The students at Grayslake North will not be allowed to park in the Heatherwood subdivision. There were too many complaints last year from the residents according to the report in the News-Sun.
Police Chief Douglas Larsson said residents in Heatherwood subdivision have filed numerous complaints regarding traffic congestion and teen problems relating to the high [...]
There are many children throughout Lake and McHenry Counties whose family does not have the money to buy the neccessary school supplies for their children. There is a way you can help fill this need. A group of churches have formed a group named Catalyst. They are organizing a Sharefest to buy [...]
I thought more people would be interested in how Winthrop Harbor District 1 handles FOIA requests. Below is the timeline of my requests and the district responses. As you can see it was a frustrating experience that is still not completed. Here is brief overview or the problems:
The district did not a [...]
The following opinion piece was in the Daily Herald. (Emphasis mine)
Our recent editorial board discussion with Huntley Unit District 158 Board president Mike Skala and new Superintendent John Burkey gave us hope this beleaguered district had embarked on a new path. The two vowed the district, beset with mistrust, hampered by poor communication and [...]
The Northwest Herald report today says excessive fees charged by taxing bodies violate the Freedom of Information Act. (Hat tip: CRAFT) What do they claim is excessive? Their analysis shows for profit copy centers charge $0.08 to $0.10 per page and these companies make a profit. They ask the question, if [...]
Jersey Community Unit School District #100 built 2 new schools, a high school and grade school. This was done even after 71% of the voters rejected the referendum. The Coalition for Public Awareness is now moving forward with their lawsuit that questions the validity of the school districts’ actions.
On Wednesday, July 19th, [...]
The Chicago Teachers Union doesn’t like the fact that a Charter School may open a virtual school where the students learn online from home.
A new Chicago Public Schools charter that would educate students online from home is illegal, the Chicago Teachers Union said Thursday, threatening a court challenge to the school, which has yet to [...]
The Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst believes the rules against blogging are and they will be presenting their case to the Libertyville-Vernon Hills District School Board on monday night.
The new Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 rules say students in extracurricular activities will face disciplinary action for maintaining or being identified on an Internet [...]
There are 2 articles via Students First today about the same incident of West Harvey-Dixmoor School District 147 spending grant money on lunch cruises, candy, furniture, etc. Excerpts of both articles are below; read the full articles here and here.
Leaders of one of the Southland’s struggling school districts misspent and mismanaged more than $2.2 [...]
Is The Public School System Fixable? That is the question John Kasich of the New Century Project answered in a recent speech to the Urban League. (Hat tip: (CRAFT)
“I do not believe that there is any way to fix the public school system without opening it up to competition and parental choice. Our [...]
Antioch District 34 approves Everday Math unanimously. According to the report excerpted below nobody spoke for or against the program before the board voted. Once again, this demonstrates how the apathy of parents and community members allows educrats to remain unaccountable in the decisions they make. By the time parents of these [...]
With the supposed financial problems in Mundelien District 120 after a failed referendum this past March and another referendum already being discussed, you would think the Superintendent would be more careful in how he spends the taxpayers money. You would be wrong; it appears Mundelien Superintendent Stan Fields can’t seem to spend the taxpayers [...]
A Washington based watchdog group called Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights released a report entitled “Days of Reckoning: Are States and the Federal Government Up to the Challenge of Ensuring a Qualified Teacher for Every Student?“. The report blames the states for not following the law and the federal government for not enforcing the [...]
The State of Illinois will not be receiving federal money for part of the State Administrative funding. Illinois is not alone, 9 other states have been notified of this as well.
The U.S. Department of Education has notified 10 states that it intends to withhold a portion of their state administrative funds under the Title [...]
Most people believe that NCLB was aimed at improving the eduation provided by public government schools. In fact, there requirements only force the States to define scores aligned witht the test in their State. This means most States just lower standards to meet the passing requirements instead of actually improving educational quality. [...]
There was a rebuttal in the News-Sun Today to my letter about Everyday Math in Antioch. The letter was from the Principal of the St. Patrick School in Wadsworth, Marcella A. Bosnak. Below are excerpts:
Hats off to the superintendent and the teachers for recognizing the best math program on the market.
Sorry, but it [...]
The School Report Cards are available for each school to look at, but the public will not be allowed to see them until this fall after school starts. I never have liked this practice. Why can’t the public get the results when the schools do? Why can’t parents see how there school [...]
CRAFT has a letter from Newt Gingrich about the crisis in education. Below is an excerpt:
The education bureaucracy likes to play a game with statistics. They usually publish data on educational successes or failures only on a statewide basis, so parents and teachers have no way to hold the education bureaucracy accountable where it [...]
The Education Carnival is up this week at the L.A. Times Education blog School Me. There is a lot of good information in this edition that many of you will enjoy.
Here is a sampling:
Teacher fired for telling charter school teachers what union teachers make.
A math teacher asks why are salary schedules [...]
I was sent this transcript today from Homeschool Heartbeat. The topic today was how homeschooler perform at the College level and the guest was Patrick Henry College President Graham Walker. [Emphasis mine]
How do home-educated students perform at the college level?
Mike:
We want to talk to Dr. Walker about his experience with homeschool [...]
My Letter to the Editor about Everyday Math made it into the News-Sun today. It was basically a shortened version of what I had written on here a few days ago about how Antioch’s elementary School District 34 was contemplating switching their math curriculum to Everyday Math.
Again, make sure you get informed about this [...]
Schools skeptical of tax break plan is the article title for this Daily Herald story about how Grayslake High School District 127 and Grayslake Elementary District 46 feel about the proposed Property Tax Abatement. This was discussed at the District 46 school board meeting last night.
Grayslake school leaders aren’t yet ready to sign off [...]
Below are my notes from tonights school board meeting. As always please send me any corrections or additions and my comments are in [italics]. Please pay special attention to the Public Comments at the end of the meeting tonight.
Tentative Agenda
Board Of Education
Community Consolidated School District 46
Monday, July 10, 2006
Middle School
7:30 p.m. Closed Session [...]
A few days ago, I received a comment from a reader about his personal experience in the difference in quality between Public Government Schools and ACSI schools. This was in regards to my post on how the tests scores of ACSI schools show a large gap over their Public Government School counterparts. I received [...]
Big Hollow is heading for a referendum. The question is whether it will be on the ballot this November or in April.
Rates being talked about for an increase include 50 cents, $1, $1.25 or $1.35 per $100 of assessed value. The last district education fund increase was in 1975. Voters rejected two [...]
I found the following quote by Emmons School District rather descriptive of how schools view their job. Success is not improving test scores, but rather maintaining them.
“This is such a different approach that even now some parents have questions,†Emmons Superintendent Matt Tabar. “Our test scores have been just as high as [...]
It appears that Woodland District 50 is heading toward a referendum. Of course they claim they don’t have a spending problem, their expenses have increased unexpectedly. Read this excerpt from the Daily Herald.
In March, board members approved a combination of budget cuts and new revenue sources to free up about $2.2 million for [...]
I thought I would point out some of the non-education related items passed at the recent NEA Convention in Orlando. I’ll just focus on the adopted ones (emphasis mine).
Legislative Amendments:
Legislative Amendment 3
Adopted
Insert on page 22, line 46 a new bullet under NEA supports reading, “Federal initiatives to ensure the safety of those incarcerated in [...]
Below is the agenda for the school board meeting this coming Monday night. There are some interesting action items and a notable item that was left off the agenda. The interesting items will be:
Continuation of Property Tax Abatement Discussion
This was discussed at the last board meeting. I never was able to get [...]
Frederick’s Principal, Eric Detweiler has been voted Principal of the Year in the Lake Region by his peers in the Illinois Principals Association. He was selected the NASSP Middle School Principal of the Year. Only members can nominate other members for the award based on their service to the schools and communites in [...]
