilding what a fiasco because they are adding on homes using their orginal agreements. At least we have sound leadership that researched why we did not get paid. It was discovered no agreements on file look at all the dollars Barreiro cost 131 not only with Hometown but with the houses that got built in the senior living communites. That money will never come back to the schools because the developments are finished.
I have followed this for years and Ms Johnson is correct they have cleaned up another mess. It is reasonable to me why Barreiro wants another Superintendent immediately because he is hoping to go back to the days of underhanded back room deals
The agreement with Hometown was in 2006. Sup Roberts announced what a great way start as Superintendent. The Hometown issue was pushed by Barriero. The School district had a impact agreement back in the 90's when they build homes in the Krug area. I know we paid them. It looks like shady business on the part of someone who earns his bread and butter from Aurora. I would like the board or Mr Weiler to check on houses built before Hometown. That would mean all the properties build like Alden did not pay as well.
Who is paying for the two mailer I received from Dan Barriero or his big signs spread all over town. I find it suspicious that he is running and Bigelow is back. That is the last thing the school district needs more kids living in that dump. I called our Alderman and he was not aware Bigelow was back until the school district got involved. I also read board minutes and see that Nestor Garcia was contacted. It also shows Johnson asking the lawyer to get involved. Why would Garcia put it on a agenda and not call the lawyer? Bigelow just wanted to transfer the piece of garbage land. I thought the district had the land? It seems somebody was hiding something back then and it points to Barriero.
What are you talking about Nestor Garcia putting something on the agenda he isn't even on the board so how was that done.
Where are you getting the information about rebuilding at Hometown I go by there almost every day and haven't seen anything.
If you want to find out who is doing the mailings I believe there is a website to see who gave money to him and then you can figure it out.
This district really hasn't changed much. There was the credit cards misuse and until the Beacon came out with an article about it did something get done even though Johnson was told about it.
Garcia is the Districts Rep at the Plan Commission that is why he brought it back to the school district they can not build onto Hometown until old fees are paid. My question is why did Mr Barreiro and others at the time not demand working payment. The City is working with them surveying is starting at Hometown. Something fishy with the board member from hell returning.
Hear is some discussion
Mr. Perry Bigelow (Owner of Bigelow Properties) and Mr. Tony Sparr o w ( Vice President of Project) presented via conference call the details of the proposed property to be donated to the school district . Mr. Perry indicated that he would like a letter from District 131 whether the Board wants to receive the property donation or receive property impact fees . Committee member Ms. Annette Johnson recommended a follow up with District attorney to review documents an d address any unforeseen concerns
Anyone that believes that Dan B would be a part of some backroom underhanded deal does not know Dan. Dan is a wimp. I would vote for his wife instead of him; she wears the pants. What took place during his last stint was due to incompetence of the board leadership and the legal counsel or lack of counsel. Dan was a single vote and nothing more. He was with Malaker, McCue, Herbig... they were the leaders of boe
188 comments:
This is an quote taken out of the Illinois school attorneys guild lines and shows Mr Barrierro to be unethical. He hold a position of influence at the City of Aurora .
Can a board member be employed by another public body (e.g., a park district) that may have dealings with the school district?
If the employment position is one of authority or policy making, the analysis contained in the above answer would seem to indicate that a conflict exists.
Dan served when the Police property was sold along with the Hometown debacle. He influenced both decisions that became large financial loses to the district costing millions.
Have some ethics Dan and remove yourself from the ballot.
Dan did the mayors bidding. The same as Arroyo will be doing for Chapa -LaVia, should she win.
Barreiro was on the Board of yes men. Which some have referred to as the "board from hell:" The voting community spoke before and did NOT vote him on. Now he thinks the residents of Ward one will get him in. If the rest of the community doesn't vote and make sure the best candidates are voted to the Board, business will continue as usual without putting students first.
The Aurora Ed Foundation is attempting to put in a Charter School. Lou Hernandez and Barraza have ties to Dan. I was told Muhammed and others have ties to the Charter. It looks like they are attempting to make money off 131 in the way of grants. Union employees need to step up and find out what the districts position is and ask the BOE to vote NO.
The mention of a charter school would not be relevant if the union wasn't doing such a masterful job. Continue supporting the disaster that is organized labor in the classroom . Im not so concerned who gets my portion of taxes if they can produce some positive results. I' have the data on the union and it not good. I know it's not their fault but if it's all someone else fault then why keep pouring into a bottomless pit
Lenart is part of the establishment and never did her job at the EA schools. Why would you support her? This is not a Charter School it is just away to make money
WHO is on the Greater Good education nonprofit board?? I can't find a single name associated with it (nor can my son, who has a degree in computer science and knows his way around the Web for a living). If certain people with D131 ties are so proud of this charter school idea then why aren't they proudly identifying themselves? Could it be that they realize the vast majority of the public opposes charter schools because of their lousy performance and reputation?
We are sorry that you had trouble finding our website. You can find more information at www.greatergooded.org. Please use the form on the website to submit any questions you have for us, we will be happy to respond to them.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-charter-hearing-st-0104-20170103-story.html
I went to the Greater Good website, and was impressed. One of my concerns was that many charter schools take money away from public schools, but I read the following:
"I've heard charter schools take funding from public schools- is this true?
Charter schools are public schools. Like all public schools, they receive funding from the state for students they serve. In this case, most of our students have stopped attending school, so the school district doesn't receive funding for them. Funding funding for dropouts who have re-enrolled is recovered revenue."
Another concern I have about charter schools is that they don't protect teachers' job security, but I notice that one of the board members works for the electricians' union. That connection is reassuring.
Could actually be good is spreading propaganda.
They are paid weather or not the students attend school and they DO NOT pay union wages or are they required to have a bargaining unit.
Our union members should know Jessie Barazza and Robin are dating they cooked this up as a financial scam. They will also have access to the districts Title money and grants.
Lou Hernandez is a East Aurora Ed Foundation member and most people associated with that group come from the serial bully days. One of Robins mentors is the serial bully himself Michael Racaovich. It is just another way to steal.
Here's a link to the agenda for next Tuesday's public hearing/School Board meeting. The main topic of discussion will be the proposed charter school:
https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicAgenda.aspx?ak=1000306&mk=50227276
I am very skeptical about charter schools in general, because they have a reputation for cherry-picking bright students away from public schools and denying teachers' job security. However, this proposal actually looks like it would be a good fit for our district and community. I think it's worth a try!
They take money away from districts and when the students go back to their home school the district has no way of recovering the funds.
If they are funded like the public school system they would receive money monthly.
Also ask yourself this how can someone provide such a large staff with students in a store front. Lehert had a bad reputation at Waldo for not following up and had every excuse in the world. She is and will always be a liar at best.
I don't know who Lehert is, but the comment above is correct. If a student signs up for a charter school, and returns to the public schools. The money for that student is already allocated to the charter and the public school does not get any monies for that students for that year. Same with those online schools.
People be need to study these schools a bit harder. Don't buy into a sales pitch because that's,just what it is. They satisfy people's concerns with resolutions to all the woes in the main stream public schools.
Lenart sat in her office and studied for her Doctorate or could be seen painting her nails. It is a money making scam.
Dennis Renner has been involved in stealing food from the school district yet others have been terminated for less. We are not sure why Kosek is covering for him but this is to inform the BOE start asking questions.
During the holidays he forced janitors to take our hundreds of dollars of food that should have gone to our students. When Wendell Jefferies asked to feed students he was told no food was left. Every night food that could have served 100 plus people was put in Renner SUV.
Its time for someone to check into this if administration is looking the other way.
Renner is a ...
Did you personally report this to the BOE? Because saying "this is to inform the BOE start asking questions" on a blog is NOT informing the BOE. If you have personal knowledge of this and YOU don't report it, you're part of the problem, not the solution.
So in reading the article about this charter school they say they want to target drop outs and those failing, BUT they want to start with a freshman class of 50 students......how exactly does that target drop outs and failures?!? What's their plan to handle special education students? Students with 504 plans?!? Students who need social work hours? Oh that's right, what they really want is to take 50 of our best and brightest every year and start taking away funding from our district. Charter schools are in it for the money, follow the money and you'll see why they want to do this.
How reliable is this allegation vs Dennis Renner?
I will pursue this, give more info so I can prepare the FOIA correctly.
Much will surface soon on other topics of interest.
Stay tuned for updates as I investigate
Renner takes school district items and athletic gear home all the time. Stealing food is small in comparison. Kosak and Dennis are lunch buddies we all know the truth at EA.
From: R Padron
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2017 3:57 PM
To: Steve Megazzini
Cc: Beatrice Reyes Childress; Mark McDonald; Marion Hoyda
Subject: FOIA Request
Please povide the following documents
Subject: Dennis Renner Credit Card Statements
Time Line: July 1 2016 - Jan 6 2017
If Mr Renner used P Cards or other forms to make purchases
please provide.
Also include actual receipts for each purchase
Please email & send via US Mail these documents
If response will exceed 60 pages please notify me.
thank you
Ralph
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-candidate-objection-st-0108-20170106-story.html
I just went to that website, www.greatergooded.org, and it appears to be a quickly put together website that provides info that directly answers the exact questions people have posted here and other spots, and nothing more. I mean, the WIX logo still shows up. If you want to be reputable, get an IT person to at least make your page look worth the time. There is barely any worthwhile information.
The Board page? It lists names & company affiliation only! Shouldn't you provide more? Like maybe why those people are interested in Education, what their goals are, etc? The email provided for their Ex. Dir? A GMAIL ACCOUNT. Super professional. Even the smallest of home businesses will setup email forwarding.
The "Instructional Model?" A pile of buzzwords crapped onto a page. Good work.
I am not necessarily opposed to this school - I teach in this district, and there are some students who DO. NOT. belong with the mainstream and could do better here - but when I see a high school tech class 101 project masquerading as a professional website, it's definitely a point in the NO column. If you want to come into this district, bring your best game. Our students deserve that.
Robin Lenert walked away from our students voiding her contract in the middle of the school year she was not vested. Tge district could have held her contract. Her board members as she claims are EA Allum so why not post their email addresses. They should understand her intentions. This Charter is a get rich Robin Lehart scam because we all know it is always about her.
It seems like the districts is back to not getting receipts from P cards from the statement Ralph has made. The district is suppose to have whoever uses the cards bring in the receipts to make sure purchases are legal. This is how they got in trouble before and there was an article in the paper and guess what those who misused the P cards never had to pay the district back. The board let them steal from the district.
The board did not let them do anything they cleaned up the cards. I as a taxpayer am pleased that the board addresses issues. Many positive changes have been made. It looks by previous posts, it is one individual, and it does not say the receipts are lost. Perhaps the receipts got him in trouble. Maybe Mr Padron could clarify what he is looking for.
One step backwards, is Dan Barrierro his many poor land deals, and the fact he campaigned on a referendum, because the district was going broke with insurance, and not researching why the insurance was costing the district near bankruptcy is why we can not let the district fall into the dark days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_htSPGAY7I&feature=youtu.be
What's up with Renner? He has taken may sports items out of our building for personal use. Everyone knows he runs a business out of his garage. His son Richie once sold golf clubs for $200 dollars that are worth over $800 because he needed the money. Everyone knows Renner is always loading his car up. He has a million excuses the BOE should not by them. He has allowed to get by toooooo long.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-meeting-st-0110-20170109-story.html
A charter school may be non profit, but it doesn't mean people cannot,or will not profit from it. The link below is an interesting read concerning Charter schools.
http://www.businessinsider.com/are-charter-schools-the-new-mortgage-crisis-2016-1
Many more articles out there explaining how and why charter schools are not always a fix for what ails a district, and how many actually fail.
D131 is moving in a positive direction. Do we really want to start chalking up more failed attempts?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-dual-language-st-0110-20170109-story.html
The problem is the Curriculum department already over purchased books and has them scattered throughout the district! So now we are going to have the same incompetent people ordering and leading new curriculum when they have not been held accountable for their blunders last year. Look in the Facilities warehouse! Look in the closets and storage of all the buildings! Millions of dollars wasted by Childress and now we are waiting on her to finish her education to be the next superintendent.
Carla Johnson orders books and Childress does not work at ASC
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-charter-denied-st-0112-20170111-story.html
The right decision was definitely made last night! Charter schools are NOT a good option for our district, and the people spoke up in students' best interests.
https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2017/01/11/update-on-east-aurora-charter-board-votes-unanimously-against-it-now-it-goes-to-the-state-charter-commission/
Childress chooses the curriculum, therefore she has to work with the vendor to negotiate prices and how many consumables, so ultimate she runs curriculum. If you are in charge then you need to make sure proper numbers are ordered, and money not wasted. Plus look at the fiasco she made by having maintenance staff pulled from out summer projects to move her curriculum. That is a fact! oh, by the way, the fact is they also extended the interims for another year, and they are sending Childress to school to get certified to be the Superintendent. So why not post the position now, and get a sitting superintendent? Unless your saying EA faculty and students do not deserve experienced administrators. Why do we keep bringing in these third and second string prospects and then complain on the blog as these people learn their job versus know their job.
I worked on a committee that purchased Stem Scopes. All of the prices, materials and bids for our new middle school science labs have been done by Carla Johnson. Reyes Childress attended only one meeting because she does Title and has there to hear about a budget Carla Johnson created. SO no you SHOULD GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
I also love working with the new team and I am hoping there will be NO changes.
We had the same experience on the Go Math committee. Carla Johnson did the purchasing but all her orders got bumped up by Sara Waddell. Sara also orchestrated the move of Curriculum materials to Hill Ave. Sara then spent her day's organizing the materials and cleaning but she did not want to do teaching and learning, or meet with people. We lost track of what we had in inventory once all the supplies and materials ended up at Hill Ave. If supplies did get over ordered it was because of Waddell. Beatrice does not work at ASC and has nothing to do with hiring.
I also believe the district is headed in the right direction and Heather Kincade is making positive steps. She is able to communicate verses Waddell who used cleaning as a excuse not to work with staff.
Concerned Citizen--
Heather Kincaid was put in charge to hide the fact that Beatrice Reyes-Childress, the
future Superintendent, allowed over a million dollars of extra curriculum to be ordered.
This curriculum is now wasting away in the warehouse for everyone to see. This was done
under Doctor McDonalds and Hoydas watch.
The consultant Mike Stapleton was heard briefing Dr. McDonald of the over ordering.
McDonald not releasing this information under the orders of Annette Johnson. Beatrice
is going to school on the District's dime, and is not around to do her responsibilities.
Interims, or should we call them permanents, as their contracts were extended to 2018,
have no idea what is going on in the district. They spend the limited tine they have in
the district doing the bidding of Annette Johnson, the only board member they listen too.
Concerned Citizen
The Curriculum Materials are well documented that the purchases happened under the Popp administration. Again, many staff members protested the move to Hill Ave but Waddell did not listen. I am sure many Board and Curriculum minutes back up our information. The warehouse organization was ordered by McDonald and now they have an inventory. The materials will not waste away we will use them next year. We are keeping the curriculum and we always get additional students or curriculum materials get damaged. We have stability in this district and curriculum will not change . Many of us wish Dr Hoyda would stay forever.
Concerned is merely a shill for the troubled past of EA. These are truly lies all purchases came out of Curriculum last year with Wadell, Argetha and Carla Johnson. BErtice Childress had NOTHING to do with it . HOyda nor McDonald had ZERO authority until July 1st. The BOE only approves purchases but has ZERO idea of what we need. It is true nobody could inventory materials since it was moved to Hill.
Concerned is a liar and is making wild accusations.
The interim's have a contract til 2018 because we asked for consistency and the board listened. Many of my colleagues have seen Dr Hoyda more than our past three superintendents combined. She is open and a wealth of information on any topic. We have seen new ideas and teaching methods that address our population.
D131 is what you make of it and if you care to participate you will see the many great things going on.
On to the materials topic. The new materials are being used and this year it has reduced copying for teachers because there are enought materials to go around. Stop complaining.
Where do you work? I'm going to put in an anonymous faceless accusation in on you. Cowards. Simply amazing the lies, falsehoods and accusations we allow to fly around. Internet trolls unite! Ea alumni do you even have a job? Or are you just a miserable internet troll with a terrible life so you have to try to make everyone else miserable like yourself.
To blog admin-
How bout you don't post this crap unless they post a verifiable name and contact info so people can face their accusers in person. Bet the accusations would stop on here immediately. What a joke.
Manny is a hard working employee who was directed to do this by Renner. Renner on the other hand has been fired from three districts. I wonder why! Word is Dr McDonald fired him at a prior district. How dare the Renner troll MAnny. Renners ex brother at BSN has be involved a sports equipment ring. Maybe Steve Struckle should be reported to the owner of BSN
if we have this blog where trolls can sling mud and make false accusations with no repercussions???? Unbelievable.
Who would want to hire someone who makes a career decision based on an anonymous blog?
People can go to Facebook and talk to actual employees with faces if they want a strangers opinion.
Some people do not like what the blog has had posted, so they try to blame it for many of the districts
problems.
Get real!!!
<o€<
(Troll)
If this is not the most cowardly act, and you're probably someone who goes out of his way to say hi to Manny Esparza too. Manny is a damn good, hard worker who always goes out of his way to help out and goes over and sometimes beyond in his job duties. Obviously you don't know him so well if you think he needs to be "stealing" food. It's so sad to know how many people point fingers because they know that's the only thing they're good at besides hiding behind a blog. Coward. Those who get a rise out of false accusations don't belong in this district or anywhere for that matter.
In the real world there's not a blog to be a coward and throw false accusations at someone and then they have the book thrown at them and are investigated off some trolls post on a blog. Smart, well educated teachers and admin would steer clear of this district know one troll could ruin their career and put their family in financial trouble. That's who. Only a troll would say if they can't handle a blog or make a career decision off the blog we're better off without them. And that's why trolls belong under a bridge. You're probably not in education. And just a hater. What do you do for a living? What's your name? Maybe we should call you work and report you with false accusations
Concerned Citizen... School Textbook money from the state and federal grant programs can not be used for purchases or materials not being used outside that funding year! So using 2017 funds in July of 2016 for use in Fiscal Year 2018 is not allowed under the grant programs. So buy using FY 2017 monies on wasteful unneeded materials and then saying we will use them in FY 2018 is waste, fraud, and abuse of title monies, state textbook monies, or any other grant money. I think the state should put in a Financial Oversight Panel!
Anonymous
You need to stop making false accusations and put fault at the feet of Waddell.
Dr. Johnson presented to the committee. She explained process
new math curriculum which involves getting raw enrollment numbers to the publisher to get preliminary numbers, which don’t include bilingual or resource, for example. Then she went to Infinite Campus to get student numbers which, depending on the time of year, can fluctuate, and also Dr. Waddell polled principals to get their take on what they believed enrollment would be next year. Those new numbers were then submitted to the publisher for comparison and as a sort of check and balance. The bottom line is that the district was able to reduce the amount by $116K. Total cost for the math materials ended up being $1,142,028.72 with $0 for shipping. Note that this adoption is K-8 vs. the Pearson language arts adoption which was K-5 and cost $1.4 million.
Here is a post from when Curriculum was purchased. They are public discussions and shows the purchases and how they are made. A couple notes no me tioo of Reyes Childress. It is fact based in enrollment. SO SHUT UP
I would be disappointed if the district placed a $1.1M order and couldn't negotiate with the vendor to waive shipping fees. I agree that Reyes Childress may not have been involved in THIS particular order but don't fool yourself that she has never wasted district funds. Ask anyone in central office about the THOUSANDS of brand new novels, books, etc. that were stored in the attic until about a year ago. Some of us are taxpayers and cringe at the waste of money while we are only getting 2% raises. Popp the Tyrant finally had them shipped to schools although no one could say what teacher, grade level, school the books were originally meant for. WHAT was he thinking putting books in the hands of our students?
And I really want to know if we are paying for Reyes Childress's doctorate's or giving her time off to go to classes. When will the process begin to look for our next superintendent? This is a long process and it I think it would be helpful to have some overlap with the new supt. and Hoyda and McDonald.
Popp came to the district and wanted to write his instructional units like he was accustomed to in 204. This required 131 to buy materials such as novels and grade level workbooks. Dr Johnson and Childress voiced their concern but that is what Popp the expert in curriculum wanted. Millions needed to be thrown away and many of us came to curriculum and protested. Waddell and Popp defended their choices and teachers will remember they could not find anyone to write curriculum. The board listened to teachers after many surveys had been taken and scraped the write your curriculum program. Hoyda was part of the decision and could not believe we had to teach with such bad materials.
I like many support Dr Hoyda staying another year she has taken on a difficult position but we can not change direction again with curriculum that is why many support her and want her to let the curriculum gel. I would suggest to the board asking her to come back to the buildings and check on the progress with our new curriculum. She is a wealth of educational and institutional knowledge.
I think the BOE is doing the right thing waiting until after election. Why should they hire someone that does not have the input from the entire board. Leonard (Good Riddance) and Strand are not running.
The district is stable and running better than in years.
Just heard that Joe Blasing Credit card was taken away from him for misuse. It's about time our leaders here at East Aurora start cleaning up some of these "BAD APPLES". Does anyone know what he was misusing the card for? He needs to be investigated as well as Manny Esparza.
Amazing how those defending the guilty are so quick to respond. In addition Joe's attendance and performance is a zero at best. Get rid of these bums. Morale would go sky high here at our District.
Really? Joe's card was taken away for misuse? PROVE IT! He is the most honest person I have ever met. He is one of the ONLY people that cares enough to keep up with the snow removal and other things that need to be maintained around the district. His uncle used to be the Director of B&G and he takes the job seriously unlike many others there. I hear about it daily. All the equipment in disrepair especially up at Hill Ave. that he has been fixing for years? All of your golf carts etc? BTW He has to take days off to take care of his mother and wife in accordance with the FMLA Act. In fact, this IS his wife and if you like tossing about hearsay regarding the Family Medical Leave Act and my husband I would love to bring that up with your District's atty. Stop hiding behind your name "Keep up the pressure". Would you care to talk with our atty regarding your comments? And Manny? Wow! You mean the guy that calls our house at 4am to talk to Joe and make sure where and when to come in to make the school safe during bad weather (the fact that others do not come is not Joe's fault). You are waaaay off and I know it first hand. Please, give me your name and I will forward it on. If you are SO sure about making accusations then you should have no problem doing this.
This is what should have been going on all along. - People pointing out the morons. Draining the swamp is the only way to make District 131 good again!!!!! You have to also get rid of the teachers who are just counting the days until the next 4 day weekend or spring break or timing their elective surgery to make sure it occurs during the school year instead of in the summer. Getting rid of the incompetent teachers is just as critical as getting rid idiotic staff.
Morale will skyrocket even more when teachers are allowed to discipline troublemakers and actually expel them again.
Morale will reach its zenith when the teachers realize that they need to tell their union to get down to springfield and demand laws that curtail out of control teacher pensions and salaries, so that there will be public schools in the future. Looks like vouchers will be coming so it really is time to drain the swamp.
Re June Bugg
Boy you are buggin' out again- You don't like anyone!!!!! What person who works at a job doesn't count down to vacation. That doesn't mean while you are at your job you don't work your ass off. You are either a retiree, or just really have nothing to do but fault find about something you know nothing about. And yes genius when you did have a job, if you did, then I guess you marched to the Central Office and demanded that they cut your measly salary and took away your hard earned pension. What a brilliant idea!! You must have a Mensa ring!!You talk about swamps alot so you must be quite familiar with this ecosystem. Also, maybe people schedule surgery around vacations so they can really have time to mend. You talk about elective procedures. A nose job? I don't think so. The teachers I know that have had surgery are from cancer, or burst appendixes, or other non-elective surgeries. Keep spittng your bile but actually have some facts to back up the bullshit.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/sports/ct-abn-girls-basketball-east-aurora-st-0118-20170117-story.html
I am a friend of Joe Blasing's step-grandmother Marilyn. I believe that Joe is a hard-working man with integrity. I suspect that one of Feltes' supporters (or Feltes himself) is trying to discredit Joe because they are upset about Feltes finally being shown as the bully he is. Marilyn told me about how Feltes treated the B&G people terribly. For example, during extreme cold weather he turned the thermostat down to 50 degrees in the shop, while he relaxed in 72 degree comfort. He was very difficult to communicate with and often just plain mean to employees. Our district is lucky to be rid of him, and we should be thankful that good guys like Joe and Manny have decided to work here!
https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=39932118
To newshound: I do not subscribe to the Beacon. Please let us know when the voting begins for the girls b'ball team.
So let me get this straight teacher morale will be at an all time high when teachers get lower wages and less of a pension benefit?!? You must be a special kind of stupid! Only idiots think vouchers work?! You think parents are going to want their kids in 203 or 204 to be inundated with our kids?! They'll move and the school won't be any better. 203 and 204 can only hold so many kids. Vouchers solve nothing but keep chomping down the red meat from the right. Vouchers don't suddenly make good parents. Teachers at the high school have students for 5 hours a week, but it's definitely their fault kids don't know how to read and do poorly on tests. When parents start accepting blame and take classes on how to parent, the district might be able to focus on education for once.
I think that maybe "June Bugg" is saying that if vouchers are given - and that means that the kids can go to private schools in Aurora also, so there will be room for all the good students-, that the only students left will be the unteachable and that the only teachers left will be begging for any job, thus the plea for decreases in pay, etc. because those teachers suck even today.
maybe bugg is hoping that everyone at 131 will be pointing out the union members who are douche bags and cry bullies as well as "the bosses" who seem to take the brunt of the attacks.
Hopefully the "fake" hit pieces on people can stop on this site. There is enough fake news out there as it is.....
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-busing-st-0119-20170118-story.html
Re: A Thought
Godd title for yourself but you are probably overestimating the quantity of thoughts that you have - your reductionist thinking that charter schools will cater to all of the "good" students while public schools will house the "bad" teachers and students is absurd. Boy you are very covetous of teacher's money, pensions, etc. Why not question all job's salaries? Why no attacks on electricians and plumbers? Is the garbageman safe from your rant and speculative eye?Leave teachers alone. They do a job that you would not want to do. We get to be teachers, social workers, counselors, deans.This is not a volunteer position. You try teaching a kid with a first grade reading level who has been abused his whole life some of the classics and then maybe I will listen to you. Probably not, thoughtless. Because I love my kids, and there's no such thing as a bad kid. I don't really know any bad teachers. Just ones worn out from getting no support from people like you.
As a coach at the High School, I am very appreciative of the hard work Joe and Manny put in. These two guys have so many responsibilities including cutting the grass, chalking the lines, and maintaining the grounds at not only the HS but also the MS's as well. This kind of spreading thin of resources is a joke and it's amazing to see the quality of work they do. The district should really think about treating their employees like people and not just a number on a spreadsheet and then they would be amazed at the quality of work all of us would do. But when we have administration and leaders just interested in padding their resumes, the human element gets overlooked. And that's sad considering we work in a school district trying to cultivate young minds and emotional behaviors.
Knows the score sounds like they truly know the score. We have had many employees spread thin in 131. Many of those are the ones who have the most direct contact with our students. Those who impact and influence the students in and beyond the classroom. The district has been top heavy for a very long time, not just with admin, but with what we pay the admin.
I am not an employee, but a taxpayer who watches "The score." It is looking better from my POV, from the outside looking in. I hope it is improving from the insiders perspective, also.
The administration would have more time if they did not have to chase thousands of pages from Padron. They pay at least three people a year just to keep up with him. What has he accomplished? The district should sign a deal to pay his insurance because he was stealing himself. It would be cheaper. He needs to just go away.
Wow, had to get in recliner mode in my easy chair as the BS from the last 3 posts had crap coming up on the floor.
Guess every teacher and "worker bee" at East is up for sainthood from the Vatican. Guess everyone except "admin" is performing at 100 percent all the time and EVERY student has some "issue" that needs special attention 24 hours a day. And those needs are served 24/7 by the heroic staff at the school. Cry me a river. Sounds like adolescent fantasy has crept into the adults. Look, getting up in the morning,putting on your clothes,coming to work and actually doing your job are not "quality" actions. You actually have to accomplish something while you are at the school.
Amen to Go away Ralph
Yes, Ralph and his merry band of nitwits (or bedwetters- as they have no control when it comes to taxpayers money) need to go play victim elsewhere.
Remember, 10 million plus in insurance premium payments for people who were supposed to know better and just let it continue to happen. They knew they were not supposed to be accepting that. But, they just 'paid what the district sent me". These were people who touted their college degrees (some advanced) made them superior "teachers" and therefore "smart" people. What insane arrogance.
How much is Ralph costing us? He and his wife had free insurance for years and he got mad and has made us suffer for years. Popp would have had a job saving the district his serverance but Ralph is trolling him and will not let the man get a job. Ralph needs to leave us alone but he will not because he is a stalker. His lastest is picking on maintenace employees that bearly make a living. Sad what does he want to do stalk everyone so they leave 131. No school district has to put up with this. This has been going on for 4 years anyone see a problem. Maybe its time we write a real newspaper about his harsement.
Ralph may have had good intentions somewhere along the line, but when he started doing it for his own glorification and in the hopes that he would get a job with the District, that is when it went south. Check him out on Linkedin as a "specialist" in school districts. The very unscrupulous people he started out trying to bring to light are now his pals. Dick Leonard, Marty Feltes etc., he does as they request even though it truly is the epitome of the very bullying he stated he was out to stop. He has no gratitude for the people that helped him, spoke for him when he was truly doing good work. This is his self-imposed "job" now and he enjoys it. I was notified that he is now starting in on the maintenance dept. at the request of one of his "EA contacts". I feel sorry for the people who he is targeting now. I know these people personally and will help them in any way to stop this type of harassment.
Wow, yea if he is the specialist he claims to be and an accountant you think he would know for sure that his insurance payments or nonpayments should I say were wrong!!! I see he is friends with dick on social media. He has alot of dirty laundry and maybe trying to distract us with his 1000 pages of foia requests. Maybe someone should investigate him!
If anyone recalls the facts about the insurance provided to district retirees, it was not only legal, it was board policy. Annette Johnson pulled their insurance out from under them with no warning. She then had to backtrack and change board policy to go along with her actions. You can debate all you want about whether this was the right decision or not but the one thing that is not debatable is that it was done without warning and it put a lot of our retirees in a bad spot trying to find insurance without warning.
Why is Ralph Padron still after us. Does he not realize we have children to educate? Working at the SSC I see the toll it takes on staff. His copies have been estamated at over 600,000 pages At least three district employees touch them. Then the endless emails to superintendents, directors and staff. We all have to read his endless dribble because you are not never sure who he is going to attack. The technology department is also involved because now he searches emails, websites and phone records. This has been going on for five years and not a week goes by with out at least one request and an average of two plus in most weeks.
This is sick
FOIA REQUEST
Date: Jan 23 2017
Subject: Joe Blasing Records
Time Line: Jan 1 2016 - Jan 20 2016
Credit Card Statments
Receipts
Signed Agreement agreeing to Terms & Conditions in Accepting Credit Card from EA 131
Document Justifying & Approval of Issuing Credit Card
Please email & send via US Mail results of this FOIA
Thank You
Ralph
There was never a policy just a practice for allowing retirees to get insurance. Many of them never paid insurance or paid the old rate for years. The retirees knew they got a break from the district. If the insurance continued we would have never had projects like our Fred Rodgers School or the Benevides All Day Kinder Center.
Ralph and his family benefited like many others like Arlene Hawks the self proclaimed busy body who's husband was a millionaire. Arlene and her husband never questioned the cheap rates as she drove her Bentley up the Mcknight Center to protest. Maybe it is time to expose the list of freeloaders. Ralph was one of many but he has taken it to a new extreme.
I am retired but pay my fair share and because I am IMRF we do not have the same sweet deal as the teachers had. Annette Johnson has taken her fair share of lumps some deserving but without her Roberts, Augustine (now a Born again minister), Trasano, Vaughn, Radakovich, Dubinsky, and others would have continued to steal from our children. So when I hear retirees like Ralph bash Annette I just laugh because I know the real story. They all knew but choose to steal.
BTW Community Charles Ponquient still gets free insurance because prior board members to Johnson wrote it in his contract. Another honored revered community members.
Ralph Padron pawn of Dick Leonard and associates and now an official bully and FOIA Abuser. I wish the district would take a stand against him. He has blatantly violated what the FOIA was intended for and has turned it into his personal tool for intimidation. Stop accepting his ridiculous numerous requests that are a financial burden on the district and go to court with him. And next time you see him enjoying lunch with Dick, give him a knowing wink. Ralph cannot keep a secret to save his life, so we all know where this comes from. Heck, most of the staff knows what he is up to! He plays both sides.
No longer is history rewrote, nor does AJ lie.....it is now referred to as alternate facts. My alternate facts tell me Mrs. Hawks is the millionaire.
Alternate facts tell me that AJ made sure Roberts got a sweet deal before he retired, also. Even though Roberts was the one allowed the insurance "problem" to continue rather than fix it. Then the financial fella and his secretary took the fall. Roberts threw many under the bus before he rode the bus outa town and away from AJ and her attempt to alter facts to make herself appear the savior of the district.
Alternate facts say we did not need Magnet, all day K or preschool. We need more teachers and space for all students not select groups and preK is not part of what is required of our school district.
Fact, fabrication or alternative facts.....all just another's POV.
Does anyone have a number on how much Padron has cost the District in Foia fees inluding the legal dept. in the last 3 years? When the cost outweighs the public interest it is considered abuse. Trolling for revenge is not considered to be in the public interest.
Annette Johnson is a savior for speaking up. Many in the asforementioned knew about this but Augustine was paid to know better. Roberts should have been fired but played the race card and but Augustine under the bus.
If you are saying the money was not well spent on Kinder and Preschool you are crazy. The children need a head start in 131. Fred Rodgers gave students an opportunity and for once our district can proclaim great schools.
As for Ralph the copy cost alone is $60,000 that is what Xerox was billing if we used the SSC machines. There is also cost for secretaries, directors and lawyers. The prior posting are correct the insanity needs to stop.
How much has Ralph cost us in Foias? I would guess hundreds of thousands by now. He doesnt care. He lives in Naperville and does not affect his taxes.
To: Please
If you know anything about FOIA's. Only the first few copies are free. If there is any significant copying costs, the person requesting the FOIA must pay those copying costs. It didn't cost the district $60,000 in copying costs and there is no way Ralph could afford $60,000 in copying costs. You are pulling numbers out of your A$$. You are equally missing nformed in your praise of Annette Johnson. Of course, since you probably are Annette, it's just delusions of grandeur.
Get real got it right!
FOIA has guidelines and if all these posts were true, they could have and would have stopped Padron a long time ago.
Praising of Annette and bashing others is going to become frequent on the blog. This is her biggest campaign platform. She is like Trump on twitter but anonymous.
No not Annette. I have worked at the SSC for years and participated in pulling paperwork when I could have worked on child centered projects because I had to answer Ralph. There are boxes of unpaid copies that Ralph had us pull and he refused to pay for. A waste of time and money because the little knoll can not let 131 alone. Your obsession with Annette is sick and your defense of Ralph untolerable. The differance is one saved the district millions and the other one cost millions.
I will not vote for Chapa Lavia because of this law. She not only sponsored this bill but in Springfield they do not live up to the same set of laws. You can not FOIA Chapa Lavia but she allows schools to get attacked by the same unfunded mandate.
Since I am the target of the most recent comments, I make the following statement
1 Joe Blasing's wife, Laurie, was one of the individuals submitting FOIA's on my behalf using screen names which would not implicate herself. Matt Hanley had kept track of the FOIA's and was able to prove the connection.
2 Health Insurance Insurance was not free and my wife confronted/scolded Mike Popp publicly at a BOE meeting and gave him copies of our payments to EA.
3 Other issues continue to be investigated.
To my Critics:
The difference between you and I are can be summarized by this:
4 All my charges vs those individuals are proven with FOIA documents.
Your allegations are never proven.
5 I post my name on this blog and you don't. As a result I receive threats thus react accordingly.
As a big advocate of Freedom of Speech please continue to express your opinion as you choose.
If you would like a comparison, look at the cost that Naperville had to incur because of all the FOIAing done on their smart grid program. That was 73,000 in much less time. Who picked up the tab? The taxpayer via increased utility bills. You must take into account the time spent by all employees, legal dept., doing the redactions etc. Google FOIA harassment, it is growing and becoming more problematic. Yes, I would hope we all believe in transparency in our government, but we all pay the price (literally) when certain people go nuts and start asking for information out of spite, revenge and because their pride was hurt because they could not find what they thought was there and they do it incessantly. It costs far more than the price of paper and ink. And when you do it to a school, the kids pay too but in a more costly way.
Yes, I did do a small amount of foiaing about Marty Feltes at YOUR request. I did so under a different name as I wanted there to be no conflict of interest with my husband and YOU agreed with it. That is NOT against ANY kind of foia law (since you love the foia so much) and considered myself, Dianne one other(not my husband)your "team". You do not even have to give your name or be a US citizen to use the foia. And it certainly did not cost even remotely as much as all the requests you have/had put in. In fact, you were frequently denied your foias because you requested too many in a certain time-span.
At this time I thought you were doing this for the good of the staff and students. Was I wrong. Oh, so wrong. Shame on me. And there was much more as you know. I have kept all of my emails and files so I am able to explain any further allegations from you.
Let me repeat Dianne and myself DEEPLY REGRET assisting you. You are in it purely for yourself.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-bullying-st-0125-20170123-story.html
Dianne Thomas?
So it's OK to FOIA the district with the intent to publicly shame an employee UNLESS it hits you where you live? Think of all the hardworking, honest people that were trying to move this district forward but were harassed enough to get out because of this tactic. Ralph and his crew couldn't get the whole story solely based on documents. They filled in the blanks with lies and presumptions that always assumed the worst.
And let's not forget that JB threatened Marty. Like Marty or not, he was still Joe's supervisor. Annette saved him, just like she's saved and supported other not so stellar employees.
Diane Thomas works with at the CSC. Lets ask why does she still have a job? When did the BOE vote on changing her job classification? After her man was elected to the BOE Diane started receiving favors from Suzanne and Beatrice. She hardly ever seems to do any actual work but she acts like the superintendent. Diane's actions are the joke of the District. She come to every BOE meeting offers up hand signals for her man Ken Darby and takes notes. The BOE should know that is more effort than she does to perform her job. The majority of us stay away from this cancer (Diane Thomas) but some do pump her for information. The hate and poison she spews towards admin and the other BOE members is sad. So what about Diane Thomas? Do you have information? Please share someone needs to investigate her. She is the Ralph Padron of employees.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/opinion/ct-abn-editorial-busing-east-aurora-st-0129-20170127-story.html
Ah yes busing. When we have 12+ elementary schools that are there with the purpose of having walkable schools and 4 middle schools we need busing for the entire district? Say hello to a wage freeze in the district if busing is approved. The high school may be the only building that busing would be justified. But when cars are parked on both sides of the neighborhood streets and a bus cannot get down the street, then what?! So now a population that has no sense of time and showing up early to anything is going to get up even earlier to catch a bus? What happens when 10 kids show up on the bus and we're paying for 50 to be on there? Parents are already declining a bus to the kindergarten center that has proven to work and be great for the district but parents don't want their kids on a bus. The district had to find a use for all the extra space at the kindergarten center because of this. How about we get rid of school fee waivers and then the parents can actually contribute to their child's education and that can pay for busing?!? If they can afford $200 jordans, iPhones and everything else for their kids why can't they pay 2-300 bucks in school fees?!? The taxpayers will not approve any measure to raise taxes for buses. The time came and went for busing when the district declined tax money from the fox valley mall and the outlet mall.
Wage freeze means the cry bully teachers are already worried the district will look out for the students and give into busing. Sad that our teachers which have been given a 18% wage increase over their last three year contract will not help the students.
Sad that our teachers cost the district three curiculum changes last year.
Sad that our teachers asked and that the school board granted less evalulations, and less professional development.
Sad that the teachers can not manage their classrooms and the interims are having the same problems.
Sad that Renner was allowed to keep his job last year but it did not last.
D131 will see a mass amounts of AP and some good principals leaving. The letters of referance are out there folks.
It is interesting that Dr Popp and his fellow administration team is valued at other school districts that they have gone to work with even though Padron has attempted to spread lies
If d131 keeps the same teachers and the BOE backs them no amount of money will improve 131.
Agree with busing theory
Only way it works is to either work with the city and PACE and/or shuttle from the grade schools. Street width just cannot take the buses and it is correct that there will be people missing the bus as for a large amount of the student population, time has no meaning. And it should be only for the high school.
We need to look back and see why the graduation rates were not as low as they are today. There was no school bus then. So, what is the issue today? The city of Aurora has not had true bus service for many decades. So, what is different today at the district. There is no direct correlation of busing and higher graduation rates. We just have students from other countries that do not value nor do they assimilate into the melting pot of America. Maybe we need to have the first year of education for our foreign students just be learning English and immerse them in what we expect out of people who come to this country. Not saying they have to be a Cubs fan the first year here, but they have to learn that they must assimilate and accept our customs. (do what you want at home) Just don't expect handouts for a lifetime or for generations.
The district has been really good at draining the swamp recently. So we can't stop the progress. Ralph and his merry band of nitwits(bedwetters) and their sucking ten million out of the district, getting some crybully teachers to leave the district, having a cash reserve, etc. (did you read in the Beacon that West Aurora 129 will have a deficit this year and they have no reserve!!!!!!)
So, busing has to be spending neutral. Which means no more teacher raises for the next 30 years as that is how much they are overpaid already.
The H.S. athletic director was escorted out of the building a few days ago and hasn't been seen since. Anybody know why?
Bus theory has a point. Roughly 4000 kids at the high school. They all pay 300 bucks for school fee and that's 1.2 million for busing. Parents want another handout?! They're already living in houses filled with more people than are allowed but it's not enforced. They also get school fees, id fees, athletic fees all waived. God forbid we ask them to pay something toward their child's education. I assume they just think the old guys in stone gate should pay for everything. Maybe if we force them to pay something then they would have a stake in the game and get their damn kids to stop roaming the halls and sit in class and learn. Until we force parents to invest personally preferably in the form of money, graduation rates will stay where they're at. The schools are a babysitting service for a lot of parents. God forbid they ever take away their child's cell phones one of the biggest inhibitors to learning. But their kids know all the words to the latest rap song, but can't pass a constitution test. Or a remedial math class. When everything is free, how does one perceive the value of something that is free?!?
How does a town that has a casino not have money for schools?!? Where does all that money go?!?
Renner was caught stealing a tv and food. Here is wondering what else he took for years.
Renner was taking free and reduced lunch daily glad to see they caught up with him.
The truth:
You suck and spread lies. The teachers work their asses off and get no support. Kids are violent and nobody cares. The hallways are a nightmare of bullying, screaming no help there. Kids are having sex and smoking pot in the bathrooms. Ask kids to put their phones away get an F you- You wouldn't last a day buddy. you are the crying bully of all the hard working teachers out there get an f'in life and quit opining about things you know nothing about.
To: The Truth
How come there are no articles in the Beacon about the a$$hole behavior of the students every day of the week?? Why is it that only lame articles about busing for the snowflakes show up?? Why isn't the teacher union demanding a direct line with the
Beacon so that this is constantly reported. If kids are acting like morons, why aren't there links to videos, so the world can see and identify the little cretins. As teachers, the press can protect your identity. This needs to be shown to the whole town. This would show that no more funds should be given to the district until the students actually act like human beings. Doesn't sound like lack of support but political correctness getting in the way of doing what needs to be done. If you are not bringing this to see the light of day you are part of the problem. No one is saying you need to be identified, you need to get this to the press immediately. No longer can taxpayers afford to keep paying for districts that in fact are failed school districts. Maybe the answer is that 131 needs to be assimilated into District 204 and the Naperville school districts. That may be the only thing that will change student behavior.
Sounds like there could be a reporter amongst us, trying to drum up some local news for old coworkers.
Pot stirrer could be another name, but hardly common sense. First teachers are being called whiners, then they are told they are being too politically correct.
I have seen many of the teachers suck it up and move forward with teaching the children that do show up to learn. There is barely enough time in the day to do the necessary tasks and now Common Sense wants teachers video taping and setting up links and calling the Beconfused to report this "news."
The central office, board and Beacon have been notified many times over the years. No use, they were all in bed together and nothing was reported accurately, if at all.
Denise Crosby daughter works at our district she knows first hand what was going on. She preffered to make Popp the hero and not report the news.
Meanwhile on the other side of town two referendums passed in five years and they are broke. No reports on the corruption of Popp hiring Tyler so Angie Smith the former BOE member could get the job running the district. Vacations, expense accounts, dog sitting, and the loss of money pouring out of their district for fancy offices.
Dont count on the Beacon they are worthless. They think paying Matt Hanley a $40,000 raise is a good use of tax payer dollars.
Here is a tip Ralph FOIA credit cards in 129 it will make your head spin off.
Listen Common Sense we do report all of this- don't you get it? nothing gets done and the teachers who write referrals suffer recriminations. Talk about what you know about.. Combining districts is impossible. You go to school where you live..
Video are not the be all and end all. The police are filmed shooting, beating and mistreating citizens and their defenders say that 16 shots were justified. The video doesn't tell the whole story ,right. The reason I say be careful is that the students have cell phones as well. Unless every teacher is prepared to be taped too. They also have other staff with phones that record audio. How about your negative conversations that can be recorded. Google and hear audio tapes made at the republican summit last week. You will hear republicans who know that any plan to repeal the aca is a disaster if no replacement is available. They talk in private about their fears of trumps politics but they moles in their mist. Trump has leaks in the WH, be careful
The majority of student displine issues maybe our students but the Dr Popp era of watering down suspensions and repercussions has left the school district in distress.
Recently at Waldo one of our PPA's and teachers was pushed to the ground and a small suspension on the part of Morales happened. While the interiums did not know the student was returned to class. Mcdonald was brought in the loop and stated a minium of 10 days or possible explusion or a trip to the extension campus should have happened. Mcdonald made building administration appolize.
This is an example of teachers advocating for themselves if their building is not doing a good job. The days of admin retaliation seem to be over. Hoyda and Mcdonald are working on fixing issues but if we feel our admin did not do the right thing speak up. If that does not work go to a school board meeting. It appears the school board or at least most of them are committed to a safe working enviroment. Laesch and Strand maybe not so much as staff noticed they would expell a student who caught the school on fire at East putting students, staff and daycare students at risk in the cold.
If the Beacon sucks (which it does and it really hasn't been a newspaper for the last 30 years. But it is all we have in Aurora), then this student behavior needs to be shown on television, so that EVERYONE sees the little turds acting out. How do you get this to the Chicago networks??? I am sure Chicago schools could submit their own clips of insanity.
We have to get creative with answers to these problems. Maybe it is to combine districts, as this must cease. We all know that this is not the current way of handling these issues but it could be ..... (Plus that, Ralph would have this problem in Naperville!!!)
We are just wasting money with this kind of BS going on. We must stop investing in activities that appear to not be working and have not for a long long time. And the current public school system is an activity that is just plain is not working.
Well we'll, speaking of charter school and school choice. The new Secretary of Education Ms DeVos is going to give me a choice of where to educate my child; thank you Donald Trump. Some of you should start looking for work, woohoo
Wow, blah blah what an idiot thou art!! This isn't about choice it's about corporate takeover for the billionaires and the only reason De Vos got promoted was that her family gave Trump's campaign 400 million dollars. Look at you happy to see people in the middle class lose their jobs-- hope he doesn't come after a field where you and yours work.... don't think he will stop here...Oh and by the way, all of those Russians in the top level of security who leaked info about Trump have been found murdered... Nice guys huh?
Look and listen people the criminals in all of this is our union. Higher premiums for what! If you are not at Cowherd there is zero representation. We our lucky with climate and culture because of the interiums. However, they will not be around forever. Trump or Devos have very little influence on 131. Mestak and Garcia do and leadership in our union is at an all time low.
Re: Blah blah said...
Yes, now we can actually get the education we deserve. Not the education that is being thrust down our throats. Look at all the comments about the kids being out of control at East. This could be a boon to the state budget as the number of public school teacher pensions would decrease dramatically. Hey, companies like Comcast, PepsiCo, Facebook, Disney, Pacific Gas and Electric, Apple, Microsoft, Google,Amazon etc under Obama have abused the visa system to decimate the middle class jobs in technology *and that is just one field that Obama has decimated for the middle class. At least you will have jobs with similar pay - just not the unsustainable pensions. When it comes to money, just look at the dollars that the executives of the aforementioned companies gave to Obama and Hillary, along with all the foreign government money that rolled into the Clinton companies. (Interesting that most of the "donations" to the Clinton Initiative have dried up).
The Democrats of today have never been for the working class or the middle class. They are not the party of FDR and have not been for some time. It is as if they want everyone just above the poverty line and educated just enough to not be considered illiterate. They were my party until a few years ago. Then I saw the decent jobs disappear and they did not lift a finger. According to them, we are all supposed to be working at the local fast food places, as those are the only jobs they produced the last 8 years.
The residents need to ask why is Dick Leonard still getting free internet? Why does Ralph not FOIA the sites he visits? He can because the internet in Dicks house is paid by 131. Ralph is friends with Dick so he will never do that. Ralph gets information from Jessie Vargas and then discredits hard working maintenance people. So when y'all questions for Ralph just remember he is getting information for Leonard.
Here is a challange Ralph FOIA Leonard and see if he ever logged into the boards website other than meetings that Lisa Morales logs him into.
If Ralph would be fair he would FOIA Leonard and his internet use. How does the district monitor what he searches when he is in his private home? Not one employee or board member have private internet use. Ralph will never FOIA Leonard because he praises him in public and everyone knows it is about Ralph.
Ralph has FOIA requests in on hourly employees bearly making minium wage. He is trying to get people fired because he gets a trill out of it. Leonard the Marty Feltes clown has been stealing from the tax payers for years. All the BOE members for years have paid their own internet only Leonard has nicled and dimed the district. Why has Ralph never gone to the podium on him? You have to wonder.
Obama decimated the middle class; really. What planet have you been on. The republican Wall Street white collar criminals cause middle class to lose their jobs , pensions and 401k. Obama and the congress let the banks off the hook because they always surround themselves with ex criminals from wall st. Trump is doing the same thing . He is hiring the billionaires who made money and got wealthier off the Wall Street thugs. Republicans used to call democrats and unions protectionist when they suggested what trump is championing now but then again he was a democrat for many years too. Republican Party is ran by the south and go and see what the wages are in the south; 12$ an hour is high pay if you not an engineer or doctor etc... that why the Japanese car dealers move to Tn, Ms. Florida wages are terrible and every one of the old confederacy pay just above slave wage I.e free.
Here's a link to 25 pages of recent articles about our district:
https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=40031074
Subject: Michael Golonka, Merle Herren, Larry Wilson Records
Time Line: Jan 1 2016 - Jan 31 2017
* Credit Card Statements
* Receipts
* Signed Agreement agreeing to Terms & Conditions in Accepting Credit Card from EA 131
MASTER LIST OF ALL B&G Personnel holding P-cards
Any redactions please use BLACK INK
Thank You
Ralph
Ralph should go after Leonard because of the basement at EAHS and ask why $500,000 in concrete needs to be ripped up after 3 years. Feltes had his pals install concrete and a humidity system. At the time maintence staff complained it was a waste of money. Popp and Marty plowed ahead today it is being demolished to make way for electric and a evalator system for new construction.
If Ralph is fair Leonard should be exposed and Ralph should also FOIA timeslips on Luis Salas. He works every weekend and does nothing but he is Ralphs mole.
Ralph likes to protect his crony Dick. He feeds him lots of "information" for foias which is complete bs as Leonard is not supposed to give any kind of private info. to Ralph since he is on the boe. Dick has grudges against this district for his buddy Marty being fired. We have yet to see one foia about Leonard.
Manny Garza and his wife veronica need to be foia about lots of stuff
both work at east high
With nameless faceless cowardly accusations on the blog. Why don't you state your name tip for Ralph? Ralph has published his number and email numerous times. Call him yourself. Stop taking the cowards way out because you don't like someone. The blog admin needs to stop posting these cowardly posts and attacks. The district will never move forward as long as this continues and this blog allows it to happen.
To: Here we go again
With nameless faceless cowardly accusations blamimg the blog. Why don't you state your name? Stop taking the cowards way out because you don't like what some anonymous person said on the blog. The blog admin needs to let people post and let the community see what kind of people are in the community. Whether they are factual or cowardly posts and attacks, they are a glimpse of how people think and act about things in our district. Saying the district will never move forward as long as this continues and this blog allows it to happen is one persons opinion and not fact based, either.
I'll try this again. I posted this information once before, but the blog administrator did not approve it, presumably because this is info they'd like to hide. If anybody feels that a post on this blog is libelous, they can file a lawsuit and their lawyer can subpoena the blog host records to reveal the owner of the blog. The owner in turn can be subpoenaed to identify the blog administrator, who in turn can be subpoenaed to provide records that can then be traced to the poster. EVERYTHING we do on line leaves footprints (even if you're the Russian government!). So for employees and families being called thieves, find, identify, and go after those posters!
the problem is this blog administrator does discriminate posts and filters out what she deems against her views or her friends. I personally have posted about the idiot counselor at the extension campus(who is a lazy, terrible worker) who posted on facebook in support of king crespo and I commented on her transgressions with the rotc male teachers. But this blog admin censored me, obviously because she's a friend of the counselor. So she is not true and honoring what you even said. She blocks and censors to mold a story. This site is, as our president says, "fake news." the district can't move forward when nameless, faceless cowards are allowed to sling mud and go after people's jobs with no repercussions when they are found to be wrong. That's the problem with the blog. We have a blog administrator who filters posts to those she likes and wants talked about and silences the others. Whether the accuser is right or wrong, a person deserves the right to face their accuser. When the blog admin posts all posts, then another pov could be somewhat right in their post. Until then, this is all crap.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/crime/ct-abn-east-aurora-fight-charges-st-0208-20170208-story.html
To "another pov":
I did, indeed, censor several comments recently because they either included profanity or because they accused people (by name) of committing a crime. It's one thing to criticize a situation or position, and another to specifically name someone and accuse them of breaking the law.
And those naming and calling out Joe blasing, Manny Esparza and Dennis Renner?!? You seem to be okay with allowing people to call them out by name and accuse them of crimes. Hypocrisy 101 it looks like. You could censor all posts that call people out by name, or just do away with this blog totally, what positivity has this blog brought?!?
January 13 at 11:55 a.m. was deleted by a blog administrator. If I remember correctly it was a nasty personal attack on Mr. Esparza. Yes, some negative comments are allowed to remain but often people jump in and present their side and a discussion brings out the real story.
We all know what happened to Renner and if it was not true why is he no longer at the district?
Everyone knows at the HS he was forced to resign.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-pe-grant-st-0209-20170209-story.html
FOIA REQUEST
Date: Feb 14 2017
Subject: Transportation/Bussing
Reports: Annual Financial Report
School Yrs 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
*Please include # of students per year
Subject: Anthony Crespo
1 Resignation Letter
2 E- Log Jan 1 2017 - Feb 14 2017
To & From
Thank you
Ralph
Heads up on the ethics front.
Dan Barario used the City employee email list to solicite campaign contributions. Dan used City influence while on the board to sell the Indian Trail property to Walmart costing the distict about 4 million. Dan screwed us at Allan school by not getting any money from the development at Hometown . Dan was part of cutting teacher jobs and programs like art, music and clubs. I was part of the district back then that saw my wages frozen and now retired my pocketbook suffers daily because of pehople like him.
Let's not return to the past is right!! Dan B. was part of some major bad decisions. He now wants back on the board to help keep his taxes down. Along with the other north east siders who believe they should not pay for public schools. (His child attended parochial schools) He believes other parts of EA are bad neighbors and do not keep their property up and are the fault for all that is wrong with his taxes being high.
Regretfully, there are not enough people running to make significant change. Dan is not a part of change we want to see on the EA school board. He has been the mayors mole and is not in the race for any reasons except those that will benefit himself, not the families of all of EA.
Read the BOE packet it seems Perry Bigalow is back and rumor is he wants to start building again. Really our neighborhood is already crap. That is why Dan B is back he needs to put himself in position of importance to do the new mayors bidding in a couple of months.
Please to DO NOT take the land and make them pay everything they owe.
Sports fans
Aurora itself will not be around to worry about the mistakes like the Walmart property. On Aurora's financial horizon is an annual payment of $70,000,000 per year into the pension fund for the overpaid city employees. We are paying $5,000,000 now?? There won't be anyone around to attend the schools. Check it out. This is not BS. Everyone in government has their hand out as if they are homeless. Why do we keep wanting retreads who screwed things up to be put back in a position to make things even worse.
We've gone a week without hate filled cowards and trolls trying to get people fired because they don't like them. I knew we could do it! Let's keep it to things that directly impact our district/community and positive news like having a wrestler go down state, our school hosting a mayoral debate,etc.
Let's make this blog a good thing even if the blog admin doesn't want it to be that!
Bravo, you are the one who spoiled the streak you claim was going. You call people names. Make claims without facts, then ya throw in a few positive things for good measure and end with more negativity that is unfounded.
If you want a blog that fits your kind of "good thing" Why not create one? Rather than "trolling" this one.
Here's a link to 15 pages of recent articles about our district:
https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=40114214
There will be a meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 7:00 at the service center to discuss busing for our district. This will be an especially important discussion for families who live more than 1 1/2 miles from the high school.
The following comment was not approved for publication (name obscured, otherwise exactly as received):
"When we hire the new BG Director, lets make sure he knows the history of ________. Police Reports, Warnings from HR. Hope he has the backbone to get rid of ___ once and for all !!!!"
Unsubstantiated personal attacks will NOT be published. Discussion of issues and information about our district and community are always welcome, however!
To Blog Admin:
Unless they are unsubstantiated reports about an administrator, right? Plenty of that has been posted here.
I facebooked Dan Barario and asked about the Charter School as to his support or not. I noticed his issue is HS dropout. It is funny that is the only issue he is running on at a time when they are bring a Charter in EA. He will not answer me on his thoughts. I think everyone needs to be very careful of who is running.
I went to the meeting and we can not give one million dollars to somebody that did not want to answer questions.
Very wise to check the candidates and sometimes even if they may have an opinion about an issue you are concerned with, you still need to look at their background. Where do their alliances lie? Where did he and his children go to school? In Dans case, he has history of being on the school board, ask around about his voting record on issues back then.
I wish all voters would take time to become informed voters.
Good work, M Ochoa!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-attendance-st-0222-20170221-story.html
"The following comment was not approved for publication (name obscured, otherwise exactly as received):
"When we hire the new BG Director, lets make sure he knows the history of ________. Police Reports, Warnings from HR. Hope he has the backbone to get rid of ___ once and for all !!!!"
Unsubstantiated personal attacks will NOT be published. Discussion of issues and information about our district and community are always welcome, however!"
Let's hope that whom ever is the intended target of this individual that the school district follows Illinois Labor Law and School Code when following a Progressive Disciplinary Action. The current administrations actions of NOT following due process is a serious problem for our community.
I give the interiums credit! If they solved busing and understood the school code to do that they certainly never would violate labor laws. In fact they treat everyone with respect.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-school-bus-st-0223-20170222-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-veterans-stadium-st-0224-20170223-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-crespo-resign-st-0224-20170223-story.html
John Laesch must be a fraud and I will withdraw my membership in the Kane County Progressive Dems. I just received a card in the mail with the progressives backing Tricky Dick Leoanrd and Janita Wells. Two of the board members from hell. John you recruited me and now this. We all know Dick wanted to outsource maintainence. Look at his hate of district employees for his side kick Marty Feltes. Is this the best we have or when this endorsement happened did you miss another meeting?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/opinion/ct-abn-crosby-east-busing-st-0227-20170227-column.html
A group is already forming to protest against Richard Leonard running for this position. We will be putting up online petitions and online Freedom of Information documents showing why someone with Mr. Leonard's background should not even be considered as a candidate. When the petition is up and the group better organized, we will also be forming a group protest. That is how strongly many people feel about Richard Leonard never being allowed to hold a public office again. We will announce plans and information in local area papers, Facebook as well as other online sites.
Here's a recording of a recent performance by the East High Wind Symphony:
http://www.d131music.org/uploads/1/5/6/3/15638230/ws-incidental_suite.mp3
Here's a link to 27(!) pages of recent articles about our district:
https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=40178029
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/opinion/ct-abn-crosby-east-busing-st-0306-20170303-column.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-forum-st-0308-20170307-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-principal-kosak-st-0308-20170307-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-principal-st-0317-20170316-story.html
Why did the High School Camera Project, done over winter break, not go to bid? It was over $25,000.
Alarm Detection is the Districts provider you can only use what they tell you or they can not monitor the building
Nobel Peace Prize Winner to speak at East Aurora High School on March 27, 2017 @ 6pm
http://www.d131.org/newsDetail.asp?id=4264&guid=
Driving on the East Side this morning I can not help but wonder what high end land deal is Dan Barreiro involved in and who is paying for his billboard signs.
I remember the Highlite 30 deal, Hometown and the police palace at a time when the school district was broke Dan who had the most knowledge looked the other way. The school district was never paid by Mr Bigalow costing overcrowding and no builders fees. Then there was the misstep with not appraising the Indian Trail in which the district lost 3 plus million. I remember Dan telling me they did not know Indian Trail would get extended. At the time I told him he was either blind or stupid because everyone knew Indian Trail would one day get extended let alone someone who worked for the City. Then there is Highlite 30 the rush to demo and take a business off the tax roles now the property is taxed as farm land costing hundreds of thousands.
What is he up to and why the need to get back on the BOE? The signs tell you something and it is not about drop outs. Big signs mean big money.
Billboard signs?! I hope, as before, Dan does not get elected.
I read all the same "signs" in his history.
Not a lot of choices for school board, he shouldn't be one.
Say NO to the charter school appeal!
Why are we against the charter school? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sVD1IsQ-xJ9wAv9YngQyIxhsFw4zdZGXskeR4DlxBiU/edit?usp=sharing
Sign up to speak: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12MGq5tz14WBHJBiq9h6I1UK6iJ71gi19yPQAegLs4G4/edit?usp=sharing
If you do not want to speak, consider bringing a sign with a message and sitting in the audience. This would also make a powerful statement!
The Greater Good Charter School was given a NO vote by the entire school board. The teachers/staff of D131 and the community were against it but they are trying to force themselves on the community by appealing to the Illinois Charter Commission. The Comission has the power to override the board's no vote and push the charter school on us.
We need to pack the house during this public meeting. We need to speak and share our thoughts. We need to bring signs. We need to support the teachers/staff we already have. We can't allow an outside entity to suck resource and funds from our high school.
Please tell your people about this meeting and encourage them to attend. Where we see kids who need our help others see an opportunity to install their private business fueled by public funds.
Support those who are a part of the community and work everyday for our children. EA deserved better. TOGETHER we can make it happen.
The Highlight 30 also nicknamed the dirty 30 was targeted by Barrieo because of histies to Weisner. The question for the board should have been if you are tearing it down what tax generating property will you put in its place? Eastsider is correct today only a couple of hundred dollars are generated in taxes.
The Walmart property cost 3.5 MILLION in lost dollars just because Barriero and tge board from hell never appraised the property.
Then we have Hometown loads of students and dollars generated.
Barriero should have made sure when at a time the district was broke these monies should have been collected.
The East Side can not take another 4 years of Barriero
Barreirro lied to us tonight by insisting we had been given big raises when he was on the board. Does he think we are stipid we took a pay freeze. He also stated privatizing schools are good and it is my understanding he never sent his kids to EA schools. BARREIRRO IS DANGEROUS FOR EAST
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-preschool-kindergarten-st-0322-20170321-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/community/chi-ugc-article-east-aurora-tomcats-help-choose-furniture-for-2017-03-23-story.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-candidates-forum-st-0323-20170322-story.html
Tech guy said...
Alarm Detection is the Districts provider you can only use what they tell you or they can not monitor the building
NO THIS WAS MONEY SET ASIDE SINCE 2015 BUDGET! Look at the budget the $250,000 was there. There is no exemption in school code for alarms or HVAC, only technology. So once again the bid process was violated at d131. Alarm Detection has been given sole provider status in d131 and the lack of competition. This all Johnson awarding her supporters.
Alarm Detection has been at the meeting speaking against Johnson because the board awarded the Fire Alarms to Cintas. The bid was only about $300.00 lower but a lower bidder. Sorry Alarm Detection you are not spreading false news. The reality is the district signed evergreen contracts in early 2000 when the Serial Bully was given a alarm system for his house. It would cost the district millions to install new security alarm systems across the district.
Give credit to our Tech department for installing cameras and not wasting money with Alarm Detection on labor.
You are confusing Burglar Alarms, fire alarms, and camera systems. The Fire alarm went to bid and Cintas won it. Evergreen Contracts are auto renewing contracts, unless taken back to bid, but evergreen contracts do not preclude the bid process, they just have specific deadlines otherwise they auto renew.
The $250,000 was for a camera surveillance system and that project did not go to bid pursuant to board requirements, and the $50,000 limit set by state remodeling statute, as mandated. The work was not 100% done by the district IT staff, maybe the cable pulls, but the cameras and the video management system requires a security contractor. So where is Ralph on this?! The fact that the Nestor sat on this project for years put our faculty, staff, and students at risk.
So vote against Annette Johnson and her feckless thuggery.
Taken from the EA Parents Facebook page:
"It was a unique and thrilling experience! The teachers/staff, administration, board members, community members, parents, former students, union members, even the Stonegate residents all STOOD TOGETHER in unity. I've never experienced anything quite like it. The speeches were almost ubiquitously powerful declarations of commitment to our common purpose, as well as testaments to the positive impact of the school on everyone involved. It warmed my heart and I didn't expect that was going to happen. I truly felt the Tomcat spirit tonight.
By the way, emails will be accepted by the Commission for seven days from Thursday 3/23 until Thursday 3/30. Direct them to: State.Charter.Commission@illinois.gov
The Commission will make its decision at the Aurora Library at 101 S River St. on 4/25 from 3 - 6 PM. The public will be able to speak at that meeting as well. Let's pack the house!
East Aurora Deserves Better!"
Annette Johnson and the board put the fire system out to bid and Cintas won the bid. We are requirred to bid anything that is $2,500 or approve.
The alarm systen is another story we can bid the cameras and we did however the alarm panels are owned by Alarm Detection and any company touching them will void our monitor contract. To fix this the district would have to repace the equipment panels. We did however hang the cameras that did get bid. Blame the Radovivich administration for not buying panels and getting ghe district into a bad contract.
These contracts date back to Mr Barriero when the district sogned lease agreements.
Annette is not a thug and if i lived in Aurora would vote for her. Sheldon Lu has moved our department forward and prehaps you are just another disgruntled incompetant employee who got dismissed for good cause.
I have seen the large signs pop up for Barrierro and even received a mailer. I look back on his time on the board and wonder Why? The bad land deals are not the only thing but thedecline of quality teaching in EA ramped up with him and the board from hell.
As an employee, i watched my salary frozen and teaching materials become scarce. The buildings did not get maintained but the focus was on demoting Mr K. Then there was the Spain FIASCO. The district focused on getting rid Bilingual teachers so Radocvich could get his yearly trip to Spain. The board knew that was his yearly vacation for administration to tour Europe.
Things in 131 have been slow to improve but they have and tge school board no longer spends on vacations or wastes money. I work at the HS and did witness our Tech Staff hanging cameras.
When we ask the board is reponsive to our needs We will even get busing. Please east siders we know the past lets not put Barrierro back and move us backwards.
Sign stealing has been going on for school board candidates Johnson and Ishmael. What does someone have to hide? Anyone who stops the Democratic process does not have my vote and it speaks to the creditability of others seeking that position.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-east-aurora-charter-hearing-st-0326-20170324-story.html
My concerns in reviewing board minutes and committee minutes is that the High School renovation project was to cost $46 Million dollars is now over $70 million dollars, rapidly approaching $80 Million dollars. Remember that $12 Million dollars of $50 million dollar state loan is for the middle schools, so there are major cost over-runs and those costs will need to be covered. Cordogan, Clark & Associates are managing this project with all the cost overruns and it is the responsibility of Dr. McDonald to watch them. I am not sure why Dr. McDonald is not paying attention, and who is paying attention to the construct work. There is no one there to watch the work.
It is a well known fact that Annette Johnson and Dick Leonard have been meeting at Cordogan, Clark & Associates at 960 Ridgeway Ave. Aurora, without the other board and sub-committee members.
All you have to do is look at the public meeting minutes and they will confirm what I am saying.
AGAIN MORE LIES
Whoever is writing is just trying to get board members to fight. The board is.. one million under budget. The other money spent this summer will not only take care of the middle schools but almost every elementary school will have major work done. Leonard is not on the Building and Grounds committee. As for the discussion on construction the public is invited to come to the school board meeting on April 3rd. At that time everyone will hear how well the new interiums have planned construction. ALL DOLLARS ARE MADE PUBLIC.
Dan B is probably a very good husband and father. He seems to be a likable man. My opinion, he would not be a good choice for EA BOE. He has sent out a campaign mailer. It lists all his current service. It seems to me he is already spread a little thin on commitments to home, work and community. EA needs someone who is more focused on the district. Someone who does not have to worry about pleasing their employer with the work they do for the district. Dan may have went to EA, but his children did not. We have at least two candidates that have vested interest in the success of our district, whose focus is not primarily keeping their property taxes lower. Dan has been there and already proven his choices were not good for our district. We cannot afford to give him another chance. New blood, especially those with current ties to our schools would be a better addition to our school board. Please vote and vote for the benefit of the children.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/news/ct-abn-aurora-impactfees-st-0329-20170329-story.html
Here's a link to 24 pages of recent articles about our district:
https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=40314604
Aurora has allowed Bigelow to build more homes here?! Hasn't the city council heard all the complaints from the Hometown residents all these years?
If ya need history on this fiasco, ask Dan Barriero. He was part of the school board that made a deal with the devil, along with Supt. Jerome Roberts who claimed EA was going to get land from Bigelow and make big money from it. 131 has gotten nothing and all this time none of the boards have pushed for anything to be resolved.
Bigelow had problems that left him owing the city for unfinished business at Hometown.
Any member that has been on the Board for more than 7 years knew all these problems have existed and has sat doing nothing about it.
So no pat on the back for this one. All I have to say is, what took ya so long?!
Hometown is the first subdivision in 10 plus years to come start rebuilding what a fiasco because they are adding on homes using their orginal agreements. At least we have sound leadership that researched why we did not get paid. It was discovered no agreements on file look at all the dollars Barreiro cost 131 not only with Hometown but with the houses that got built in the senior living communites. That money will never come back to the schools because the developments are finished.
I have followed this for years and Ms Johnson is correct they have cleaned up another mess. It is reasonable to me why Barreiro wants another Superintendent immediately because he is hoping to go back to the days of underhanded back room deals
The agreement with Hometown was in 2006. Sup Roberts announced what a great way start as Superintendent. The Hometown issue was pushed by Barriero. The School district had a impact agreement back in the 90's when they build homes in the Krug area. I know we paid them. It looks like shady business on the part of someone who earns his bread and butter from Aurora. I would like the board or Mr Weiler to check on houses built before Hometown. That would mean all the properties build like Alden did not pay as well.
Who is paying for the two mailer I received from Dan Barriero or his big signs spread all over town. I find it suspicious that he is running and Bigelow is back. That is the last thing the school district needs more kids living in that dump.
I called our Alderman and he was not aware Bigelow was back until the school district got involved.
I also read board minutes and see that Nestor Garcia was contacted. It also shows Johnson asking the lawyer to get involved. Why would Garcia put it on a agenda and not call the lawyer? Bigelow just wanted to transfer the piece of garbage land. I thought the district had the land? It seems somebody was hiding something back then and it points to Barriero.
What are you talking about Nestor Garcia putting something on the agenda he isn't even on the board so how was that done.
Where are you getting the information about rebuilding at Hometown I go by there almost every day and haven't seen anything.
If you want to find out who is doing the mailings I believe there is a website to see who gave money to him and then you can figure it out.
This district really hasn't changed much. There was the credit cards misuse and until the Beacon came out with an article about it did something get done even though Johnson was told about it.
Garcia is the Districts Rep at the Plan Commission that is why he brought it back to the school district they can not build onto Hometown until old fees are paid. My question is why did Mr Barreiro and others at the time not demand working payment. The City is working with them surveying is starting at Hometown. Something fishy with the board member from hell returning.
Hear is some discussion
Mr. Perry Bigelow
(Owner of Bigelow Properties)
and Mr. Tony
Sparr
o
w
(
Vice President of Project) presented via
conference call the details of the
proposed
property to be donated to
the
school district
. Mr. Perry indicated that he
would like a letter
from
District 131 whether the
Board
wants to receive
the property
donation or
receive
property impact
fees
.
Committee member
Ms. Annette Johnson
recommended a follow up
with
District attorney
to review documents an
d
address any unforeseen concerns
Anyone that believes that Dan B would be a part of some backroom underhanded deal does not know Dan.
Dan is a wimp. I would vote for his wife instead of him; she wears the pants. What took place during his last stint was due to incompetence of the board leadership and the legal counsel or lack of counsel. Dan was a single vote and nothing more. He was with Malaker, McCue, Herbig... they were the leaders of boe
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