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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Refresh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

POV wall

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

Red, Black and Navy blue

There was comment in the last post to check out this article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-aurora-njrotc-28-dec28,0,202339.story

I thought it was worth a post and a good place to start on a brighter note.
Our NJROTC has been a positive force in EAHS for quite sometime.
The article asks- "If the programs are so great, why aren't they in white affluent communities too?"

Is it possibly due to the fact those families can & do pay for their children to get involved in any and many activities outside the school. EA students options are limited by accessibility due to location & finances.

40 years ago when I attended EA, our basketball team gave us all EA pride. Now it is NJROTC.
The article also suggests ROTC programs could be "recruitment vehicles for the military."
I think the students & Lt. Cmdr. expressed well what NJROTC is to EA.

What do you see in our NJROTC and the students in the program?