Gurnee Starts Voices Program
After 7 straight defeats for their Tax Referendums, Gurnee School District 56 is taking a different tactic. They are starting a program called VOICES to get input from the community.
Proponents of this program are claiming this is not just a stealth way of getting a referendum passed, but I have my doubts. I have spoken to several residents of the District and they told me that this appears to be just what the program is designed for.
In a previous article about this program it showed this program has been used to request referendums in 5 out of 7 Districts it has been used. I’d say that is a pretty high liklihood that this will be the result in Gurnee as well.
The District is paying $40,000 for this program run by a Public Relations firm our of St. Louis. Where is the District coming up with this money when they are supposedly in such financial trouble? Wouldn’t the money have been better spent on the kids? What about the message being sent to the District after 7 failed referendums? Why doesn’t the District get the message that the resident so Gurnee want alternatives to a tax increase. They want a stop to the wasting of their money. This is another $40,000 down the drain and all in the hopes that they can convince enough taxpayers to take more money from their neighbors.
Here in District 46 our Superintendent is meeting with groups herself to find out how to improve the schools. She is not wasting $40,000 for a Public Relations firm to the do the job. Thank you Mrs. Correll.
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District 56 begins VOICES process By Judy Masterson GURNEE — The inaugural meeting of VOICES, a program seeking input on the future of Gurnee Grade School District 56, drew an estimated crowd of 125 on Monday night despite rainy weather. Held at Viking School, 4460 Old Grand Ave., the meeting drew former supporters, as well as opponents of the district’s seven previous attempts to increase the tax rate for its education fund. All seven have gone down to defeat. “This is not about the referendum,” said Deborah Biddle of Wadsworth, one of seven local chairpersons helping to facilitate VOICES meetings. “It’s about gathering community input on how our kids will be educated.” The process of public engagement is being orchestrated with the help of St. Louis-based Unicom-Arc. The district is paying the public relations firm $40,000 to consult for one year. “We have spent a lot of time and energy over the last three years on failed referendums that resulted in division and a lot of negative energy,” Gurnee Grade Superintendent Ben Martindale said last week. “We felt we needed to do something different and something different was to engage the community.” Those attending the session included Shawn Depke of Wadsworth, who has worked to help defeat proposed tax increases. Lake County Board member Steve Carlson of Grandwood Park, former Warren High school board candidate Rich Conley, Warren Township High School board member Chuck Crowley, and wife Barb, and Gurnee Community Bank President Brad Nickerson were also observed in attendance. While the district has a 40 percent minority enrollment, only a handful of minority residents participated. “Our intent is to involve a large group of people as representative of the community as possible,” said VOICES Chairperson Jim Strang of Gurnee, who urged others to spread the word about the VOICES meeting. Participants listened to an overview of the district by Martindale before beginning small-group work sessions. The small groups are expected to generate discussions revolving around issues including student achievement, state requirements, staffing, demographics, school safety, budget, programs and facilities. Consensus points formulated from those discussions will be used in advisory recommendations to be made to the School Board on May 24. |
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VOICES — A way to be heard By Judy Masterson GURNEE — After seven consecutive losses at the polls, the Gurnee Grade School District is embarking on a different type of campaign proponents say is not intended for the passage of a tax increase. VOICES — Exploring New Opportunities for Our Schools is a citizen-led endeavor to open lines of communication within the district. Designed to bring school officials, employees and district residents together to address district challenges and propose “a path for the future,” VOICES will hold its first meeting from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at Viking School, 4460 Old Grand Ave. “Some people will think this is just another way for District 56 to slide in another tax referendum, but that is not the case whatsoever,” said C.W. “Skip” Fentress, one of seven community chairpersons for the effort. The district has hired consultant Dan Burns, with St. Louis-based Unicom-ARC to help guide the VOICES process, which calls for meetings to be held through May culminating in a presentation of recommendations to the School Board on May 24. The public relations firm, which will be paid $40,000 to consult for the district over the next year, has been used by districts in Barrington, Deerfield, Vernon Hills, Highland Park and the Woodland district in Gurnee. Burns said that in some cases the firm’s efforts helped lead to a successful referendum, but not always. He pointed to districts in Glenview and Springfield where the consensus was to not go for a tax increase. “But three segments of the population that had not been willing to talk to each other came together and made some joint recommendations,” Burns said. “If there is a referendum it will be because these community folks think that’s what they need. It’s a collective process.” Supt. Ben Martindale pointed to the timing as evidence that the school board is not considering putting an eighth referendum on the ballot next March. “We recognize there will be people who say ‘This is just another referendum attempt,’” Martindale said. “But it’s not about that, it’s not just should we go back again. We need to talk to people.” VOICES participants will study issues facing the district. They will be asked to provide feedback on topics including academic achievement, programs, curriculum, staffing, technology and finances as well as topics they determine to be important. Free childcare will be provided for each workshop session, in which participants will work in small groups to both give and receive information. Participants will also be provided regular updates on the engagement process and feedback on study topics and suggestions. “It’s like a family,” Burns said. “If we don’t talk to each other, how can we be a healthy unit? As the district goes, so goes the community in its progress or its failure to make progress.” Deborah Biddle of Wadsworth, where voters have helped defeat previous referendums, pointed to a district enrollment that is 40 percent African American and Hispanic, as well as to cuts made to programs to achieve the district’s balanced budget. “We want to engage people who previously were not interested or who are confused about what the school district is about,” Biddle said. “We want to explore if student achievement is suffering.” “Asking people to increase their taxes is not popular anywhere,” Martindale said. “What we need to do a better job of is dialogue with the community and educate the community.” Other VOICES chairpersons include Carl Wilt and Wilma Hamilton, both of Wadsworth; Jim Strang and Javier Mora, both of Gurnee; and Pat Luce of Waukegan. |
As Kevin Killion of illinoisloop.org said, VOICES participants have been Delphi’ed. This is a technique that’s been around a while to rid issues of dissenters and shove through agendas that have significant opposition. Google “delphi technique” and check out the links below for information on what Unicom-ARC is doing for the $40,000, and how to successfully dissent in one of these sessions.
Here are a couple links: http://www.iror.org/delphi.asp and http://www.americanpolicy.org/educ/thedelphi.htm. Check with attendees, and see if their experience at a VOICES session is along the lines of how the Delphi Technique is described. Here’s a good page on how to successfully disrupt it: http://www.iror.org/delphi_disrupt.asp.
By all means, read up about the Delphi technique. You’ll find lots of refs and links here:
Illinois Loop: School Committees
http://www.illinoisloop.org/committees.html
Two quotes start that page:
“Viewers of the great 1973 movie The Sting, which introduced the concept of the Big Con, will recall that the secret of this ultimate confidence game is that the mark must never come to know that he was played. He must continue to believe the game was the real thing.”
— John Podhoretz
“I never realized what it was at the time. At most I had a vague
sensation that something was not quite right, but I could not
figure out what it was.”
— a typical Delphi participant