The Daily Herald Opinion Section today brings us news that the pictures of the new high school voters just approved in Indian Prairie District 204 looks more like club med than a high school. Just remember voters, it was for the kids. They need to relax from all the pressure they receive [...]
The quote below by Illinois Education Association President Ken Swanson who was addressing the union’s representative assembly on March 9. It is now the quote of the week at the Education Integlligence Agency. (Hat tip: The Champion)
“The blunt reality is that the way we used to do business with the politicians and policymakers [...]
What kind of person would threaten to kill a school board member? Especially when there only offense appears to be questioning the status quo in the school district and by putting the focus on the students instead of the board. (Hat tip: Students First) [Emphasis mine]
“The reason I ran was to make sure [...]
Thanks to a couple of school board members who blog or have their own websites here is a list of school board blogs and school board member blogs. Hat tip to Going to the Mat blogger Matt Johnston for reminding me about Diane Wier’s blog. She is a school board member who blogs. [...]
A group of residents are suing the Jersey County schools over their school construction bonds (Hat tip: Students First). The referendum to build a new school was rejected in 1999 with a 71% No vote.
“In our district, we went from needing $531,000 in repairs on our high school with one architect, to suddenly [...]
The News-Sun had the article below yesterday. Read it and then ask yourself these questions:
What other districts did Loren help with these sham contracts?
Who else received kickbacks like this?
How much has this cost the you?
[Emphasis Mine]
The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Illinois Supreme Court has disbarred Steven Loren, a Highland Park-based [...]
Extreme Wisdom does a great job with this article outing the testing industry as just another branch of Big Ed who is destroying the reliability of testing to prevent any accountability on their part. It is well worth the time to read. Here is a sample.
Few people remember when the news covering the [...]
Should school board members who receive money from Teachers unions vote on teacher contracts? That is the question being asked in a couple of school districts right now.
The first is Woodland District 50 where two board members who received money to run for elected offices just voted in favor of the new teacher contracts. [...]
I was able to get the entire Bond presentation by Elizabeth Hennessey of William Blair & Company scanned in. This presentation was given to the school board at their March 20th meeting.
Presentation Topics:
Page 1 is a title page
Pages 2-4 detail the bonds issued last year from both the 1999 and 2004 bond authority
Pages 5-7 [...]
“Round Lake Park trustee is out of line” is the title of a letter to the editor in todays Daily Herald. This letter is in reference to Trustee Tuebert going to the newspaper to air his grievance instead of to the school board first.
In the March 21 Fence Post, John Teubert, an appointed Round [...]
The following comment was made on D46.info by an anonymous poster on March 23, 2006 at 00:40:14 and named RUsatisfied. Whoever this person is pushing an agenda of trying to discredit certain school board members. This time they went after Keith Surroz who was doing his job as a school board member. [...]
The Daily Herald on Tuesday had this article on District 41 in Glen Ellyn:
Dist. 41 board has no answers
By Catherine Edman
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Urging the school board to locate its “moral compass,†a group of residents continued pressing for a multimillion reduction in property taxes Monday night in Glen Ellyn Elementary [...]
A friend of mine called me this morning to see if I had seen the following article about a Tax Cap compromise in the Daily Herald. After reading it, I was struck with the thought, who is looking out for the taxpayers?
Educators come around to property tax cap fix
By Catherine Edman
Daily Herald Staff [...]
I have scanned in the Bond Summary page of the report presented by Elizabeth Hennessey at Monday’s Board meeting. I will get the rest of it scanned in as I have time and if anyone wishes to see the entire presentation.
I would like you to pay special attention to how the Total Dollars over [...]
I was so busy this week that I forgot to post on Monday about my one year blogaversary. Here is a link to my first post last March 20th.
It’s amazing how quick this past year has gone. There have been many ups and downs. There have been many trying times and even [...]
The following news should be disturbing to parents with kids in public schools:
A February 6, 2006 cover story in New York Magazine examined an “unofficial†extracurricular offering of Stuyvesant High School – the “cuddle puddle.†(It must be noted, however, that this could be an “officially†sanctioned activity being that it is a New York [...]
This chart is just to highlight referendum results. For the results of all races, please visit the Lake County Clerk’s website. Please remember some of the school districts below cross County borders. You will need to check results for those counties [McHenry, Cook, Kane ] as well. If I can [...]
The title of the Daily Herald article by Mike Riopell is very accurate, Grayslake taxpayers may get a tax break. The problem is you won’t get this break if unless you stand up and tell the board to abate those bonds. I was also at the meeting last night and the [...]
Below are my notes from the school board meeting tonight. If there are corrections or additions please let me know. My comments will be [italicized]. I believe the Daily Herald will have an article in tomorrows paper about the bond discussion.
B. Roll Call
Kristen not here because of a work conflict
Keith will be [...]
This letter to the editor appeared today in the Daily Herald. Brian’s question could be asked of any school district that is currently experiencing growth not just district 34 in Antioch.
Where has growth’s tax money gone?
I am writing regarding the upcoming vote for School District 34’s proposed referendum.
I am a single homeowner with no [...]
A program called VOICES is continuing in Gurnee. They are meeting again Monday night. I wrote about this last October when it started.
GURNEE — VOICES, a citizen-led effort aimed at improving communication between Gurnee Grade School District 56 and residents, will meet from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday to discuss how staffing, class [...]
Below is the school board agenda for the meeting Monday night. Please try to attend if possible. There is one very important item on the agenda and that is the Bond discussion. I was hoping to have the bond information I FOIA’ed before that meeting, but I could not get it worked [...]
If you are still trying to figure out which Gubernatorial candidate to vote for in next weeks primary and if education is your hot button issue. The Chicago Tribune has statements from the candidates to help you decide.
The questions they asked are as follows:
1. How would you address the over reliance on [...]
Big Ed is fighting the tax cap changes that are working its way through the state legislature.
The Daily Herald does a poor job in this article of explaining what the chages are, but does a great job at exposing why educrats don’t like the changes.
A proposal being pushed by state Rep. Michael Tryon, a Crystal [...]
Chicago Matters has chosen Valuing Education as their topic for this year. The programs will start airing April 11th, but you can join in the conversation sooner. Visit their site to see schedules and more details.
Along with their community meetings they have invited several guest bloggers to write articles for them. [...]
A friend of mine sent me an article today about how governments, especially local government can increase transparency and get their message across to the public more effectively than it being filtered through the old media. The article was written by Johnathan Davis in American City and County Magazine. [Emphasis mine]
Over the past 15 [...]
Interesting charts for a district trying to blame everything on the previous administration and bleak future. The ISBE Analysis shows a surplus of over $500K up until 2003 when it decreased dramatically. Isn’t that when Dr. Tenbusch took over?
The ISBE numbers are off as well. It appears they averaged 2% growth in [...]
The following was reported today by the Daily Herald. A Round Lake Park Trustee is calling for District 46 School Board member Kristen Coe-Peek to resign.
Since then, Round Lake Park village trustee John Teubert has sent a letter to three local newspapers, saying Coe Peek should step down from the board because she set [...]
The National Taxpayers United of Illinois are heading to the Cook County State’s Attorney with evidence Morton Dist. 201 broke election interference laws (Hat tip: CRAFT. Read about D-300 possible violations here and Wintrhop Harbor’s D-1 here.
On Thursday March 9, NTU Vice-President Jeffrey Babbitt spoke with the General Counsel for the Illinois State Board [...]
This is from the McHrenry County Blog:
My husband was out driving in Capentersville yesterday, and he saw a Dist. 300 truck with a bunch of VOTE NO signs in the back of it. He immediately came to Otto (Engineering) to see Jack (Roeser). (Next to the bridge in Carpentersville is Otto Engineering, from whose building [...]
