Grayslake Elementary District 46 Overpaid Teachers

In more disturbing news from the local school districts, it was discovered that the

Grayslake Elementary District 46 overpaid 13 teachers and classroom assistants a combined $92,106 over the last two academic years

The story was in the Daily Herald. I am glad to see them continuing their reporting on the financial misconduct within the [...]

How Can School Superintendents Contracts Not Be Public Record?

The case of Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 trying to keep the former superintendents contract is a ridiculous attempt to manipulate the Freedom of Information Act. The current school administration is costing the taxpayers thousands of dollars to prevent the public from seeing what is in the contract. One part of the case [...]

Another School Districts Chooses the Expensive Field Turf

Palantine-Schaumburg High School District 211 agreed to spend $8.5 Million dollars to put artificial turf onto its stadiums at its 5 schools. This cost is an extra $2 Million dollars that originally expected. You can read some related stories about this at the following:

Test: Lead in Dist. 211 turf doesn’t pose health risk
Straight [...]

Warren High School District 121 Newsletter

The link below contains the latest newsletter mailed to Warren District 121 residents. Please review this and leave comments if you wish. I’ll try to do some analysis later, but I just don’t have time at the moment. Pay attention to page 1 with the district comparisons and how much is being [...]

Senate Joint Resolution 13 (SJR13) – Property Tax Assessment Freeze

The following was a letter to the editor in yesterday’s Daily Herald. How we assess properties in Illinois is a good idea, but it won’t really do anything about your property taxes unless they limit what school districts and other taxing bodies can levy.

Senate Joint Resolution 13 (SJR13) (Property Tax Assessment Freeze) allows for [...]

Pediatrician Says Try Discipline before Ritalin

Pediatrician Says Try Discipline before Ritalin is
“Could it be that America would rather give unruly kids a pill than a swat?”
That’s what Dr. Lawrence Diller asks in a recent article. The behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., said he thinks Ritalin is prescribed too often.
“There’s good solid evidence that when you give parents permission [...]

Why do school districts exist with only 1 school?

Did you know there are 200 school districts that exist in Illinois that only have 1 school? I knew there were some but did not know there were that many. The Daily Herald pointed this out last Saturday. [Emphasis mine]
School districts across Lake County are grappling with an array of critical issues [...]

District 46 Superintendent Ellen Correll Defends Paying For Consultant Who Gave Awards

In a letter to the editor, Grayslake Elementary District 46 Superintendent Ellen Correll defends paying the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence to review the districts schools and them receiving awards from them.
On Monday, June 2, the Daily Herald published an article entitled “Grayslake Elementary District 46 honored by company it hired.” Unfortunately, the reporter chose [...]

Are School Districts to Blame For the Mortgage Crisis?

Are School Districts to Blame For the Mortgage Crisis? This is a very interesting question and explored by Robert Frank in his article DOn’t Blame All Borrowers. [Emphasis mine]
It’s easy to see why. Even in the 1950s, one of the highest priorities of most parents was to send their children to the best [...]

Democrats and Teachers Unions: Putting Children Last

The Democrats and Teachers Unions are trying to kill the Washington D.C. Opportunity scholarships. In effect they are Putting Children Last instead of first. Visit the WSJ for the full article. I am going to highlight the most important quotes and statements below.
Democrats in Congress have finally found a federal program they [...]

District 46 Paid For Awards

The Daily Herald Editorial staff also weighed in on District 46 paying a consultant who gave them awards. There take: “It’s not an award if you’re paying for it“. [Emphasis mine]
The total tab, once you include pay for substitutes for teachers gone traveling, was $40,468.
——————————————————–
The District 46 board and administrators never mentioned they [...]

Teachers Unions Keep School Board Silent

Teachers Unions do this across the State if Illinois and the country. They intimidate school boards into being silent about contract details until after they are approved. This is a travesty that should be stopped, but I fear that this will never happen until enough school board members who understand the following:

They represent [...]

SMART board update in Grayslake District 46

Last night the Grayslake District 46 school board approved purchasing SMART boards.
District 46 board members agreed Monday night the SMART boards were a good educational tool in a pilot project that ran for nearly the final two months of the academic year. They voted to pay $33,041 to keep the nine SMART boards from the [...]

Homeschool Robotics Team Wins World Championship

A homeschool robotics team won the World Championship in Atlanta last month.
On April 17-18, 2008, a team of seven homeschooled high schoolers swept the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, taking home a Winning Alliance Team trophy and the Amaze Award (awarded by the judges to a team whose uniqueness [...]

Gavin District 37 School Board Chicanery

The chicanery going on with the Gavin District 37 School Board is ridiculous. It is just one more example of the pat to play system prevalent throughout all levels of government in Illinois. It also shows how the school board in many districts in uncontrollable with just elections. We need recall to [...]

Grayslake Dist. 46 Pays for Awards

The Daily Herald has a report today on how much the district paid to get the Blue Ribbon Awards they received last November. The total costs was over $40,000.
What’s not mentioned is South Carolina-based Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Inc. named the award winners after being paid $22,192 to assess seven District 46 schools. [...]

Illinois Deserves Better

Illinois Deserves Better is book that explains everything you need to know about voting this November on the question of whether there should be a Constitutional Convention called. The book was written by Bruno Behrend of Extreme Wisdom and John Bambenek of Part-Time Pundit. It is very prescriptive and totally outlines the case [...]

Property Tax Day

Today is Property Tax Day, the day when the first installment of your property taxes are due. Many of you are still upset by the high property taxes. Many of you still blame the Assessor or the Treasurer, when in fact the real culprit are the taxing bodies. Just look at your [...]

Should Homeschooling be Illegal?

Parade had one of the most outrageous articles I have seen in a while about homeschooling. They ask the question should homeschooling be illegal? They do include a poll with the article and at this time it is running 90% – 10% to allow parents to teach even without teaching credentials.
The comment [...]