The attendees in the audience were overwhelmingly against the tax increase in this economy. School board member Michael Carbone reiterated the issues about the economy in his comments with statistics showing 1 in 3 houses sold in the district in 2009 were in distress, and 50% in 2010.

More information will be coming when we get specifics about how the stimulus money was doled out.

A special thanks to Joe Calomino of Americans For Prosperity for helping with helping us get the word out about the meeting last night.

From the Daily Herald article about the meeting:

Grayslake Elementary District 46’s effort to capture as much tax money as possible next year has prompted concern.

 

About 70 residents attended a public hearing on District 46’s tentative tax levy for next year. Several who spoke questioned whether the district is misspending money or not managing its finances well.

You can read the original request here. The district has been spending frivolously in this economy (links below) and now is trying to find over $2 million in cuts. Despite this, they have not been willing to provide data to the public on how they spend their money. We must now demand an end to the practice of no representation without information. To put it simple, “No Info, No Taxes”.

Please join us next week. You do not have to speak, just have your presences felt by being in the audience.

Here are a few past stories of district expenditures:

• D46 ADMIN PAY RAISES? – http://educationmatters.us/2009/05/04/d46-admin-pay-raises/
• GRAYSLAKE ELEMENTARY CUTS 29 JOBS – WHO’S TO BLAME – http://educationmatters.us/2009/03/26/grayslake-elementary-cuts-29-jobs-–-whos-to-blame/
• Grayslake school district employees going to Disney World – http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=334943
• Dist. 46 board says sending group to Disney money well spent – http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=336703
• Money tight? Let’s go to Disney World – http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=335303
• DISTRICT 46 PAID FOR AWARDS – http://educationmatters.us/2008/06/11/district-46-paid-for-awards/
• DISTRICT 46 SUPERINTENDENT ELLEN CORRELL DEFENDS PAYING FOR CONSULTANT WHO GAVE AWARDS – http://educationmatters.us/2008/06/12/district-46-superintendent-ellen-correll-defends-paying-for-consultant-who-gave-awards/

The purpose of this letter is to inform the Grayslake School District 46 Board members that several parent groups and citizen activist have contacted my office (Americans for Prosperity: www.afpil.org) requesting our assistance in educating the Grayslake School District 46 Board members on the values of transparency within government bodies. Specifically, Americans for Prosperity will be educating and engaging the general public on the need for the Grayslake School District 46 Board to develop and produce an on-line check register.

Americans for Prosperity is a national grassroots – government watchdog organization. We have state-based chapters in 25 states with over 800,000 members nationwide. The Illinois chapter of AFP was formed in August of 2006. Currently, AFP-IL has over 20,000 members throughout the state with over 800 members residing in Lake County, Illinois.

We’re focused on sound public policy issues such as fewer taxes, less government, a more transparent and accountable government and more personal freedom. Our mission is pretty simple; AFP-IL educates and empowers citizens to hold their elected officials accountable for how they spend our tax dollars. .

For the past two years, AFP was the leading force behind a bi-partisan effort to pass the first ever, transparency legislation in the state of Illinois. Through all our battles, exposing government waste, filing lawsuits against our state’s governor and senate president, testifying at numerous committee hearings, fighting the efforts of the special interest groups and certain lawmakers who were opposed to government transparency, I am proud to say, that on August 17, 2009, Governor Patrick Quinn signed our transparency legislation (House Bill 35) into law.

House Bill 35 will create the “Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal (ITAP)” requiring the Department of Central Management Services to create an online searchable web site with information regarding state expenditures, tax credits, state employee salaries, and state contracts.

AFP believes that taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent. Traditional budget publications are often inaccessible, incomplete and very difficult for ordinary taxpayers to understand. This opaque process creates a perception of bureaucrats funding unnecessary or even corrupt programs. It is incumbent upon government to make proper use of technology to provide transparency in government.

AFP believes that an online database, with technology familiar to most citizens can be used to create accountability and openness. Creating an on-line check register for the Grayslake School District 46 would bear little cost, and would allow spending information to be easily accessible to the public. This is a nonpartisan issue and follows common-sense principles of good government.

Our Founding Fathers believed that the source of America’s greatness was its people, not its government. This led Thomas Jefferson to state the following reflecting on government transparency:

“We might hope to see finances of the Union as clear and as intelligent as a merchant’s books, so that every member of Congress and every man of any mind in the Union should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently control them”

Jefferson’s statement rings true for every level of government, especially here in Illinois. I respectfully encourage the Grayslake School District 46 Board to embrace these concepts and provide your constituents with the open government our Founding Fathers intended.

I look forward to discussing this issue with the Grayslake School District 46 Board at future school board meetings. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact my office if you have any questions and/or concerns.

Sincerely,

Joe Calomino

State Director
Americans for Prosperity
200 S. Wacker, Suite 4000
Chicago, Illinois 606060
312-768-2373 – Office

joe.calomino@afphq.org
www.afpil.org

CC.
Ellen Correll
Keith E. Surroz
Karen L.Weinert
Susan Facklam
Ray Millington
Michael C Linder
Mary Garcia
Michael Carbone

I will continue to update you on the efforts and call for you help in letting the school board members know that we need transparency in their spending. The district is facing cuts of over $2 million dollars again this coming year and we need to know where all the money has gone. How much money was really spent on sending teachers/administrators to Disney World? What other trips have been taken and how much have they cost?

Here are a few past stories of district expenditures:

• D46 ADMIN PAY RAISES? – http://educationmatters.us/2009/05/04/d46-admin-pay-raises/
• GRAYSLAKE ELEMENTARY CUTS 29 JOBS – WHO’S TO BLAME – http://educationmatters.us/2009/03/26/grayslake-elementary-cuts-29-jobs-–-whos-to-blame/
• Grayslake school district employees going to Disney World – http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=334943
• Dist. 46 board says sending group to Disney money well spent – http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=336703
• Money tight? Let’s go to Disney World – http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=335303
• DISTRICT 46 PAID FOR AWARDS – http://educationmatters.us/2008/06/11/district-46-paid-for-awards/
• DISTRICT 46 SUPERINTENDENT ELLEN CORRELL DEFENDS PAYING FOR CONSULTANT WHO GAVE AWARDS – http://educationmatters.us/2008/06/12/district-46-superintendent-ellen-correll-defends-paying-for-consultant-who-gave-awards/

As I have explained many times before, the school district gets a raise every year that is 5% or CPI, whichever is less. So each December, schools and other taxing bodies levy as much as they can no matter what they actually budget to “maximize their revenue”. This is done whether the community can afford it or not. Watch the video at the Lake County website for more information on the Budget/tax levy cycle & assessment/tax bill process: http://lakecnty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=266.

The school is already using their typical pass the levy or the cuts will be more drastic. See the following note from another forum:

To see some how the Grayslake High School District 127 has been overtaxing us every year as well see:

• Case study in how school districts overtax
• D127 EXCEEDS AMOUNT APPROVED
• TAXING U AND ME INTO EXTINCTION WHY?
• GRAYSLAKE D127 APPROVES LEVY
• (UPDATED) GRAYSLAKE HIGH SCHOOL LEVY MEETING
• GRAYSLAKE 46 AND 127 OVER DEBT LIMIT

**Note: The forcast shows that D46 will need to make $2.5 million in cuts for the 2010-2011 school year. That number will be $3.5 million if the board votes against a Levy.

If the school district controlled their labor costs better, they would not be in this situation. I have suggestion to them the past 2 contract negotiations that they limit raises to CPI. This would control their labor costs and thus their budget properly.

Here is the board agenda for tonights meeting including contact information for the board members. Please contact them today if you are not going to be able to attend the meeting.

Special Meeting Agenda
Board of Education
Community Consolidated School District 46
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Middle School
7:00 P.M.

A. Call to Order
B. Roll Call
C. Establishment of Quorum
D. Pledge of Allegiance
E. Public Comment
F. Discussion Item:
1. Review of PMA forecasts – Brad
2. Continued discussion of Levy
G. Action Item:
1. Approval of Taxation Hearing Resolutions Items:
• Certificate of Tax Levy
• Resolution Regarding Amounts Necessary to be Levied for the Year 2009
• Certification of Resolution Regarding Amounts Necessary to be Levied for the Year 2009
• Resolution to Levy Certain Special Taxes for Special Education District IMRF Purposes
• Certification of Resolution to Levy Certain Special Taxes for Special Education District
IMRF Purposes
• Resolution to Levy Special Education Tax
• Certification of Resolution to Levy Special Education Tax
• Resolution to Levy Working Cash Tax
• Certification of Resolution to Levy Working Cash Tax
• Resolution Publication Truth and Taxation Notice
• Certification of Resolution Publication Truth and Taxation Notice
H. Adjourn
Thank you for attending the meeting of the Board of Education. You are reminded that these are meetings held
in public but are not public meetings. You are welcome to address the Board during “Public Comment.” You
are asked to limit your remarks to under four minutes. Guidelines for Public Comment are available at each
meeting along with the current agenda. Board members and/or administrators may be contacted to respond to
specific questions at:

Board Members Schools
Michael Carbone 223-3540 ext. 5648 District Office 223-3650
Sue Facklam 548-2930/223-3540 ext 5565 Avon School 223-3530
Mary Garcia 223-3540 ext 5691 Prairieview School 543-4230
Michael Linder 223-3540 ext 5692 Woodview School 223-3668
Ray Millington 223-3540 ext 5678 Meadowview School 223-3656
Keith Surroz 223-3540 ext 5679 Park School 201-7010
Karen Weinert 548-0436/223-3540 ext 5664 Frederick School 543-5300
Middle School 223-3680

The District web site address is www.d46.org

1). Many people in the community would like to become more involved with the School Board and the Schools in D46. Listed as one of the goals of the BOE, is reaching out more to the community. While presenting their SIP Reports, Administrators expressed a need for more parental involvement. Are the Board Members and Administrative staff aware that their demeanor, expressions, and tone, yield feelings of being “unwelcome” and “condescended to”? Would at least 1 Administrator and 1 BOE Member address this and help the Parents at the Forum understand how we can be more involved in discussions with the BOE along with the Administrators at their respective schools?

2). Would it be possible to review the policies currently in place for student conduct (and consequences) in the classroom, school-grounds, and buses? Would the Policy Committee consider meeting with members of the community and note their suggestions on policy modification?

3). There are reports that the Education Fund has a “surplus”, a “rainy day fund” if you will, of somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million dollars. What is the dollar amount in this fund? You have stated that some programs and personnel were eliminated due to low enrollment; what was the reason for not obtaining the balance of programs and personnel by utilizing a small portion of what is in the Education Fund?

4). With the State of Illinois in financial straits and D46 having $2.7 million dollars pending payment from the State, what provisions are being made should the monies not be provided as expected?

5). We submitted the idea of moving toward more paperless options from the schools. The response we received is that paperless options are being looked at.
Please expand on that: Is the technology in place? Has a cost analysis been done to see how much it would cost to put a system in place? How much money will the district save? Have you considered using 1 school or a small group of parents to test a system on? How can the community help this become a reality?

6). Have Band/Chorus fees been discussed further or decided on? If the BOE decides that fees for programs will be implemented, will it be in the ‘09/’10 year?

5). With 7 schools in our district, has any research been done on the impact of adding on to some current buildings and selling off other buildings to consolidate fees for property, building, teachers, staff, technology, etc.?

6). Are the Park Campus Buildings being used to capacity? If not, how much is not being used? Can you provide the approx. cost for maintaining the un-used portions? What are the plans for filling the buildings to capacity?

7). Will you please provide an explanation for purchasing 258 Laptop computers? Could the purchase have been made utilizing less sophisticated laptops, in an effort to reduce cost?
a). We were advised that the BOE Members, Administration, and Tech Dept. have agreed that Tech Hardware Expenses will be way down in the next years to come in order to keep the Ed Fund money to pay for teachers salaries. Are the new Board Members aware of this and can we rely on you to follow through on this “promise”?

8). Will you please explain why the district opted to obtain 38 SMART Boards (when many districts have 1 or none)?
a). Currently, only 5 District Personnel have been formally trained on the SMART Board; What are the Districts plans for further training of those who have not been formally trained?
b). Cost of this training?
c). What is the lifespan of a SMART Board?

9). Have the Administrative Salary increases been determined?
a). If yes: By what % per individual?
b). If no: When does the BOE foresee this decision being made?
c). Has the BOE considered tying salary increases to CPI with a cap?
d). What about Salary Freezes or Decreases?

10). Is the BOE aware at this time of any upcoming cuts that to be made? (Can the BOE give us any idea on items or areas that will be looked at in the event that more cuts need to be made from us getting less revenues than we have expenses?

11). Why were we caught so completely off guard with the CPI? The economy has been in a recession since late 2007; did the PMA projections in 2007 & 2008 show this?
a). What provisions are being made to make sure we are covered when our housing assessments start to decrease and revenue declines as a result?

12). Is the Staff Development Budget being reduced for ‘09/10?
a). What % of the projected budget is for travel?
b). Have reductions been made in this area for everyone from administrators, teachers, to non-certified staff? If not, will reductions be made in this area?
c). How much of the Staff Development budget is allocated for Blue Ribbon of Excellence, Inc.? How much of the Superintendent’s Professional Development Account is allocated for Blue Ribbon of Excellence, Inc.?
d). Will any administrator, teacher, or staff member (certified or not) be attending the National Conference in Dec. 2009 @ Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Orlando Florida?

13). What can the community do to help the Members of the Board? Superintendent? Administrative Staff? Schools?

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results Tuesday. They say that only 27 percent of the more than 600 candidates who took the test passed. The test was administered in March of this year.

The teacher’s licensing exam tested potential teachers on their knowledge of elementary school mathematics. This included geometry, statistics, and probability.

To learn more about everyday math read the following links:

• Illinois Loop Math Program Reviews
• Math Curriculum by Town (Grayslake District 46 uses everyday math)
• DANCE OF THE MATH LEMONS
• MATH VIDEOS
• NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF MATHEMATICS: TEACH THE BASICS
• SUCCESS: TEST SCORES NOT DROPPING
• EVERYDAY MATH

District 46 resident Shannon Smigielski said she and other parents want elected board members to host a proper forum so there can be give-and-take on major issues such as spending. Smigielski said the effort has been unsuccessful so far.

“We don’t want to have a ‘their side’ and ‘our side.’ We don’t want there to be such a great divide between the district board and us,” said Smigielski, who estimates she now has about 50 parents involved in an online group for District 46 issues.

District 46 Superintendent Ellen Correll said officials aren’t against having a board forum. Board members tabled discussion on the idea at a meeting Monday, but it may arise in June.

——————————————-
District 46 resident Sharon Hetz said spending and budget cuts would be areas she’d like to address in depth with the school board. Hetz also said she has questions about Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Awards given to two schools by a South Carolina education consultant hired by District 46.

More information on the Blue Ribbon awards the district paid for can be found at the following:

• GRAYSLAKE DIST. 46 PAYS FOR AWARDS
• DISTRICT 46 PAID FOR AWARDS
• DISTRICT 46 SUPERINTENDENT ELLEN CORRELL DEFENDS PAYING FOR CONSULTANT WHO GAVE AWARDS

• Avon
• Grayslake Middle School
• Meadowview
• Grayslake High School
• Illinois Schools

• Math Committees at Grayslake Elementary Schools
• How should District 46 communicate with the community?
  

  Grayslake Elementary District 46 board members Monday night discussed the pros and cons related to sending fliers and other written materials to parents. Some board members said the district can keep down costs by making available a majority of materials online, but concerns later arose about those who don’t have computer access. Board member Susan Facklam said while she has access to a computer, she prefers hard copies of District 46 communiqués. Board members also have been mulling the idea of sending a brochure to residents with District 46 information. Superintendent Ellen Correll presented the board with brochures from other suburban school districts. District 46 board members asked Correll to provide cost information about the other schools’ materials.

• District 46 looking to trim costs
  

  Grayslake Elementary District 46 is seeking ways to cut expenses because of a possible decrease in tax revenue.

  District 46 Superintendent Ellen Correll floated tentative ideas at a meeting Monday night, which included something as simple as eliminating color printing on copy machines to save $100,000 annually.
  

  ————————————————-
  Previous estimates have shown District 46 is on pace for a $2 million revenue shortfall in the 2009-10 academic year, which is why the spending cutbacks are being discussed.

  They are facing a deficit and yet gave teachers guaranteed raises for the next 3 years instead of tying raises to CPI. I have previously made suggestion on how to cut spending, like competitive bidding on utilities and healthcare instead of consortiums that may actually be costing them more than need be.

• Round Lake Beach grade school principal removed from job – The principal who was supposedly removed for performance issues is put in charge of setting up a financial system for the district when they already have problems paying teachers and staff the correct amount.
• Prairie Crossing Schools
  • Prairie Crossing Charter School studying teachers’ pay
    

    Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake is paying for a compensation study in the wake of reports its teachers are upset about not making enough money.
    

    —————————————
    “While those (Woodland and Fremont) districts have escalated teachers’ salaries by at least 5 percent each year over recent history, we have not,” Dagley wrote to Prairie Crossing’s board

    But Dagley said class sizes are larger at the Woodland and Fremont schools. He said Prairie Crossing also has classroom teacher assistants, a rarity at most public schools, and that he informs prospective employees about the school’s lower pay scale.

  • Lake Co. school board has reminder of breaking law for next 4 months
    

    An illegal closed-door discussion that Prairie Crossing Charter School board members had wanted to keep secret instead will remain quite public for the next four months.

    Board members at the Grayslake elementary school approved an agreement with the Lake County state’s attorney’s office to make public a transcript of the chatter that violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act on July 29.

    Prairie Crossing’s Web site will feature passages that violated the Open Meetings Act through April.

    Board members agreed in October to the Open Meetings Act violation deal with the state’s attorney’s office. It isn’t publicly known how the improper closed-door talk came to the attention of Lake County prosecutors.

News from schools around the country:

• Teacher allegedly seduces boy, 13
• Warren school expansion may include offices – They passed a referendum to expand school facilities and are now looking to use part of the money for administration facilities.
• Principal: Poor kids ‘kicked out’ to make room for rich
• Chicago Public Schools’ cappuccino bill: $67,000
• School official says strip-search ‘never justified’
• School district mum on candidates
• Detroit School Lacks Toilet Paper, Light Bulbs
• Fayette schools ask teachers to give back raise – This would have to be unanimous by all County Employees so this is just a public relations stunt.

I did ask several other questions that could not be answered. One was whether the contract offer from the district was actually 3.25% as stated in the Daily Herald (comment #124). This comment also stated the teachers union wanted 5.5%. Here is the relevant portions of the comment below.

Most of the teachers don’t want to go on strike. My mom is one of them. one reason is that the board is offering 3.25% raise a year for 3 years. While the union wants 5.5% a year for 3 years. The boards offer is very fair. The teachers want the boards offer, but the union doesn’t. Another reason is that they have many pregnant teachers at the school this year. When you go on strike your medical benefits are suspended. This is not good at all for someone who is expecting. Today they told the administration that they would be leaving at the contracted time of 3:20 instead of waiting around to monitor the halls to make sure your children didn’t get hurt or into fights. But the administration decided to release the kids 5 mins early. The union rep got on the speaker and told the teachers to leave as well.

If this comment is true, then the board has made a more than reasonable offer given our current economic times while the union and the teachers who voted in favor of the the intent strike are being unreasonable to the district and the taxpayers who pay their salaries.

The teachers deserve respect for their profession, but they also must respect the taxpayers. If they want to be fair to all, then the union and board would agree to tie the salary increases to CPI. This would allow the teachers to given a guaranteed raise each year, while virtually guaranteeing there would not be a need for an Education Fund referendum. This is because the schools already get an increase in tax revenue every year equal to the lesser of 5% or CPI.

As you can see from my previous article, that average TRS compensation has risen at a higher rate than CPI:

Here is some background information on the raises Grayslake District 46 teachers have received on average since 1999. This was calculated using the TRS compensation data from the Champion

1998/99-1999/00 - 6.89%
1999/00-2000/01 - 7.63%
2000/01-2001/02 - 7.41%
2001/02-2002/03 - 7.83%
2002/03-2003/04 - 8.17%
2003/04-2004/05 - 6.10%
2004/05-2005/06 - 6.95%
2005/06-2006/07 - 3.67%

*UPDATE: I inadvertently used the year of the data as the start of the school year instead of the end of the school year. Years above reflect this Fiscal Year change. This does not affect the average increase percentage in TRS Compensation

Methodology:

• Match on teacher name between years
• Only full time teachers included
• Averaged: (current year compensation – previous year compensation) / previous year compensation
• Issues: Teacher names changed sometimes in the yearly records. These were excluded for now. Only used exact matches.

From the Daily Herald:

A union statement read: “The district chose to ignore the federal mediator’s warning that it was not abiding to ‘generally accepted bargaining principles’ regarding the calculation of its salary schedules.”

————————————
The union contends the district has more than enough money in its education fund to grant the teachers pay increases. Since June 2005, the education fund balance has grown from $6.3 million to $10.5 million in June 2008, a union statement read.

“The raise these teachers are asking for is very fair and will not erode the surplus in the educational fund,” Mistry-Mujthaba said.

Linder said those fund balance numbers are inaccurate, though he did not know the actual amount of the surplus.

From the News-Sun:

In a union statement issued following Monday’s meeting, officials said “teachers overwhelmingly voted” for the strike authorization.

The statement added that “at the most recent mediation session on Oct. 22, talks broke down over the salary schedule when the district was unable to provide salary schedules (that) were accurately calculated.”

Here is some background information on the raises Grayslake District 46 teachers have received on average since 1999. This was calculated using the TRS compensation data from the Champion

1998/99-1999/00 - 6.89%
1999/00-2000/01 - 7.63%
2000/01-2001/02 - 7.41%
2001/02-2002/03 - 7.83%
2002/03-2003/04 - 8.17%
2003/04-2004/05 - 6.10%
2004/05-2005/06 - 6.95%
2005/06-2006/07 - 3.67%

*UPDATE: I inadvertently used the year of the data as the start of the school year instead of the end of the school year. Years above reflect this Fiscal Year change. This does not affect the average increase percentage in TRS Compensation

Methodology:

• Match on teacher name between years
• Only full time teachers included
• Averaged: (current year compensation – previous year compensation) / previous year compensation
• Issues: Teacher names changed sometimes in the yearly records. These were excluded for now. Only used exact matches.

An interesting note to this, during the 2003/04 – 2004/05, it has been claimed by some that teachers did not get a raise (See comments at original Daily Herald Story). It was then changed to “they kept the same salary schedule”. Either way, from the numbers above, the teachers were still getting very nice raises during that time. If you remember, this was the time when the district was cutting programs like music, art and gym among other things while crying poor to the public and trying to pass a referendum. When a new board was elected in spring 2005, they turned the district around financially without a referendum.

These are some of the benefits the 2005 – 2008 contract provides the teachers (More later):

• 16 days sicktime which can be accrued to a max of 200 days
• 7.5 hour workdays including lunch period
• Extra duty pay for working lunch

Related to teachers unions are the following past articles:

• Are Public School Teachers Underpaid?
• Force Political Contributions
• Teacher Raises Higher than Taxpayers
• Open Contract Negotiations?
• Greedy People or Greedy System
• Tyranny of The Minority
• Should Teachers Be Allowed to Strike?

They asked parents to volunteer to lead after-school programs in drawing, painting, handcrafts, dancing, sports, cheerleading and chess.

“Kids would be interested in after-school programs and it would keep their minds off gangs,” explained Marissa Juarez, 11. “It would keep them inside and safe.”

The fifth-graders also may have hit on just what they need to help them heal from the effects of urban violence.

The physical, social and artistic outlets kids urged are among the coping mechanisms experts recommend for those touched by violence. Similar activities are used with children in war-torn countries.

I will agree that kids need recess. My question is why did the kids themselves have to come up with a solution? Why didn’t the teachers and administrators come up with a solution to have recess? The answer is simple, teachers and administrators are constrained by teacher union contracts and the need to make it appear they are in need of more money to pay for these basic programs. They are part of a government monopoly that has no incentive to innovate. They can just sit back and cry poor anytime parents and other question them.

Our public government schools are setup to thwart accountability. They prove this day after day with stories of corruption, pay to play, exhorbitant pensions, extravagant perks, over taxation, no bid contracts, and over spending.

Remember everyone, when the schools start crying poor, it is just a game to get more money. very little of that additional money will actually be used to help education.

Negotiations will be continuing and a federal mediator will be helping with negotiaions starting Nov. 1.

I’ll have more information later this weekend or early next week.

If you don’t know what referendums are happening this year, visit the Local Ballot Measures on Ballotpedia. There are 15 referendums/advisory questions on the ballot in Lake County on November 4th. Get informed who is trying to raise your taxes.

Thanks to County Board Member Bob Powers for the following:

Deadline for Property Tax Appeals in Avon Township is: September 22,2008

Seven Easy Steps to Appeal an Assessment (For Residential)

1. Obtain the assessed valuation of your property.
2. Determine the fair market value for your property.
3. Discuss the assessment with your assessor.
4. Determine the basis for your formal appeal.
5. File a written appeal with your Board of Review.
6. Present evidence of unfair assessment to the Board of Review at the hearing.
7. Appeal the Board of Review’s decision to the Property Tax Appeal Board (in writing) in the event of an unsatisfactory decision by the Board of Review, or appeal directly to the Circuit Court.

Go to: Board of Review to download Residential Real Estate Assessment Appeal for Tax Year 2008 forms and Rules of the Lake County Board of Review. For more information regarding your taxes you can call Avon Township (847) 546-2146 or visit Chief County Assessment Office

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 public government school system. Now, if they’ll stop recommending support for so many referendums until their is total financial transparency and the end of pay-to-play politics within the system.

Ellen Correll, superintendent of District 46, said taxpayers won’t be out the money because nine teachers have either repaid or will return a combined $60,682 they shouldn’t have received.

At least some of the money will be recovered, but some will not.

Three classroom assistants are compensating District 46 by performing extra work under a union settlement agreement struck in May, Correll said.

This money won’t be recovered, it will just be worked off and not repaid.

Correll said complex recalculations of salaries after a new employee contract led to the errors. She said the mistakes weren’t obvious in the checks for most of the 13 workers involved, which made it difficult when she told them the money had to be repaid.

———————————–
In addition, she said, all teachers and assistants will receive a letter noting their exact pay when the new academic season starts. An accounting firm soon will be hired to perform a special audit.

Now we know why unions make the contracts so complex. It is to confuse and help allow teachers to make more money than they are supposed to make. How many school districts do not make the teachers repay the mistakes?

It will now cost the taxpayers more money to audit the process. Will these auditors be the same auditors the district uses for their curent yearly audits? If so, why didn’t those auditors find the discrepancy during last years audit?

Documents show the overpaid classroom assistant who resigned was on pace to collect $39,466 — double her $19,733 annual salary — until the error was caught in January. Correll said the employee in question “should have been professional” and alerted officials about the noticeable discrepancy.

Yes, that employee should have notified the district. No, a doubling of pay should have been caught by the current payroll staff. Are those staff members still employed at the district after this mistake? They should not be employed anymore.

Wilbois said the mistakes in the teachers’ checks were found in a review of District 46’s payroll in July 2007.

District 46 board President Michael Linder said that in a school system with about 350 employees, it was surprising to learn a second payroll gaffe was discovered in January.

Gaffe is not exactly the word I would use for this. The error was found last July, but then it happened again this school year and found in January. I would call it incompetence.

I have a couple more questions:

• Why wasn’t the procedures fixed after the problem last July?
• With a known problem, why wasn’t payroll checked after the first few payrolls of the new school year instead of waiting until January?
• Again, is the same payroll staff still working for the district?

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 test program.

In addition, another 14 of the devices are expected to come to District 46 with about $71,000 obtained through a state education grant.

————————
Manufactured by SMART Technologies, the board is a high-tech version of a blackboard connected to a computer. Board members received a firsthand look at the SMART device during a presentation by three principals May 19.

Some District 46 administrators reported becoming interested in the SMART boards after attending a conference last December in South Carolina sponsored by Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Inc. District 46 paid $22,192 to South Carolina-based Blue Ribbon to study its buildings and make recommendations.

Notice when the district became interested in these boards. They became interested in them at a conference where they were given Blue Ribbon Awards after they paid the company to review the schools. These awards essentially cost the district just over $40,000 and buying equipment recommended at the conference.

Lake County already has the highest property taxes in the Midwest, and yet these school districts want more and more money. There seems to be a never ending stream of taxing methods desired by the schools.

Let’s hope the police find the culprit soon and that this was just a practical joke.

To earn the trust of the voters they need to start levying only what they need. Then voters will be turst them and provide money when they really do need it. Until schools and other taxing bodies start levying only what they need and stop taking money just because they legally can, voters should reject all referendums. This inludes the 13 referendums that are in place for the February 5th election.

The Village of Grayslake just voted to raise their Levy by 9.5%. If you don’t like these increases go to the school boards meetings for District 46 schools on Monday night and District 127 schools on Thursday night and express your outrage at their practice of “maximizing their revenue” on the backs of the taxpayers.

There are many people complaining about how much there assessments have risen this year. They know this means their taxes will go up in the spring. I have heard many times that Lake County has the highest property taxes around. Well, that is true and it was recently confirmed by Forbes magazine in a report showing Lake County as having the highest property taxes in the Midwest.

Last week I attended the Citizens Action Project meeting help in Prairie Crossing. The meeting did not meet my expectations. The presentations on how to appeal your assessments were weakly presented. You can view their outline of the appeal process here or watch the video of the presentation. They were able to successfully highlight how different assessors do their jobs. This leads to multiple questions:

• Why do we have 18 elected township assessors?
• Why do we have townships at all?
• Why are there so many taxing bodies in Lake County and Illinois?
• Why do we need 892 school districts?

The group is trying to disconnect the assessment process from the tax process. This does nothing but direct blame at the wrong people. The Assessors DO NOT raise your taxes. They only raise your assessment. The taxing bodies raise your taxes. They get an increase each and every year. In fact if the assessor raises your assessment, but the taxing body does not increase their levy, your taxes would not increase. In fact, they may decline. You can view an explanation of how this works at the County Assessor website.

This leads to how the group really missed a great opportunity to tell the attendees why their taxes are going up so much. Your taxes are increasing so much because the taxing bodies are leving more and more each year. If you want your taxes to quit going up go to your levy hearings and speak out at their meetings and levy hearings. All taxing bodies in Lake County are having those hearings this month so they can give them to the County Tax Extension Office this month. Some bodies have already held their meetings.

Start by looking at your tax bill. Who gets the largest percentage of you tax money? This will be your local school districts. In Grayslake, the Levy Hearing for District 46 schools will be held at 7:30 pm on December 10th at Prairieview. District 127 does not have their agenda up, but their levy hearing will be December 13th, unless they call a special meeting for the day after Christmas like they did last year.

The Grayslake Elementary Distrct 46 School Board voted 4-3 tonight to return nearly six million, nine hundred thousand dollars to the taxpayers. Voting to return the amount that was in excess of what the voters approved in 1999 were Jill Rohrer, Kristen Coe-Peek, Sue Facklam and Mike Linder. Voting to keep the money against what the taxpayers approved were Mary Garcia, Karen Weinert and Mark Hannon.

To recap the year and a half long battle, in February 2006, the Daily Herald broke the news that District 46 had exceeded their debt limit by the use of Premium Bonds. Looking into this further by both myself and the school board it was discovered that the issuance of bonds from the 1999 bond authority exceeded the amount approved by voters by approximately $6.9 million dollars. Fast forwarding to October, 2006, the school board voted to abate the $6.9 million dollars over a two year period. In January of 2007, the board reversed course and voted to keep the money instead. For a detailed background on this story, you can review the links at the bottom of this article.

Tonight, was a good victory for the taxpayers, albeit a small one. Four school board members stood up for what was ethical instead of bowing to pressure from the education bureaucracy and continuing to use a legal loophole to keep unapproved taxpayer money.

Taxpayers will see their taxes lowered $12-$26 per year on a $200,000 home starting in 2008 and continuing until 2023. In 2024, they will receive just over $300 in savings. I will post the actual estimates once I receive the board packets. Even though the savings per year are small, a valuable principal was upheld and a school board listened to the taxpayers for once.

I would like to thank these four school board members for choosing ethics over money. I would also like to send a thanks to all of the taxpayers who emailed and called the school board members over this past year and a half to express your wishes that the board make the ethical choice.

I was able to recored the meeting tonight as well. I have not checked the quality of the recordings, except for the first 30 seconds or so. You may listen to them here (26 MB – 43 mins) and here (56MB – 1 hr 17 mins).

Detailed backgound:

• Bonds: Another School Money Scheme
• Grayslake 46 and 127 Over Debt Limit
• CCSD #46 BOE Meeting Notes 3/20/2006 – includes bond discussion
• Grayslake Taxpayers, Do You Want a Tax Break
• William Blair Bond Presentation
• How Much Did Your Taxes Go Up?
• Would You Like To Save Money On Your Property Taxes?
• CCSD #46 School Board Notes: 09/18/2006
• Grayslake School Board Chooses Ethics Over Money
• D46 School Board Chooses Money Instead of Ethics
• Daily Herald: Board Rejects Earlier Pledge
• Grayslake school district board votes against tax relief

It is a shame that a taxpayer has to continually FOIA these documents and provide them to public instead of the schools themselves. They continue to ask the taxpayers to provide money for education and yet they refuse to trust the taxpayer with information that would show how well they are spending the money we provide and how effective this money is utilized to increase student performance.

In addition to not trusting taxpayers, District 46 continues to overcharge for FOIA requests.

The offer of publishing notes stands for any Lake County school district, not just D46 or D127.

First there is Winthrop Harbor District 1. There fee structure is as follows:
* $0.35 for first 10 pages
* $0.25 for pages 11-25
* $0.10 for pages beyond 25

There is no reason for a different cost since the only things that can be charged are the actual costs of reproduction. Manpower of any kind cannot be charged. Needless to say, the State Attorney General agreed with me and sent this letter to the Winthrop Harbor School District.

Second, I questioned the cost in Grayslake District 46. When I started FOIAing documents 2 years ago, they charged 10 cents per copy. They have since raised their costs to 20 cents. When I questioned why they had raised the fee, I was ignored by being told, this is what we always have charged and no further research was going to be done. You can imagine my reaction. I immediately FOIAed the actual cost of copiers, paper and ink toners. I have received those and was also told there that there was manpower cost to find documents and to consult with attorneys on whether the documents were FOIAable.

I scanned in the copier cost and paper cost receipts. The toner costs is included with the copier. As you can see from these receipts the costs for reprooduction is as follows:

Again, the State’s Attorney General agreed with me that the district is overcharging for the copy of a FOIA request. Follow this link to the letter sent to the district. I have also emailed the new board asking them to correct this situation.

Other taxing bodies that I believe appear to overcharge for a FOIA:

These are still unofficial results with late arriving absentee and provisional ballots not counted. Also, write-in votes will be tabulated in the coming days so there are no results for them tonight either. You can check all results at the Lake County Clerk’s website. Below are a few excerpts for Grayslake schools and referendums. Unoffical winners are in bold.

Voter turnout was only 17.06 %

Two of the candidates have refused to contact me or return answers to my survey. In fact, at the candidate forum, mywife spoke to each of hose candidates. Ms. Ahmed said she would try to respond to them, but has not done so yet. Ms. Garcia would not answer the question. First, she stated she didn’t know who we were. When it was explained, she stated, “Thank you for coming tonight”, refusing to answer whether she would reply or not.

Flyers:

• Aaron Bernau Flyer
• Mike Linder Flyer
• Sue Facklam Flyer

Past Articles:

• Candidate Forum
• Candidate Responses
• Daily Herald Endorsements
• Candidates Debate Tax Rebate

The Daily Herald has published it Q&A with the candidates along with an article about the forum Monday night. You can find plenty of Q&A at the following links:

• Q&A: Grayslake Elementary District 46
• Dist. 46 hopefuls speak up at forum
• Candidates address District 46 challenges
• School Board Candidate Responses

Please take the time to read the above articles. It will lead you to the best candidates that will serve the children of this district and the taxpayers.

I am not endorsing candidates this election cycle, but I will tell you which candidates I like/don’t like and why.

• Mike Linder (Like)
  • Real world business experience
  • Retired so he has time to research and become knowledgable about many topics
  • Won’t be bullied
• Aaron Bernau (Like)
  • Financial/budgetary experience
  • Public service experience and transparency with community
  • New to schools distticts and has a lot to learn is main drawback, but can be overcome
• Sue Facklam (Like)
  • Financial experience within the district
  • Very good work ethic in researching issues most of the time
  • Could be more transparent with community however
• Nadia Shams-Ahmed (Don’t Like)
  • Too focused on helping the kids in here school instead of the entire district
  • Too willing to blindly follw the education establishment wishes and not the wishes of the community
• Mary Garcia (Don’t Like)
  • Teacher Union Vice President – Would you want a union rep helping to negotiate a contract for the board? Not me. It’s a complete conflict of interest.

UPDATE: Two candidates have now responded.

I do not hold out much hope of communication with the community after being elected if they will not communicate before elected.

To view the responses visit D46News.com.

In addition, candidate Nadia Shams-Ahmed has her own website. It appears she is running with Mary Garcia.

The PTO will be holding a candidate forum on April 9th. The details are below:

Location: Frederick School multi-purpose room
Time: 7:00-9:00 PM
Who is invited: The public

UPDATE: The following is how the forum will be handled according to PTO representative Laura Hobart.

Update: Comments are now on for this post. I changed some settings because of the spam I am receiving and forgot to turn them on for this post when I wrote it.

• D46 Communication with IEC
• IEC True Up Documents (Where I got the members list)
• D46 Waste Management Agreement (Again, no-bid)
• D127 Intergovernmental Agreement with the IEC

This is not the first no-bid contract discoved in D46. The last one was for cleaning supplies.

The long time readers of mine know that I believe school districts operate like mini-Enrons. If you don’t remember that story, refer back to August 2005 for The Enronification Of Big Ed.

The story that started it all (lawsuit in D211) is causing waves within the district and with the school board. A D211 residents blog is tracking the events well. They have posted the Superintendent trying to justisfy the IEC agreement, a school board member who contradicts the Superintendent’s story, how a reporter failed to ask the right questions, and how D211 employees are lobbying in Springfield on paid time to get legislators to make these no-bid contracts legal.

The bill to try and legalize no-bid contracts for utilities and to raise the forced bidding limit from $10,000 to $25,000 are House Bill 261 and Senate Bill 48. In an update, the D211 House Rep. Suzanne Bassi has withdrawn her name as chief cosponsor.

D211 School Board member, Bill Lloyd, has started a blog of his own. I wish more board members would do the same. We need more courageous board members who provide the public with an open insight into the districts. They are our representatives and not the flunkies for the school administration. Bill made some very good comments about the IEC contract. [Emphasis Mine]

As you can see, Bill has it right. He is trying to hold the line for the taxpayers while exposing the administators for they what they are, self serving bureaucrats. They wield a lot of influence, even over State Legislators.

Stand up people and be heard. Contact your school district to see if they have a no-bid contract with the IEC. Contact your legislator and tell them to oppose both House Bill 261 and Senate Bill 48. You can find your legislators contact information here and click the Legislator Lookup link near the bottom of the second column.

This story was also picked up by a national website today. The Sam Adams Alliance has the story up here .

Their quotes are below:

If you do not understand the issues surrounding these bonds read the following links:

• LTE: District 46 made the right call on taxes
• Grayslake school district board votes against tax relief
• Daily Herald: Board Rejects Earlier Pledge
• D46 School Board Chooses Money Instead of Ethics
• Grayslake School Board Chooses Ethics Over Money
• Would You Like To Save Money On Your Property Taxes?
• How Much Did Your Taxes Go Up?
• William Blair Bond Presentation
• D46 Bond Summary
• Grayslake Taxpayers, Do You Want a Tax Break
• Tax Abatement Talk Grows
• Grayslake 46 and 127 Over Debt Limit
• Bonds: Another School Money Scheme

All required subjects are taught. Reading, writing and arithmetic were never cut. These are the basics.

According to the data on the ISBE Report Card (2003-2004) over $21 million dollars went into the education fund. Dividing that by the number of students (3981) you end up with $5275 per student. Since the education fund is supposed to be used for educating the children, where was the additional $1675 per student spent if it wasn’t on the childrens’ education? The amount of money from the education fund that did not go to educate the children was $6,668,175. Why was nearly one-third of the education fund money not spent on the instruction of the children?

Now Mr. Hill wants to confuse everyone. In 1999, voters did not approve a rate increase, they approved a set dollar amount for bonds to build Frederick and Prairieview or buy new land. See the question from the Lake County Clerk’s website:

As you can see, Mr. Hill’s argument above about the tax rate is factually untrue.

Mr. Hill failed to mention that when the Daily Herald pointed this out as common practice, they were pointing out the fact that this practice costs the taxpayers much more than they anticipated and allowed district to exceed their debt limit. The Daily Herald also pointed out this practice has been restricted or banned in several other states. In the most recent article, the Daily Herald said the money should have been given back to the taxpayers.

Mr. Hill is trying to set up a straw man argument here. The comparison he gives is meaningless. The school district exceeded its debt limit through the use of premium bonds. They costs the taxpayers much more than a normal loan. This practice of premium bonds is not about saving money as in Mr. Hills argument, but the taking of money from the taxpayer. This practice is legal, yes, but it should be banned. It is unethical.

Mr. Hill seems to want to blame others for finding out about the unethical practice of this bond issuance. If so, then he should blame the Daily Herald. After all, they broke the story about this onerous practice allowed in our State and practiced in our district.

It also appears Mr. Hill believes the taxpayers do not have a right to speak out against this practice. Myself and others will continue to speak out if our school district uses unethical practices to take money we never willingly approved.

Mr. Hill, your focus should be on holding the district accountable for making sure that your child and every other child in this district receives a great education while not ripping off the taxpayer. How about starting by making sure the Math and Language curricula are scientifically proven to work. Follow this link for an excellent video on what is wrong with Everyday Math. You can find more information here on both everyday math and whole language.

Keith Surroz was not present.

Public Comment

• Beth
  • Wants band and choir restored
  • Employment aids stability
  • Opens door for those of lower socioeconomic status
• Carol
  • Restore band and chorus to what it was 3 years ago
  • D127 has a fine arts requirement
  • Limiting now because of cost
  • Restore for all
• Maria
  • Restore band and chorus
• [I decided not to speak at the meeting and to share my thoughts here instead.
  • The cost being paid by parents is less than parents pay at some local private schools.
  • Band and chorus were cut by the previous board as a tactic to intimidate parents to vote for a referendum. This board restored band and chorus as an extracurricular activity at a reasonable cost.
  • Band and chorus are not for every student. The cost to restore this will cost over $200,000 that could be spent to help all students instead of a small percentage of them.
  • Band instruments do not have to rented, they can be purchased via ebay, local music stores and other parents selling used instruments. Personally, I have bought my kids instruments at greatly reduced prices (10%, 32%, 20%) using these techniques.
  • To help those who do need financial assistance, start a music boosters club. The high school boosters are willing to help start this.

  ]

Superintendent/Board Reports

• Jill Rohrer
  • Attended the assembly at the Middle School
  • Appreciates music
  • Supports the arts
• Sue Facklam
  • Wished everyone a Happy New Year
• Mark Hannon
  • Nothing at this time
• Karen Wienert
  • Nothing at this time
• Cheryl Davis
  • Attended the assembly at the Middle School
  • Neat to see school spirit
  • Impressed with the student behavior
• Superintendent Correll
  • Showed off calendar with pictures by students at Frederick and Middle schools
  • Correction to the Daily Herald article about the bonds. Said the comment about board not following procedures was incorrect. Stated there were other incorrect statements as well and was taking those up with the paper. [I had already pointed out some corrections to the article here.]
  • Need decision about class size in February so administration could figure our staffing
  • Publicly thanked Kristen for calling the board about school furniture. John Lubrich had already visited and was taking a truck to pick up furniture soon. [This is being donated from the old Brainerd school.]
  • 83 Showdown will be Feb. 6
  • Union fee negotiations next year [I am not sure exactly what this is. If you know, please contact me with the explanation.]
• Kristen Coe-Peek
  • Thanked Shawn Oakley for contacting her with the donation of the furniture.

New Business

• Carl Baxmeyer Presentation
  • Geocoded all the addresses they could; problems with spellings, etc. [They could have gotten the remainder of the address geocoded by utilizing the GIS department of Lake County]
  • Discussed several options about who would attend Madrona [This has been FOIA'ed.]
  
  

  Option	Go to Madrona	Stay in Current School	From Area
  1	619	686	1
  2	640	665	1, 2
  3	879	426	1, 2, 4
  4	937	368	1, 3
  5	751	554	1, 2 (K-4) 1,2,4 (5-8)

  • Option 5 provides the most relief in 5-8 and least impact
  • Jill – Can this be put on the website so the community can see this? Without it they don’t have any input.
  • Sue – No
  • Cheryl – No
  • [Why won't the district put this information on their website? Why don't they want input from the public? If the district is only going to look at the Prairieview area, this is a pretty simple task. This could be easily done in Excel. The software being used by Fanning & Howey is overkill and cumbersome for this task it appears.]
• Technology Report (View the presentation)
  • [These are some of the comments made that were not in the presentation]
  • Utlrakey is used starting at third grade
  • Had to restart all database entry on August 21st. Powerschool database was corrupt and could not be recovered. [Why was there no backup? Why was it setup this way? A backup is one of the first tasks that should be setup. Was anyone held accountable for this failure?]
  • 838 computers installed and functioning; network more stable because of the OSX upgrade
  • Did a live video chat with Lori Abrahams
  • Students creating Podcasts [Might be cool for the students, but is the helpful for them in learning the basic education subjects to prepare them for later life? I would venture to say that none of these kids will ever be able to make a living off of making podcasts.]
  • Rob Depke
    • Has a masters in Library Science
    • Had a budget this year for the first time in 3 years [So the board is putting more money back into the schools without the need of the last referendum. The library is also something that affects all students in the school and should be a higher priority than paying for band and choir.]
    • Need to purchase library automation software for Madrona
  • Introduced Superintendent Correll’s blog
  • District website now has a page for each school and a Community Partners page
  • Jill – Thanked the Tech Committee, Dan and Ellen

• Band/Choir Discussion
  • Ellen – Take 3.5 – 4 FTE to bring back band and chorus (65 K per FTE)[$227,500 - $260,000]
  • Jill – If added back, what will happen with Science Olympiad and sports?
  • Ellen – Nothing since High School does not require credits for those.
  • Jill
    • Maybe have 5-6 pay as you go, 7-8 by the district
    • High School may be fee based
    • Other districts make extracurriculas pay as you go
    • Not opposed, but it doesn’t affect all 4000 students
    • PMA coming in Feb., need to get questions to Dan about this
    • Need to make sure budget would be balanced for the next 2 years
  • Ellen – Will get info
  • Sue – Important to bring back, but concerned that it won’t be able to sustain with sustainable revenue and not interest
  • Jill – North pays subsidy to Central for woodworking, what about something similar
  • Ellen – Looking at sports, it is cost prohibitive; Madrona will be in a different league
  • Ellen – Madrona principal interviews on Friday and hoepfully on agenda for first or second Feb. meeting
  • Cheryl – PMA discussion at next meeting

• Architect Results/Choice Discussion
  • Arcon #1
  • Ruck Pate, Fanning and Howey, Gil-Cohen were even
  • Cheryl – “Is everybody okay with that?” [Her tone was dismay at the results and not at all what she expected]
  • Jill – Comfortable with Arcon
  • Jill and Sue – wanted to keep private concerns expressed only to the board and not in public
  • Cheryl – Action item at the next meeting

• Naming of New School Choices
  • Choices were Skyview, Parkview, Springline, Campbell, Park East & West (Suggested before the meeting by Amanda Schoenberg, Prairieview Principal)
  • Cheryl – Parkview
  • Sue – Campbell, Park East & West
  • Karen – Skyview, Campbell, Park East & West
  • Mark – Parkview, Park East & West; worried about zipcode and school name
  • Kristen – Skyview, Campbell, Park East & West
  • Jill – Skyview, Campbell, Park East & West

• Curriculum Update – Lynn Barkley
  • Gave Language Arts pilot update; going well
  • District Report Card will be in paper in February
  • Still shoing warning becuase of second year, but all schools passed
  • Science and Math rollout in Feb.; will be available to the public
  • Jill – How will you get meaningful answers and information from parents about pilot?
  • Ask generic questions only; will get the board the survey [How does asking generic questions of parents with students in the pilot get useful information back on the pilot's performance. If there is not true scientific study results, the pilot is nothing more than a feel good way of pushing a progrm into the district whether it works or not.]
  • Kristen – What happens if there is negative feedback?
  • Only gotten 1 negative comment so far
  • If all came back bad, they would change
  • Most k-4 programs are very similar, so the final choice may come down to cost [If they are only looking at curricula that is similar, how can they make an informed decision. There are alternative curricula out there that has been scientific tested. Visit the Illinois Loop for more information on the types of curricula available.]

• Class Size Discussion
  • Ellen – Recommendations in the board packet
  • Kristen – Most efficient to put this into the PMA discussion
  • Sue – Make sure classroom space to accomodate the size; will we add a section if the numbers come out to a fraction?
  • Jill – Contract has a range (In memorandum of understanding)
  • Ellen – K-2 (22)
  • Kristen – Can PMA do scenarios (Ellen – yes)
  • Mark – Should we have a PMA meeting only? (Sue agreed)
  • Ellen – Workshop; need to decide on issues sooner than last meeting in Feb.
  • Sue – Option 2 (Cheryl) – Have PMA on Feb 5th and action on 12th
  • Ellen – Will try to get PMA soomer if possible [PMA meeting held 1/25/2007]

• Board Packet Discussion
  • Karen – Likes hardcCopy
  • Cheryl – Likes hard copy, want to take notes on it
  • Sue – she prints some already – Action, New Business
  • Kristen & Jill – like electronic format
  • Jill – Keep electronic format, order copies to be printed if needed
  • Mark – fine the way it is
  • Jill – Discuss sharing board packets with the the public (future agenda item)
  • [I sent a letter to Superintendent Correll requesting the board look at the current board policy and allow the public to see the board packets before the meetings. This was last October and I did not receive a response. I sent a copy of the letter and a new request to the entire board this time. Again, I reiterated my offer to give them my script to link the board packets on their website. I still have not received an official response about my free script offer. The future agenda item is the only action to this point. I am amazed sometime by the lack of transparency. Until such time as the board wants to be transparent, I will keep provinding the board packets at D46News.com.]

• Enrollment
  • + 135 since last year

• Agenda Items
  • Band & Chorus
  • Architect
  • Gifted
  • PMA
  • Action – Scoll Board policy (Sue & Jill would like to see the changes made to review)
  • Boundaries
  • Classroom Size

• Future Agenda
  • Vision
  • Board Packets for Public
  • Board Minutes [The current minutes are not indepth. The tape quality is never good. All of this seems to be on purpose to keep information down and to allow backtracking later. It is a shame that community members provide better notes to the public than the public bodies themselves.]

• Public Comment
  • Ursula A
    • Encouraged lower class size above K-2
    • Look at studies to see impact if size drops from 34 to 27 [I have asked for a copy of these studies]
  • Mike L – What is the cost benefit analysis of the technology program

[Emphasis Mine]

It is clear to everyone that the money the district has received exceeded both its debt limit and what the voters approved. Some try to justify keeping the money, but it is unethical and proves to the voters that the school district cannot be trusted to do the right thing with taxpayer money.

A plan was already being looked at to see if it was feasible to add onto Frederick for a Pre-K. I’m sure the district will come up with another plan to try and justify keeping the money unless the taxpayers take a stand and contact the board members. The district has recommended keeping this money in at least 2 board meetings I have attended.

The question is not whether there is a plan for the money. The question is whether it is ethical for the district to keep the money knowing that they have exceeded the approval of the voters. In October they said it was unethical. In January they are saying it is not. Moral relativism is not a good trait in school board members.

[Emphasis Mine]

It is time to elect a new school board; one that will be honest, ethical and responsive to the taxpayers instead of blindly doing what the school district wants. You can read more details about the bond issue here and about how to run for the school board here. Please consider joining other fiscally responsible citiziens who care about education and the taxpayers instead of the public government school bureaucracy.

Here are some excerpts with my comments and corrections:

An abatement or defeasement is not an actual rebate. Each would just lower the tax rate. The district would not be sending taxpayers a check.

The procedure mentioned was really the fact that the abatement had to be in the form of a resolution rather than a motion. As I stated before this is another example of laws put in place to thwart the will of the public by slowing down the process and buying more time for the school bureaucracy to find a way to reverse the decision as happened in this case.

For those of you who continue to claim the board did everything right, the Daily Herald does not agree with you. They too, understand that district taking more taxpayer money than is allowed.

A friend of this blog stated when this comment was made, “Keith just ran an illegal referendum and is stealing taxpayer money.”

I have to agree given the fact that the intention of this statement is to have the district continue to move the interest earned from this money into the education fund. The district will now be spending artificial revenue that will go away in the next few years. They cannot keep this money indefinitely. My understanding is that without a need these bonds should never have been issued and cannot be kept for more than 3 or 4 more years without a project.

Keith and the other 3 board members who voted to keep this unethically gotten money are causing more harm to the district than good. They are telling the voters “don’t trust us with your money. We will take every chance we get to take more from you because we are entitled to do so.”

These board members wonder why it is so hard to pass a referendum. It is their own actions like this that continually cause voters to mistrust them. The taxpayers are not an open wallet. They are not a never ending money stream. Stop stealing form the taxpayers and control your spending. Then, over time you will build trust with the voters again so they know when you really need money.

Frist, the board was not voting to abate the premium portion of the bonds. The premiums had been previously received by the district during the building of the Frederick and Prairieview schools. The money the board was voting on was the amount issued above and beyond voter approval once the previous premiums were added into actual bonds amounts previously issued.

Second, there was only a vote to defease the bonds. There was never a vote taken on Wednesday to abate the bonds.

For a more complete rundown of this bond issue read my post here.

I asked Superintendent Correll a few questions about why she started a blog. Below are the questions and answers:

• Why did you start the blog?



I started the blog to help allow me to communicate with the community and stakeholders on a regular basis without waiting for a printed message to be distributed and of course, be able to do it right from my desk.

• How often will you be updating it?



I will be updating and revising as needed – hopefully once weekly

• Will you be allowing comments?



We are exploring the comment part. We do have someone monitoring the comments at this point.

• What types of information do you plan on sharing?



I want to be able to share student, parent, building and community happenings. For example, what might be happening in a particular building, what is going on with curriculum, etc.

In October, Jill Rohrer, Kristen Coe-Peek, Sue Facklam and Keith Surroz voted yes to abate these bonds over a two year period. This would have brought about $568 in tax relief to the owner of a $200,000 home. These 4 members had chosen to do what was ethical in giving back the amount of money that exceeded voter approval. However, it was discovered after the meeting that a motion was not sufficient to abate the bonds and a resolution had to be introduced to accomplish this. This was just another legal loophole to allow the district to convince board members that they needed the money and to circumvent the will of the voters.

Now it is January and instead of abating the bonds as originally approved, the resolution was made to defease (explained toward the bottom of this article) the bonds instead of the standard abatement. Elizabeth Hennessey made a presentation to the board members explaining the differences between defeasement and abatement (Copy has been FOIA’ed). The discussion between the board members came down to the tax relief the voters would receive. Defeasing the bonds would bring relief of less than $30 per year until the final year, 2024 where relief of $213 would be given.

When the resolution to defease the $6.9 million dollars in bonds was voted upon, it was 4-3 against defeasing the bonds. Rohrer, Coe-Peek, and Facklam had again voted to pay off the issued bond amount that exceeded voter approval. Cheryl Davis, Karen Weinert, and Mark Hannon voted against paying off this debt just as they had before.

Keith Surroz became the swing vote. Keith had made statements in October that he was voting to abate the bonds because it was unethical to keep more than what the voters approved. With defeasement being the option, Keith felt there was not enough tax relief for the taxpayer. He also believed the interests being earned from the bond money could help restore programs. His vote this time around was to keep the money. This means the district keeps the money that exceeds voter approval. They get to continue to earn interest on this money and the taxpayer sees no tax relief whatsoever.

If Keith feels there should be more tax relief, he should introduce a resolution that would abate the bonds over 2 years. This was how he voted in October. If Keith does not, then one of the other 3 board members, who know this issuance is unethical, should introduce this resolution. This must be done soon, since it was stated that an abatement decision must be made before March 1^st if there is to be any tax relief in this years (2006) tax bills.

Some will try and confuse you by saying issuing and keeping these bonds is legal and therefore it is ethical. Yes, this is “legal” via a loophole that several other states have banned. Just because it is legal though, does mean it is ethical. Borrowing more that voters approve is unethical. It is also unethical to exceeded their debt limit as they have done. How this was done is explained by the Daily Herald. [Emphasis mine]

Every time voters turn around there are more and more “legal” loopholes for taxing bodies like schools to use to legally take more money than the voters approved. If the loopholes aren’t present, there are barriers and accounting practices that obfuscate the data in such ways that the average taxpayer does not have the time to figure out what the accurate financial status truly is. Thank goodness in our district that we have people that are not average taxpayers and cannot have the wool pulled over their eyes. Unfortunately, it is still hard to get all the data for them to review.

Once again, the public government school system thwarts the will of the public. The voters have spoken by defeating referendums and calling/emailing school board members to be fiscally responsible. Yet, board members like Karen Weinert and Mark Hannan, who were elected 2 years ago for these very reasons, refuse to vote the will of the public and support the school system’s sense of entitlement and use of “legal” loopholes to legally take taxpayer money for their use without voter approval.

Residents of District 46 should be outraged by the actions and inactions of individual school board members. This should prove to you once and for all that the public government school system is setup to make it difficult to stop their entitlements. The only way to stop them is to keep an ever watchful eye on them. You can do this by running for the school board yourself, reviewing documents from the district, or by volunteering to help me and others by attending board meetings; taking notes; distributing flyers to others; contacting board members and State Legislators; asking for board packets; asking for total transparency; asking for accurate board minutes on their website; learn the views of board candidates and elect those who are fiscally responsible and want total transparency.

You can contact each board member to voice your views on this matter individually with the numbers below or email the entire board at once.

Continue reading if you want a refresher on these bonds and the defeasement option.

Bond Refresher, taken from previous post:

Source for above chart is the bond presentation made by Elizabeth Hennessey of William Blair & Company. This presentation was given to the school board at their March 20^th meeting. Specifically, they came from:

¹ Page 6
² Bond used total ( page 6 ) + premiums received and spent on bonds ( page 8 )
³ Bond authority approved by voters ( page 8 ) – total spent ^2
4 Page 6
⁵ Bond authority approved by voters ( page 8 ) + Bonds issued 11/03/05 ( page 8 )

This chart provides a better summary of the amounts explained above:

When you review the presentation you will see a claim that they really only exceeded authority by just over $4 million dollars. This is because they are adding in the savings from previous bond authorities. The law states a bond authority cannot be used once bonds have been issued on new bond authority. This means that any bond authority before the 1999 should not be included in this discussion on how much money is available in the 1999 issue just made last year.

Defeasement:

The basics of defeasement is that the district places the amount of the principal plus malfeasance issuance fees into an escrow account that cannot be touch by the district. The escrow money then earns interest and this interest is used to pay back the bonds in 2024. The principal and interest is removed from the district debt schedule effectively lowering it by almost $13 million dollars. The levy reduction each year is only a few cents until the final year.

Comparison (These are close but not exact until I get the FOIA’ed document):

The above comparison leads me to some obvious questions:

1. Since the district must pay back about $4.8 million dollars in interest by abating now, why was this not disclosed before the bonds were issued? If it was, why was this not disclosed to the public?
2. Since the William Blair Company did not discover and/or disclose the previous issuance of Premium Bonds against the 1999 bond authority, are there legal steps the district can take to recover the issuance fees and interest cost because of their negligence in doing their job?
3. Since the defeasance option did not pass, will the board press for another vote on the abatement of bonds over 2 years as the previously approved motion? If so, when will the take place? The deadline is March 1^st for any tax relief this year.
4. Will the board press for a vote on a longer term abatement plan of bonds over 8 or 10 years? If so, when will the take place? The deadline is March 1^st for any tax relief this year.
5. Why was the third option was not explored as outlined in the March 20^th, 2006 William Blair Presentation

in which abatement takes place annually providing a benefit to all taxpayers who will pay for these bonds?

The actions of the board as a whole is very disappointing in this matter. They are blowing a real opportunity to earn some trust with the voters and are failing miserably. Yet, there are some members that still remember why they were elected, even though I feel they make too many compromises.

This issue in particular is troubling because members of the public believed the abatement had already taken place. They will now be suprised that no abatement is taking place and will be left with a feeling that their phone calls and emails in October were wasted. There will be more mistrust due to this inaction because they had already been informed about tax relief coming this year. The board members did not keep the public informed that the direction had changed slightly. They left us in the dark when they could have used our help if they had trusted us more. The public got the details of this action change the same night of the vote no opportunity to comment or give their opinion. Without an understanding beforehand that this was taking place in this manner, the public was left out of the process and without a voice.

The district and board want our trust and yet they continue to prove they are unworthy of it. Trust is earned it is not given just because of your position.

Why do we need to think about them when they are so far away?

Are any of the current school board members intending to run again?

Who else is running?

Why should I run, the current board is doing a good job?

What do I need to do to run?

For your information, D46 asks for your name and phone number which they claim is optional but wanted by the County Clerk. The County Clerk does not need this information until you have filled out your paperwork and turned in between January 19th and February 5th.

D127 asked for my name and wanted to setup an appointment to have breakfast with Superintendent Finger. It was stated she wanted to meet and talk to all potential candidates. Again, this is not necessary, but you may do so if you wish.

I know that a commitment to run for the school board and server your community is a major undertaking. Many of you are tempted to sit back and say someone else will run. Many will say I am only 1 person, what can I do? Others say I don’t have the time, but then you find the time to fight a referendum when it arrives. Others say, I am tired and my kids no longer attend those schools, but I say to you, you still pay the taxes to those schools.

It has been very clear this past 2 years that many things happen throughout the year that affect spending and your personal property taxes. If you don’t stand up and make the few hours a week now, then you will be faced with many hours of work later fighting multiple referendums.

Will Rogers once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” I say to you fiscally responsible district residents, we are on the right track, but we will get run over next year if we do not take the majority in D127 and keep the majority in D46. Start moving and stop sitting on the tracks.

Feel free to contact me for further information. I am happy to be the public face for you at this time. You just have to ready in February and beyond.

Jill Rohrer pointed out many discrepancies/inaccuracies in the numbers provided in the previous facilities discussions. Jill, Kristen and Sue wanted more answers and felt the needs of Frederick and the Middle School were being neglected in the discussion.

Other board members thought there was enough information to continue and that the questions could be answered as the process progressed. Keith stated, “The board cannot break ground without board approval.”

The vote to approve moving forward with drawing up plans for both additions was approved 4-3.

The first motion made about the bonds was to abate the entire $8.1 million over 2 years. This motion was defeated 4-3.

Keith Surroz then offered a compromise motion to abate the $6.9 million that exceeded voter approval and to keep the $1.2 million that was legally authorized by the voters.

The discussion became very lively with board member Mark Hannan trying to delay the vote on the grounds that this was a new motion and it was unfair to make a snap decision.

Other board members stated that this information has not changed and has been presented multiple times. Every number was known and had been for months. The vote was finally forced due to the fact that the Woodview/Avon addition votes had been forced earlier without delay and without accurate information.

It became very apparent during the vote that the taxpayers in the district had expressed their wishes to the board to not be overtaxed. The board realized that they were making an ethical decision and approved the motion 4-3 to abate the $6.9 million over 2 years.

For the owner of a $200,000 home this will mean a saving of approximately $361 on your 2006 taxes and approximately $206 on your 2007 taxes. (Estimates from Facilities Discussion 9/18/2006)

I’ll get my board notes typed up later this week and posted at d46news.com.

The Daily Herald news will have to be added manually for now. They are planning an RSS feed and will notify me when it is ready.

Please send me any suggestions you have for either site. If you attend board meetings notes or have any documents from the district you would like placed online, please contact me and I will get them posted.

There is a Daily Herald article about the board meeting as well. It talks more about the budget.

You can contact each board member separately if you wish or email the entire board at once.

Carl, thanks for copying the notes over to D46.info. The more people that read these the better. Thanks again for helping me out.

There is also a youth group holding a Bible Study each Tuesday morning at Grayslake Central at 6:45-7:15 a.m. in Rm. 2360. All students are welcome to attend.

If any of my readers know of other local schools holding the event please let me know.

Here is a picture of the Madrona School Site via Mayor Bill Gentes’ blog. Click on the picture for a larger view.

I have rearranged the snippets to make it easier to discuss.

If this committee follows the path of the rest of the district committee’s there will not be any community involvement except at meetings. See the discussion under Committee Format in the school board meeting notes from March 6, 2006.

The district won’t be able to build the addition to get Madrona to the 1400 students if the comments at the last board meeting are any indication. It appears there are cost overruns happening and there won’t be enough money left at the end of the 1000 seat build.

If you read this carefully, the district is already setting the stage to try and justify another referendum. I don’t believe they will attempt this before Madrona opens, but will probably do so within a year, 2 at the most, of Madrona opening.

This is why district residents have to work and hold school board accountable. If we are not diligent, then districts don’t feel any pressure to hold a line on expenditures. This has happened in the past and it will continue to happen to every school district that does not have a vigilant group of parents and taxpayers holding the district accountable.

This is a very important discussion. This discussion will lead directly to whether the district will pay for this expansion with the money they received for overtaxing us and going over the debt limit.

There was a request to look at the Woodview mobiles at the June 12th meeting. A more detailed discussion took place at the July 10th meeting.

Below is the board agenda. There are several items of interest to me.

A discussion on the affects to the school district facilities was held at the 06/12/2006 and 7/10/2006 school board meetings. The numbers have been scaled back from what was reported in those discussions.

I will not be attending the Board Meeting next Monday. If anyone does nad takes notes, please send them to me and I will get them published.

• Continuation of Property Tax Abatement Discussion
  This was discussed at the last board meeting. I never was able to get a copy of the presentation that was given.
• Approval of Superintendent’s Contract
  I am not sure what this is about. I am assuming there have been changes or additions.
• Approval of Final Draft of Certified Contract Tentative Agreement
  Finally after 7 months, the taxpayers will finally get to see a copy of the approved contract. It is ridiculous that it takes this long before the public can see what the board approved last December.
• Approval of Increase for Administrators
  This was done late this past year, but was retroactive. The last increase was 4%. I would expect this to be in the same neighborhood.

The item that was left off was a continuation of the bond discussion that took place last meeting. This was originally to be a two part discussion since it was known prior that several board members would not be in attendance at that meeting.

This is the second year that a D46 administrator has won. Last year, Jeff Knapp won the Assistant Principal of the Year award for his work at Grayslake Middle School.

If you don’t know who the Illinois Principals Association is, this excerpt from their website will help.

Now we need to get the rest of the villages to start collecting these fees and raising impact fees so new residents pay for their own education instead of everyone paying for it when a new referendum is passed.

This should also help the Grayslake schools with the new developments planned along Rollins Road. These were discussed at the 6/12/2006 school board meeting when they were attempting to use this as an example of why they needed to keep more of our money than we approved.

I would like to know how they arrived at the $10,000 figure. Did the schools have input into this? If not, I am also positive that most schools will claim this is not nearly enough money.

A. Call to Order – 7:00 p.m.
B. Roll Call

• Kristen Absent

C. Establishment of Quorum
D. Public Comment

• Cheryl
  • Wished Jill and Karen Happy Birthday
  • Jill’s birthday was earlier this month
  • Karen’s birthday is tomorrow

E. Action Item

• Technology Committee Recommendation [Costs and specifics of purchasing PowerSchool were discussed at the last board meeting.]
  • Jill’s questions
    • Is this within the budget parameters? Ellen, yes; this will be taken from the interest transfered from other funds and will not affect the budget.
    • With Madrona opening and expenses increasing, will this affect that in any way? Ellen – No, Madrona will open with a balanced budget
  • Approved (6-0)

• Memories of Lakeview School
  
  

  Lakeview School, which was built in 1951 is now Westlake Christian Academy. That change was readily apparent Thursday as the Lakeview School letters were removed from the school and presented to the Grayslake Municipal Historical Museum…

• Repairs considered for mobile classrooms
  
  

  When Nadia Ahmed, a reading specialist team volunteer at Woodview Elementary School, sees the four mobile classrooms at the school, she can’t help but think about safety…

• Dennis Eash Dedication Pictures

  

• Library dedicated to longtime director
  
  

  John Lubrich walked around the Prairieview Elementary School library, marveling at the work of his predecessor, Dennis Eash. While Eash didn’t personally build the library, he was integral in its child-friendly design. Eash served as the district’s facilities director. “This really was his pride and joy, the reading room,” Lubrich said, leading a group of people into the half-circle room with graduated, bench-style seating. A colorful prairie mural, dubbed “A Prairie View,” is painted on the wall inside the room.

• Prairieview Library Dedicated
  
  

  Dennis Eash’s painstaking attention to detail can be seen clearly in the library at Prairieview School in Hainesville. Every aspect from the colorful carpet to the reading room’s finely tuned acoustics can be traced to Eash’s well-trained eye.

• Guest readers share joy of books
  
  

  Ted Mueller stood inside the Prairieview School library, anxious to share a new book with a room full of children. Mueller, mayor of Hainesville, visits the school each year for “Guest Reader Day.” His goal every year is to find a unique book that the library doesn’t have and, after reading the book to students, donate the book to the library.

• Board Notes 06/12/2006

UPDATE: I have corrected some errors sent to me by others in attendance.

A. Call to Order – Immediately following 6:30 p.m. Dedication

B. Roll Call

• Mark and Jill absent

C. Establishment of Quorum

D. Pledge of Allegiance

E. Approval of Agenda

• Approved after adding Database Technology Update

F. Public Comment

• Parent spoke about volunteering to help traffic issues
• Another parent would like plan about replacing mobiles at Woodview

G. Consent Agenda

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Approval of Accounts Payable
3. Approval of Personnel Report
• Approved

H. Superintendent/Board Report

• Ellen – School ended last week, summer school started today

I. New Business:

1. Discussion Items
   A. Gifted Committee Update
   • Board previously approved up to $25 K
   • Decided on Otis Lennon
   • Presented 2 options for upcoming school year
     1. Option 1
        • Fall testing – baseline
        • verify costs and materials
        • started clustering students next year
        • identify staff development needs
        • Develop scoring rubic
        • collect and organize past testing materials
        • release time for cohort numbers (1 person per building)
     2. Option 2 – (Planning year)
        • recommend the hiring of gifted coodinator for 1 year
        • Added staff cost – $50 K
        • Added resource cost – $5 K
        • meet with cohorts
        • research
        • support for classroom teachers
        • research grants
   • Keith – so, this was included in the PMA assumptions? Ellen – we are budgeted for it, but it is not on the staffing plan
   • Keith – could you provide the intention of clustering? Teacher- grouped by similar skills, these kids are identified and can help and explore some on their own. Goal is to service many of them into the classroom.
   • Sue – Is this including benefits and salary? Ellen – Yes, that is the hope.
   • Sue – Will the coordinator be told this is a job for only 1 year? Ellen – Yes

   B. Bond/Facility Discussion

   • Facilities
     • Ellen and Dan’s discussion about Pre-K needs
       • What is happening in the district?
       • Avon (Rollins development) and Synnesvedt development
       • Synnesvedt – 469 single family & townhome units
       • Rollins – 287 Single Family units
       • needs and all-inclusive pre-k center district wide
       • 2005/06 is 200 students over projections
       • Still using the old bonds as justification for amount exceeding dollar amount
       • Claim a $18 cost on a 200K home
       • claim redundancy on going back to voters for approval
       • Ellen – recommend not abating the 1999 bonds
       • want a permanent home
     • Cheryl – Does abating the bonds change the tax rate? Yes, about $20 a year based on the 20 year abatement plan. 8 year plan would be $57 per year.
     • Kristen – We should ask Kasarda to rerun the numbers again since he just did it last October.
     • Dan – Synnesvedt decreased the house count for large store availability
     • Kristen – personally can understand why the first year may be off being in the financial projections field since it is a moving target and many times it is not used in projections
     • Karen – How can it be so far off?
     • Keith – Kasarda used a low, medium, high projections? Yes
     • Ellen – Kasarda did not consider pre-k or special needs
     • Ellen – Rollins road is different, was not given to Kasarda last year
     • Ellen – Will call Kasarda to ask
     • Kristen – Where did the new 200 count? District enrollment shows only 115 not 200. Ellen said they might have made a mistake. The enrollment also includes 95 in Pre-K. [115 - 95 = 20. Kasarda was very close in the estimate.]
     • Sue – Were the other rollins developments included
     • Kristen – Where it is most beneficial to add on the addition to Madrona
     • Keith – Thinks Madrona will work
     • Kristen – Could redistrict. Would like options and costs at each location
     • Keith – What effect on avon will be caused by the new growth there, mobiles, etc?
     • Keith – What money do we have and where can it be spent? Ellen will put this together hopefully by the next meeting.
     • Keith – When madrona opens, there will be more room at prarieview
     • Ellen – What can we do at Avon, Woodview with the money we have? Ellen – Not getting the information from architects; they want $4000 to provide this.
   • Bonds
     • Kristen – What this board needs to decide is if they are comfortable taking from the taxpayers a larger total dollar amount than was originally on the ballot
     • Kristen read a statement from Jill
       • Would not have voted to approve these bonds would knowing about the premiums
       • Not fair to the taxpayer
       • Manipulation of the system
       • Bond council does not go back past 1 bond authority for revenue, board should not either
       • Cannot keep the bond money in good conscience
       • Short term abatement plan with estimate of approximately $400 lower taxes over 2 years and $900 if 1 year
     • Keith – Glad Jill sent this statement
     • Kristen – Jill’s estimate from the County
     • Ellen – Will check with Elizabeth Hennessey tomorrow
     • Cheryl – To summarize: Ellen will work on overall facility use and monies available, Kasarda report and cash flow

   C. Food Service Bid Results

   • Preferred Meals – low bidder
   • Jim Drum made presentation
     • 200 school districts across con=untry – 1 million meals a day
     • designed to be kid friendly and work with wellness committe to make sure it meets guidleines
     • One of the largest provider of airliner meals

   D. Village of Grayslake Tax Abatement Discussion

   • Lake County Partners – Dave Young
     • 501 c 3 for economic development
     • 10 years , 4 mill total across all taxing authorities
     • speed up the development process
     • level the playing field – make more competitive
     • Using incentives to generate more income than would be abated on that property
   • Keith – off interstate time, will the incentive be enough? Targeting business that will rely on the labor force that is already here and are working elsewhere
   • Keith – what are the local villages doing as far as incentives? Sales tax rebate is the most common, this is not the type of rebate tax abatement will target
   • Sue – What is your relationship with the Village of Grayslake? LCP made the presentation at Grayslake. Dan invited them out here since they developed the framework
   • LCP – Really in the information dissemination phase
   • LCP – Not finalized yet, no adminstrative procedures
   • LCP – Offering our expertise and staff time to act as administrative agents
   • LCP – Graylsake seeking direction/interest by the end of June
   • Sue – Would we still be approving the abatement on each property? Each year, revisit the evaluation guide. Full set of thresholds for each criteria. General agreement (black box), distirct would identify a person who would be involved. Will make presentation to the board to approve or not.

   E. Monthly Enrollment Report

   • Down by 5 (up 101 from last year this time)

   F. Agenda Items for July 10, 2006

   • Keith – brief presentation on facilities monies
   • Food service bids – July

   G. Future Agenda Items

   • None

   H. Database Committee Update

   • Pearson bought Powerschool and MacSchool (Chancery)
   • 20% discount by June 30
   • Pearson now owns 40% of the market
   • Save an additional $11 K
   • Maintenance will be on Sept 1 each year saving us $3K
   • $11,964 total savings
   • Could save another 5-8 K by not renewing MacSchool
   • Centerpoint still $17K cheaper, but $3K more each year
   • Implementation
     • GMS and Frederick first, then others
     • k-4 easier to roolout during the year
     • more efficient training and having a full year of use before Madrona opening
   • $127,301 upfront, $19,019 every other year
   • Maintenance on a 5% student change basis
   • Ellen – Would you consider 1 open item on 19th for debate on whether to make this purchase? Yes
   • Dan – Apple’s focus is no longer education
   • Kristen – would be interested in knowing when the high school is moving to Powerschool. Would it be possible to get a sample student profile that is produced as a result of the testing, for the board to look at?
   • Sue – do we need to renew MacSchool if we are not rolling out ps across the district this summer? Yes and no, Macschool support is not worth renewing.
   • Tim – will contact Pearson about this since they own macschool also
2. Action Items:
   A. Approval of 2006-07 Board Meeting Calendar
   • Approved (4-0) Karen left earlier

   B. Approval of 2006-07 Prevailing Wage Resolution

   • required yearly stating we are paying everyone what they should be paid
   • Approved (4-0)

   C. Approval of Band/Chorus Request for Proposal

   • outsource with Quinlan & Fabish
   • $32 per month for band
   • $20 per month for chorus
   • options for summer and jazz band
   • Approved (4-0)

   D. Resolution for Transfer of Interest to Working Cash Fund

   • Approved (4-0)

   E. Deerpoint Homes Development Settlement

   • $87,847.36 remainder on recapture agreements – out of site and construction fund

Dan – amount as of today (goes up $400 /month interest)

3. Approved (4-0)

F. Gifted Program

• Option 1 or 2?
• Cheryl – motion to approve 2
• Approved (4-0)

J. Public Comment

• Arbor Management
  • district receives government donated commodities. If meals are made in another location
  • they use 20-30 K
  • district has an inventory already – can they be used
  • predicting lower student participation if used prepackaged meals
  • logistical questions as well that need to be answered
  • will the new food service eliminate positions that are currently in the district (2 dozen or so)
• 1 parent/1 teacher thanked them for voting on option 2 and the hiring of a coodinator

K. Closed Session – Open Meetings Act 83-378 – To consider information regarding appointment,employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body & the probability of discussing action in front of an administrative body.

L. Adjournment

Following this ceremony will be the regular school board meeting. Please remember to attend this ceremony and the school board meeting.

I will keep a link to this article at the top of my blog until the Grayslake Elementary Board makes their final decision on this bond issue. Please print out this flyer and pass it on to your friends and neighbors. You may also want to subscribe to receive updates about this and other information regarding District 46 schools. You may subscribe at the top of this page.

Let’s walk through the information in a little more detail.

Source for above chart is the bond presentation made by Elizabeth Hennessey of William Blair & Company. This presentation was given to the school board at their March 20^th meeting. Specifically, they came from:

¹ Page 6
² Bond used total ( page 6 ) + premiums received and spent on bonds ( page 8 )
³ Bond authority approved by voters ( page 8 ) – total spent ^2
4 Page 6
⁵ Bond authority approved by voters ( page 8 ) + Bonds issued 11/03/05 ( page 8 )

This chart provides a better summary of the amounts explained above:

When you review the presentation you will see a claim that they are really only exceeded authority by just over 4 million dollars. This is because they are adding in the savings from previous bond authorities. The law states a bond authority cannot be used once bonds have been issued on new bond authority. This means that any bond authority before the 1999 should not be included in this discussion on how much money is available in the 1999 issue just made last year.

As you can see we are now being overtaxed. You might be asking yourself, isn’t this supporting my child’s education? The answer is no. This money can only be used to buy land since Prairieview and Frederick are built. The district would have to come to us and ask for more money to build a school. They already have a new school being built right now at Madrona Village that opens in 2007. The Kasarda Population Study, commissioned by the district, looked at student growth for the next 10 years. It concluded the following (page 29):

The total amount issued that exceeded voter approval was $6,899,865.60. This is the minimum amount that should be abated. If not, the board will be causing harm to the district by breaking the trust of the voters. I understand that when these bonds were issued, they did it without full knowledge of this information. I supported that decision at the time because of the time constraints involved and the fact that it was very clear in those meetings that this would be revisited in several months.

I believe there is one fundamental question that should be asked first and that is, “Should any amount of bonds issued that exceeded voter approval be abated?” I believe the answer to this question should be an emphatic YES. This is a trust issue with the voters in this district. An attempt to knowingly exceed what the voters approved is a violation of trust. The board knows the truth now. The details have been presented. There is a huge gap between what is legal in this situation and what is morally right.

The second question can then be asked, “Should any savings be returned to the voters and not spent?” The answer is obvious; yes, return the savings to the voters. Voters will be more apt to approve another building bond referendum knowing that you won’t exceed the amount they approve.

This community has been divided now for several years over money issues and the true need for a referendum. Abating the bonds starts to bridge that gap and builds trust again with the community. Please consider the community health and abate these bonds. I know it is not the expedient thing to do, but it is the right thing to do.

We all support education, but District 46 needs to understand they need to ask permission to tax us and not just take more money without our permission. If they want us to trust them, they need to show us they can be trusted now. They need to abate these bonds.

Please contact the school board members and ask them to abate the entire $8 million dollars. They should not take more money than the voters approved or spend saved money when the projects are completed. Just because it is legal to keep this money, it does not make it right. Ask them to do what is right and stop overtaxing us on projects that have been completed for several years.

For your review of past posts on this issue and the fall meeting notes follow the links below:

• William Blair Bond Presentation
• How Much Did Your Taxes Go Up?
• D46 Bond Summary
• Grayslake Taxpayers, Do You Want a Tax Break
• Grayslake 46 and 127 Over Debt Limit
• BOE Meeting Notes 10/17/05
• Bond Article in Daily Herald
• D46 BOE Meeting 10/4/2005
• CCSD 46 BOE Meeting 9/19/2005

You can contact each board member separately if you wish or email the entire board at once.

Thanks Jill for informing the public with actual costs in this matter. I would call on the other School Districts to be a forthcoming as well. The public has a right to know.

Here is some background of the Central Range Project (Thanks Jen):

• Village seeks support for project
• Agreement reached on Central Range
• Plan offers vision for enhancement

It sounds like the village wants a quick decision. Hopefully, the only decision they want is a willingness to discuss specifics. I don’t believe the school should just abate the bonds without knowing the details. We all know what can happen when a deadline does not provide enough time to gather all the information; the residential taxpayers will end up paying the brunt of this. In regards to this there is a particular comment made by Sue I would like to discuss.

From my understanding, bonds have nothing to do with state aid calculations. These calcuations are only applied to the Education Fund tax rate. This is one of the reasons why school districts tax its residents more than promised in a referendum.

The questions Sue asks are valid and need to be answered. This goes back to the need for more details before full agreement should be given.

A question I have is why these school districts continue to consider giving tax breaks to businesses while continuing to overtax its residents? This attempt to abate bonds is particularly disturbing because both Grayslake High School 127 and Grayslake Elementary 46 have both exceeded debt limits and voter approval on their bonds.

Thanks to Lynn Barkley for taking and sending me the pictures. My kids had the opportunity to be there when the egss hatched. This was a coincidence of picking up a FOIA request at the District offices.

The annoucement was made to the Avon staff this afternoon at 2:25pm.

He will be moving here in July.

UPDATE: Here are some facts about Mr. Irish:

• Received his Masters from the University of Illinois in 1990
• Elementary Principal – 1 year
• Assistant Principal – 4 years
• Director of a small Private School – 1 year
• Teaching – 15 years classroom, grades 2-7

Those are the highlights. There are many other facts I’m sure we’ll all learn as he starts his living and working in the community this summer. Welcome aboard Mr. Irish.

From watching the proceedings, this appeared to be the best course of action. It was fiscally responsible until all the details could be finalized for the budget and projections heading into 2007 and the opening of Madrona.

A. Call to Order
B. Roll Call

• Kristen absent (family emergency)

C. Establishment of Quorum
D. Pledge of Allegiance
E. Approval of Agenda

• Move Science Olympiad Team up to next – Approved 6- 0

F. Science Olympiad Team Recognition

• Introduced teams (Frederick and Middle School)
• Regional – Middle school placed 4th with 8 medals, Frederick placed 6th with 6 medals
• State – April 29th at UI – Frederick medaled in 5 events, first to send only 5/6th graders to compete against 7th and 8th, Middle School medaled in 7 events
• Demonstrated Wheel Machine
• Bottle rockets to stay in air as long as possible
• Using 16 simple machines to unroll a roll of toilet paper 30 cm
• Cheryl – Congratulations on behalf of the Board to the teams and to Coach Wilcox

G. Public Comment

• Lindsey Peterson
  • 2003 Graduate of GMS
  • Needed music in Middle School to be able to compete in High School
  • Asking for a stronger music program
  • MENC (music educator national conference) claims 56 points higher on verbal SAT, 39 on math with 4 years of music
  • 9 of 10 parents opposed to cuts in the arts
  • Going into music education
  • Senior research project on music education
  • High school took 2nd place in state
• Ann Fern
  • 7th grader at Middle School
  • Policy for kids who owe IOU sit at front of the cafeteria
  • Appalled that that is the policy in the schools
  • Get it from the parents instead of singling out the kids
  • Ellen – past practice and has been corrected, won’t happen again.

H. Consent Agenda

1. Approval of Treasurer’s Report
2. Approval of Accounts Payable
3. Approval of Personnel Report
• Approved 6-0

I. Superintendent/Board Report

• Keith
  • Nothing
• Jill
  • Email asking about how people will be invited to program for Dennis
  • Will it be in the paper, Friday flyers, in schools
  • Thrilled about the website presentation and emailing out newsletters
  • several emails about people calculating taxes and have gone up 15%
• Karen
  • Nothing
• Cheryl
  • Happy Birthday to Ellen (next week)
• Mark
  • Mark Drevlin (Drevlin Martial Arts)
  • Have a special needs Karate program for students in D46 and Woodland
  • Showed images of some of the participants
  • 100% privately funded (some parents pay if they cannot afford it, none turned away if cannot pay)
  • Recently receiving grant money from around the State
  • Read off some of the names of the teachers who help with this program
• Sue
  • Thanks for bringing this program to our attention
• Ellen
  • Draft policy manual, assignment is to review section 1-4, 8 before June meeting
  • ISBE document and report to be handed out at end of the meeting
  • 3 weeks left in school

J. New Business

1. Discussion Items

B. Band/Chorus

• Lynn Barkley
  • Projected costs 2006 – 2009
  • No outsourcing costs since that won’t cost the district
  • 2006/07 1.0 band teacher (BA + 24 approx.) + steps from each year 36661 + 4124 (insurance) = 42695 (full time band) – Double if hire both band & chorus
  • 2007/08 1.5 band teacher $66716 – Double if hire both band & chorus
  • 2008/09 2.0 band teacher $94365 – Double if hire both band & chorus
• Sue
  • Are Quinlan & Fabish willing to roll over for next year? Yes, at the same costs.
• Cheryl
  • Reiterated options talked about last meeting
    1. Hire full time band and chorus director
    2. Hire full time band director and outsource chorus director
    3. Outsource both as current year
• Keith – What is the cost per child?
• Cheryl – Cannot charge if it is done in house during school day
• Jill – How will doing it in-house affect the budget? We wouldn’t be following our own parameters in making sure it is sustainable.
• Cheryl – Keep it in mind it is an action item if we are ready or we can put it on hold
• Keith – Concur with Jill in that we set parameters (balanced budget, sustainability, etc.)
• Ellen – biggest concern is to let Quinlan & Fabish know
• Karen – When is recruiting happening? Now Is it including 4th graders? Yes, 4th graders going into 5th.
• Lynn – recruiting continuing
• Karen – What is the intent of the board action tonight? Pick an option or wait if not ready
• Mark – How long will Quinlan & Fabish wait? The quality of the people you get will suffer if you wait
• Mark – what is the problem with beginning band? Space and scheduling problems at Frederick (once per week for full band)
• Sue – Will space issue be alleviated if we schedule during that day? Probably not until Madrona open
• Karen – Ellen, what is your recommendation?
• Ellen – Not comfortable with recommending full time next year, but outsource next year with the intent of bringing it in-house in 2007/08 when Madrona opens
• Karen – I think we need to take an extra year
• Jill – Appreciate Marks devotion to the arts. We want to do it right
• Cheryl – We all want to provide band and chorus. It is a matter of how it is presented, in-house or outsource. Want to make sure it is sustainable.
• Sue – Doing it now helps Quinlan & Fabish find a highly qualified person for next year if we tell them now

C. Technology Committee Update

• Tim Timmons
  • Showed some movies about how students are using Computers @ School
• Lori Abraham
  • Applications
  • Chart of 21st Century Literacy Standards
  • Costs

  Mine: Tech Soup/if switching os, then don’t purchase every one a copy

• Helen Parkinson
  • Chart defining yearly steps
  • Comparison charts of 3 best vendors including 4 year costs
  • If spread total over 4 years, would be $11 – $16 per student per year
• Sue – What is the timeline? Would like approval to move on with setting setup an onsite visit before the end of school. Start implementation next year, 2-3 year rollout.
• Joe Nowak – Hardware
  • Need time for researching hardware and OS platform
• Melinda Bush – Staffing & Development
  • Need time for researching hardware and OS platform
• Tim Timmons – Recommendations Recap
• Jill – Are we going to address this budget wise? Dan – Maybe using some of the money from Lakeview. Come back with generalizations probably before we have the final recommendation for the database
• Jill – Since we are on an accrual budget, we could put this into 2005/06 budget.
• Dan – Thanks to everyone involved on the technology committee
• Dan – May have something operational by late winter and online by next fall
• Sue – Wants to make sure Administration is onboard with what the tech committee is doing
• Ellen – At this time, thinks the upgrades will fit into this years budget (OS X and Memory). SOme iwll come from next years tech budget also.
• Dan – About 12K will be offset by grants (OS X and Memory)
• Jill – Would prefer to use the interest on Lakeview sale instead of the actual money. It would make sure it was sustainable.
• Keith – Feel for the overall costs. Dan – long presentation tonight, come back with each group later. Tonight, OS X, memory, Kid Pix, Keyboarding, Approval to bring in SIS vendors
• Keith – If we upgrade these machines, what is the life expectancy of them? They could run 10 years. We can still by parts in aftermarket and/or use parts from old machines no longer in use. Machines are the same speed as kids learned on 10 years ago. Today’s computers just do it faster today.
• Joe – Presentation on 8 yr old computer. Only 5% of computers in school are this same age of technology.
• There will be an Exploratory technology course at Middle School next year which is to meet Information literacy including keyboarding
• Cheryl – Is everyone comfortable with moving forward with OS X, memory, Kid Pix, Keyboarding, Approval to bring in SIS vendors? Yes [No vote taken, by consensus]
• Dan – The entire presentation and resource materials will be linked on the District website soon [When they are, I'll add the link or I'll get them up here if not]

D. Financial Discussion Continued

• Dan Aggen
  • Why is there a difference between cash balance and forecast numbers? Cash flow using budget numbers, forecast using updated numbers
  • Interest earned – currently $150K per year
• Mary Lou – Interests transferred into Ed fund and will be from now on, Approved by auditors

E. Agenda Items for June 12, 2006

• Gifted Committee
• Bond & Facilities meeting (Mark will not be present at 6/12)
• Jill – maybe need to have preliminary discussion on bonds & facilities (what Ellen is ready to present)
• Keith – Need to go ahead and start the discussion
• Sue – want to make sure Ellen is ready
• Ellen – expected to have it tonight, but did not get the information of the architects
• Ellen – will give Mark a preliminary look the week prior

F. Future Agenda Items

• Wellness
• Board Computers
• Food Service

1. Action Items

A. Band/Chorus

• Approved to continue outsourcing 6-0

B. Approval of 2006-07 Board Meeting Calendar

• Sue – May need to check on election requirements and whether April meeting will have to be changed
• Tabled until next meeting pending this information

C. Approval of Final 2005-06 Public School Calendar

• Approved 6-0

D. Approval of Revised 2006-07 School Calendar

• Changed to align Winter Break with High School
• Jill – Would like and end of year letter to the Community (backpacks, library, website)
• Keith – How much is it to mail? Ellen will give cost in Friday update.
• Approved 6-0

J. Public Comment

K. Closed Session – Open Meetings Act 83-378 – To consider information regarding appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body & the probability of discussing action in front of an administrative body.
L. Adjournment

Superintendent Correll has been in charge of the district for almost 1 year now. This hiring and more this summer will start to give everyone a sense of the direction she will be taking the district. Will she continue the path set by her predeccessor, Dr. Kurt Anderson, or will she change course and move the district down another path? Time will tell, but from what I have seen so far, her path will be different.

I would encourage anyone interested in wanting to see more information from the district, please take this survey. You do not have to be a parent to take the survey. This is for the entire community. Please do your civic duty and let the district and school board know what you would like on the website.

Personally, I want to see more information from the school board. Here is a list of things I would like to see.

• Email Lists for the following
  • Friday Flyers from all schools
  • School Board meeting agendas
  • School Board meeting notes
  • Power Point Presentations given to the School Board
• Contracts
  • Negotiated Teacher Contracts including salary schedule
  • All Negotiated Administrator Contracts
  • Other Negotiated Staff Contracts including salary schedule
  • All vendor contracts
• Financial
  • Budget, current and previous
  • Fund Accounting/Account Charts
  • Budget by Fund
  • Historical Audited Budgets
  • 5 Year Budget Projections
  • Financial Reports/Statements/Check Register
  • Bond Issuance/Restructuring Info
  • Tax Levy Certificate, current and previous 5 years
• School Board
  • Meeting Notes from an independent source
  • Board/Adminstrator Blogs (Examples below)
  • Policy Manuals
  • Complete Board Packets Prior To Meetings
• Student Handbooks
• School Registration Forms
• State Report Cards
• School Improvement Plans
• Curriculum guidelines including textbooks used
• Opt-out forms
• Online FOIA requests
• Teacher Appraisal Plans
• Disciplinary Action of Staff
• Full Survey Results, not just overview

School Board Member Blogs/Websites Examples

• Mike Davitt – Naperville C.U.S.D. 203
• Chris Jenner – Cary District 26
• Open Board Blog – Skokie District 73.5
• School Matters – Albemarle, VA
• A Permanent Revolution – Buffalo, NY
• Paul Schlichtman – Arlington, MA
• Diane Wier – Westford, MA

School Board Blog Examples

• Wayland School Committee – Wayland, MA
• School Information System – Madison, WI — not a School Board-run blog, but recommended by Diane Wier

Please feel free to add to this list in the comments if I have forgotten anything.

A. Call to Order
B. Roll Call

• Kieth and Jill absent

C. Establishment of Quorum
D. Pledge of Allegiance
E. Approval of Agenda

• Approved 5-0

F. Public Comment

• Traci Crowley
  • Thank you for all the committee reports
  • Tech question – are the towers doing what they are supposed to do?
• Lennie
  • Should not approve joinging Fed Ed. You will be using taxpayer money to lobby for more taxpayer money. Not a wise use of taxpayer money.

G. Consent Agenda

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Approval of Accounts Payable
• Approved 5-0
3. Approval of Personnel Report
• Approved 4-0 (Mark abstained)

H. Superintendent/Board Report

• Cheryl
  • Meadowview performance, really nice
• Sue
  • Went to luncheon with Fed Ed and got a better briefing on NCLB and IDEA
• Kristen
  • Nothing at this time
• Karen
  • Ellen will have rest, but teams did well at State
• Mark
  • Art projects shown throughout building
  • Music performance (2, 1-2, 3-4)
  • Thanks to all
• Ellen
  • Science Olympiad, Frederick 5th
  • Some will be at next meeting
  • Thanks to Ursula and Mary Allen
  • 2006 Recognition award from Illinois Principal Association (Read names)
  • Avon interviews will take place May 9th, interviewing 5 people
  • Dan now in charge of the Tech Committee
  • Ellen in charge of Gifted
  • Tony Beverly in charge of Wellness
  • Several FOIA requests

I. New Business:

1. Discussion Items

A. Life/Safety Update – Fred Schuster – Ruck Pate Architects

• Fred Schuster
  • Required by the State every 10 years
  • Last survey in 1996
  • Did not need to survey Frederick or Prairieview because of young age
  • Analyze use of space, calculate safe number of occupants, make safety drawings form this
  • Review equipment and property
  • Make a list of all things that need to be fixed/replaced/updgraded
  • Total estimated cost of fixes would be $1.3 Million in these items, including leeway and contingency fees
  • Forms in packet as required by the State
  • State allows levying on a restricted basis for Life Safety expenses
  • Comes out of same tax cap so it doesn’t really increase levies, may be able to use bonds for some of these, but that needs to be checked to see if they apply
  • Found several urgent items have time restrictions to be fixed
  • Most schools implement these fixes over time and practicality
• Tim (Rick Pate)
  • Team of architects walked through buildings
  • A items are urgent, That is state definition and not that urgent
  • Removed some items from Life Safety report if already in maintenance plan
  • Meadowview – addition of an alarm device (at single door), plumbing code fixes, toilet partitions
  • Avon – Steel column rusty needs replacing, hardware on doors for fire separation, mechanical equipment
  • Woodview – One fire alarm device, plumbing, move doors for fire safety corridor
  • GM – Water heater, cover for floor electrical outlets
• Sue
  • Does $ figure include urgent items? yes
• Ellen
  • Proud to know our maintenance has kept our buildings in such great shape
• Dan
  • Thanks to John for the good news

B. Band/Chorus

• Lynn Barkley
  • Past, present and future history
  • Reminder of January presentation on different staffing options
  • Quinlan & Fabish handling band this year
  • 3 options
    1. 1 full time chorus and 1 full time band
    2. outsource chorus and 1 full time band
    3. outsource both chorus and band
  • Information from high school music program and how it is affecting them in the packets
• Nancy – Choir
  • 180 active in chorus
  • pay 10/month
  • See ms at twice per week
  • split Frederick into 2 groups because of size
  • May 22nd final concert in conjunction with High School Choir at High School
  • Can read sixteenth and 2 eight note rhythms
  • done songs in several languages
  • Musical notation everyday by writing on the board
  • Focus on music education not performance
  • Music can be a life long learning experience
• Rich – Band
  • 65 kids at middle school
  • 85-90 at Frederick
  • Some attrition and it is normal
  • Will be growth in future years because of returning students and new recruiting
  • Problems with late start this year
  • Need better plan in advance, spring recruitment
  • Asked to practice 6 days a week and 1 day of band, kids did well
• Cheryl
  • Do you have recruitment ideas? Last page, band should be done early; More detailed than choir; if Middle School classes will be back during the day, it needs to be decided soon for scheduling
  • Nancy – Choral can start later than band
  • Rich – High volume of students and limited size of band room at Frederick
• Sue
  • Were you blending the possibility if the recruitment was for full time staff or outsourcing? Either is possible at this point
  • Fees the same for next year? Don’t know yet. Interested in getting as many students as possible whatever the decision on outsourcing
  • Concerned about switching now with Madrona opening in another year. Would like to see the district take it over, but concerned this is not the right time for that.
• Cheryl
  • Need more information and cost factors for the different scenarios
• Sue
  • Modify agenda to remove the voting on band tonight and place it on the next board meeting
• Lynn
  • What should the teachers do with recruiting now? Board – yes, continue
  • Choir could start earlier
  • Karen – without board action it should not affect recruiting

C. Website Capabilities – Melinda Bush

• Melinda Bush
  • Developed in mid 90’s
  • Claris homepage software
  • Dreamweaver in 2000/2001
  • 2003/2004 – moved to content managed site
  • 2004/2005 – Loss of webmaster, loss of building web editor positions
  • mid 2//4/05 – new stream lined designed – volunteer created time
  • update timely, information limited
  • pages updated with administrative directives only
  • Students section that can be used from home
  • School Info – minimal info since each school no longer has its own webpage
  • Download link for parents
  • Annual Staffing – $0, software – $300
  • Staff Hours – < 3 hours per week
  • How do we improve our web presence minimal changes in funding levels?
  • look for free resources, Trumba calendars, PHPlists, mySQL
  • Current staff
  • Oursourcing
  • Webpage survey for parents, staff to determine audience
  • Begin redesign after survey
  • Goals – Spring 05/06 – review survey and begin redesign
  • Summer – complete redesign
  • Middle school maintained site
  • Questions from the board – yes to all
• Sue
  • Has there been any consideration to whether new staffing is needed? people within staff have some skills that can help. Rearrange schedules to make time. Have ideas about staffing.
  • Could outsource and spend a lot less money than new staffing

  Can we tell if community members are coming to the website? no, just how many visits

• Karen
  • When will the survey be up? Hope to have the survey out in a couple of weeks
• Cheryl
  • May be better to have parents sign up for email instead of having to come to our website
• Melinda
  • Nothing proposed tonight that cannot be done with current staffing
  • May have some small setup costs

D. Budget – Surplus, Technology Costs, Negative Balances

• Dan
  • Need to pay attention to the cash flow ups and downs
  • Mary Lou – talk about cash forecasting

  Keith Arrived

  • Mary Lou
    • Received cash flow report from PMA
    • Aug 06 – top of line shorter than in Oct 07 because of surplus
    • [Without the charts this is pretty much useless information]
    • Try to keep liquid funds at $1 million
    • Does not include site and construction
    • 65% from local (real estate taxes)
    • 32% from state
    • 13% from feds
    • Salaries – biggest expense 71%, benefits 13%
  • Gave board an envelope with a CD with the assumptions
  • Financial Projection Plan (FPP)
  • 5 year projections, ongoing resource allocation process
  • aggressive application for grants and outside revenue
  • Improved education fund balance from 0.63% (2003) to 27.64% (projected 2006)
  • Projections given do include the opening of the school in Madrona Village
  • Does not include additional interest that could possibly be transferred into the education fund
  • Projected to end 2007 with a $7.7 fund balance, new staffing plan included in this
  • After Madrona, 2008 there will be a $1.5 million dollar deficit in spending vs revenues, but Fund balance will still be positive through 2011. This is without any creative changes and interest transfers
  • O&M healthy
  • Transportation healthy
  • No state aid transfers included in the other funds, are going to hit the point where local funds exceed amount and state aid will start being reduced
  • revenue + growth pressures a steady state
• Keith
  • If referendum, does it affect state aid? Not 1-1 relationship, but there is an affect. Will together a sheet to show the relationship
• Kristen
  • What about the PMA report? You’ll see the actual report, but these are the numbers from the PMA report. dan will get out the full 87 page document
• [To me, these fund balances suggest Madrona will open without a referendum and that a referendum is not needed for at least 4-5 more years]

E. 2006-07 Board Meeting Calendar

• Karen
  • Could we move meetings to 7 instead of 7:30
  • Kristen may have a problem
  • Cheryl – 7 is good
  • Keith – 7:30 is fine
• Ellen
  • Made a couple changes because of religious or federal holidays
• Sue
  • April change – Need to meet 14 days after election votes
  • Ellen will check and move it if needed

F. Monthly Enrollment Report

• Ellen
  • Up 4
  • 94 since fall

G. Agenda Items for May 15, 2006

• Ellen
  • Science Olympiad
  • Band & chorus
  • Bonds
  • Gifted
  • Tech
  • Financial
  • Board Calender
• Sue
  • Put band items on band and chorus
  • If available, can it be delivered earlier

H. Future Agenda Items

• Ellen
  • Bring back Melinda at sometime
2. Action Items:

A. Location & Time Change of June 12, 2006 Board Meeting

• Dedication plaque for Dennis Ash and officialy rename library
• 6:30 with board meeting following
• Approved 6-0

B. Band/Chorus

• tabled

C. FED ED Consortium

• Cheryl
  • $295 per year
  • Cheryl & Sue went to luncheon last Friday
• Sue
  • Other issue that was clear – feel that by lobbying that we are making them accountable for their promises they made
  • Thought IDEA fundigng may go to 0. At 17% now down from 18.7%
  • Approved 5-0, Kristen abstained

D. Educational Benefit Cooperative Resolution

• Dan
  • grouping of 57 schools to pool together for health and life insurance
  • Good representation from the whole district
  • 24.6% increase with Humana next year
  • EBCR – rates decrease beginning July 1 2006, board cost in packets
• Keith – Are all the participants willing to stay in for the three years? Is it stable? IS the cost because of the power in numbers? Yes, they have been together for 15 years and are stable
• Approved 6-0

J. Public Comment

• John Bruder
  • 2 students in d46 (7th and 4th)
  • Read statement from NSBA handbook
  • Claimed board failing since no gifted testing and no gifted programs
  • Tried to skip oldest to 1st instead of K, told no
  • after testing, skipped 4th grade
  • worked with teachers each year
  • taking algebra at Sylvan
  • spend between 5-6k per year for the last 3 years to keep him going
  • tried to work with high school to take classes, they refused
  • may be taking classes at CLC
  • looking into skipping 8th grade and going to high school
  • concerned that puts him into college at 16

K. Closed Session – Open Meetings Act 83-378 – To consider information regarding appointment,
employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body
& the probability of discussing action in front of an administrative body.
L. Adjournment

The article below from the Daily Herald has Dr. Mosshamer claims that this was directed by the board. This is probably technically true since the board has to approve staffing hires/fires/resignations. Since this is a personnell issue, we may never know exactly why this happened. He is still working for the district doing research from his home.

The timing of this was rather interesting leaving many questions:

• Why was he told not to work from the district offices?
• Who really wanted him not working in the district offices?
• What research projects is he working on?
• What affect does theis have on the Committees he was heading?

The last question is easier to answer. The committtees are being reassigned. Dan Aggen is taking over the tech committee. In fact, we are having a meeting this afternoon. Hopefully, now we can all get the information we need to complete a thorough technology plan.

I do not know about the Gifted and Wellness committees. I am assuming for now they will be now be headed by Lynn Barkley since they are curriculum related. I’m sure those committee members have already been notified of the change. If they would like to share that information, it would be greatly appreciated by all.

A. Call to Order

B. Roll Call

• Cheryl – present
• Kristen – present
• Sue – present
• Jill – present
• Karen – will be late
• Keith – will be late
• Mark – family emergency and will not make it

C. Establishment of Quorum

D. Pledge of Allegiance

E. Approval of Agenda

• Approved (4-0)

F. Public Comment

• Kathy Lucas
  • Saddened to hear about Dr. Rose’s resignation
  • Should serve as a wake up call for the board to keep staff
  • Referendum needed
  • Money needed to educate

G. Consent Agenda

    1. Approval of Treasurer’s Report

    2. Approval of Accounts Payable

    3. Approval of Personnel Report

• Approved (4-0)

H. Superintendent/Board Report

• Keith came in
• Jill – still receiving phone calls about board communicating with the community
• Sue – Nothing at this time
• Kristen – Nothing at this time
• Keith
  • Meeting with Dan Aggen and Eric Detwiler about sponsor classroom
  • Sent letter to Dan addressing some of their concerns
• Cheryl
  • Suggestions for next self evaluation to be email them to Dawn Miller
  • Next meeting for this will be Monday, May 8^th
  • Mayor of Grayslake hosting a meeting to talk about property tax abatement for commercial development in Grayslake April 25th at Village Hall
  • Dan will be attending, other board members welcome
• Ellen
  • Appreciate the work Dr. Rose has performed in the district
  • Good opportunity for Dr. Rose
  • Start interviews beginning of May with parents, teachers, and administrators; already had 3 applicants.
  • Institute day today. Will share feedback when she gets it back
  • PMA conference in Aurora tomorrow

I. New Business
    1. Discussion Items
        A. FED ED Presentation – Harry Rossi & David Peterson will make a presentation regarding the consortium at this time.

[Read more about this here]

• Harry
  • Both retired Superintendents in 2005
  • Mentioned organizations they belonged to
  • Asked to continue with legislative issues
  • Started with Fed Ed last Sept.
  • Now have 85 members and 300000 children in Washington dc
  • Lobby Congress for suburban schools
  • Provide info about what is needed most in suburban schools
• David
  • Non-partisan
  • Working on technical improvements in NCLB
  • Funding, especially in IDEA (at 17% instead of 40%)
  • Goes To Illinois legislators because it is more likely to get heard
  • Federal budget (formula grants – gifted and talented) – to get money for suburban schools
  • Congressman Mark Kirk introducing a technical improvement bill within the next 2 weeks
  • Updates out about every 2 weeks
• Questions
  • Jill – Are you suggesting they lower AYP?
  • David – No, they are asking to resolve conflict with IEP and make IEP be the ruling document in AYP
  • Jill – How you determine under funding as opposed to over spending?
  • David – Example IDEA funding (40% of excess costs). most suburban district this is approaching 20% of current budget
  • Cheryl – How has their organization been received?
  • David – suburban legislators are seeing a common need and have been exceptionally responsive
  • Harry – They are saying, we need this information and we are not getting it.
  • Harry – Reauthorization on NCLB in 2007 and we will be participating in this process.
  • Harry – We don’t go in saying everything is bad, this is how you go about doing this in the real world.
  • Cheryl – You see yourself as the link between Washington and school districts then? Yes
  • Jill – Views on NCLB ideas on curriculum, i.e. what books do you recommend?
  • Harry – require those that have scientific validation, worried about the narrowing of curriculum because of NCLB, don’t forget funding arts, social studies, etc.

        B. Gifted Committee – Members of the Gifted Committee will present assessment options at this time.

Below are some of the highlights, to view the entire presentation click here.

• Request for aptitude test purchase
• Reiterated reason from last meeting
• Will bring pilot program suggestions back in a few weeks
• Comfortable with both test they are recommending
• Time to test is different for each
• Two Best
  1. CogAt (Cognitive Abilities Test)
     • Takes 3 hours
     • Has more questions for certain components
     • Cost is about $9K less than shown by removing Kindergarten (17K)
     • No time frame yet on scoring
     • Would give better diagnostics data to help plan to meet needs better
  2. Otis-Lennon School Ability Test
     • Larger norm based
     • Takes about an hour and is untimed
     • Cost is about $9K less than shown by removing Kindergarten
     • 21 business days scoring
     • Results in early June if do now – test 27th, 28th
• Sue – Why was Kindergarten removed? Removed because this would be the only test. Historically no achievement test until 2nd grade
• Keith – Which is most effective? OL most respected in the field, more popular, used more often; both are acceptable
• Committee – CogAt claims they are more accurate and quick turn around on scoring; need to split it over 3 days for younger kids.
• Jill – More potential for students to do better if they were tested on different days, but that test may not be able to be used as since the company had not responded with a time frame for results being returned. Benefit of the shorter test is there is no time limit, which may be a plus for gifted students who take longer. Staff would have good input on this.
• Cheryl – Are your thoughts more gifted or more talented and gifted? Gone in circles about this. May encompass it all, have several ideas to help all kids, still planning and looking at this
• Cheryl – How do you deal with accommodations for kids with IEP? Smaller group settings and unlimited times. Otis Lennon is untimed, CogAt is timed, get same treatment as they do on other testing
• Ellen – Special Education issues – not culturally biased in their literature
• Keith – which do they prefer (still disagreement on committee, think somewhat the 3 hours is too long, both are acceptable, boards choice)
• Jill – likes the idea of more information, concerned about timing out though does this fit into the budget
• Ellen – leadership team needs to have a discussion about this, board may just approve a money limit
• Committee – could approve either test now for a 1 yr commitment and change next year
• Sue – Concerned about time line to get a pilot program in place. Prefer that it go more slowly and be done right. Won’t know the number of kids until school year ends. How realistically can this be done by fall? Can cluster in groups of 4-7 in classroom, get teacher support for them, maybe just pilot 3rd and 4th grades next year, identify the kids needing differentiation
• Sue – Do you see adding extra teachers or is this just focusing on reading and math? Research on ideal programs, definitions available for this, but no ideal program, add pieces at a time over several years to meet these Yale recommendations. Starting focus on linguistics and mathematical. No staff for fall, but will be later.
• Keith – need to start something, concerned about cost since last meeting stated 20,000? Will need some training and support, but not large staff costs.
• Sue – Should we notify the students and parents this is coming if we go to 3 hour test? First yr is not the norm, rather downplay the whole thing
• Jill – Will there be another meeting with committee about the pilot? Yes, email Ellen any questions.

        C. Technology Committee – Members of the Technology Committee will update the Board on their progress.

• Karen arrived during presentation
• [Trying to get a copy of the presentation.]
• Tim Timmons and Helen mostly make presentation
• Jimmy – comments as a community member on the committee
• Divided in to 4 subcommittees
• Database – primary focus
• Lennie – spoke from his computer experience about the database system being the most important aspect of the tech committee work. It is the key to providing the data necessary for the district to make informed decisions
• Fees include migration (p 16 of the presentation)
• Sue – concerned that this is not a global plan? Would like to see all pieces together like plan to upgrade computers.
• Jill – so the database is not hinged on OS 9, OSX or PC? Correct
• All 3 vendors can do this with them hosting or district hosting
• Jill – does the $15 ongoing cost include vendor hosting? No, it is licenses
• Joe – do not need new hardware to implement the hardware system, just purchased 9 new servers
• Sue – concerned about not having the entire plan? How many copies of OS X do we have, how many do we have to purchase? What and how much do memory upgrades cost? Skip – will get the information to board this week.
• Sue – Dan where are we financially now on Tech budget
• Jill – what is the sustainability for the big picture? 120K plus for initial purchase and 60K per year ongoing? How this fits into the budget? Quotes on cost of leasing/purchase vs Mac/PC? Is the #1 priority the database? Yes. Will be presenting more facts and having more meetings and will be presenting several options.
• Sue – requested phase-in and options, then we need to go to budget person to see how this fits into the budget?
• Jim Martin [Used with permission]
  
  

  District 46 School Board: Re: Database Procurement Proposal My name is Jim Martin and I am a community member with 1 son entering 1st grade at Wood View grade school, fall semester 2006. I have participated on the technology committee and have shared my knowledge in the planning for the school district to procure an integrated data system. I believe the key action for fall semester 2006 is to transfer legacy data into a new school interoperability framework certified database system. One example of technology committee knowledge sharing was an article on how we, as digital immigrants, need to listen to our digital native students. The digital native students need us to take action to use data from both administrative and instructional systems. The new database will help us understand the relationships between allocation of resources and student achievement. The District 46 School Board should approve capital budget expenditure and assign a professional project manager to track budget expenditures and schedule tasks to meet a fall semester 2006 implementation milestone. Sincerely, James K. Martin Jakmart.com, Inc. dBa JimmyWireless, dBa WhatZYourBag.biz

• Keith – do we pay license fees now? Skip – 7500/yr.
• Jill – concerned about being able to vote on this the next meeting
• Jill – need to bring substantiation for decision and whether it’s sustainable

        D. Wellness Committee – Members of the Wellness Committee will update the Board on their progress.

Below are some of the highlights, to view the entire presentation click here.

• Congressional (108-265 Section 204) and State (094-0199) requirement
• Required by fall 2006
• Michelle Marshall
  • Registered dietician and parent of district student
  • 23 policy goals – some can be implemented immediately, some will take a year or more to implement
• Keith – Are we going overboard in that we will provide food that is so healthy that nobody eats it? Balance and things will take time to implement. Need the education along with the gradual changes.
• Cheryl – Is there any funding? No
• Sue – Are going out to bid for food service this year? Dan – Yes. State has provided a template for what to look for in selecting a food vendor
• Ellen – Are there how tos in how these are to be implemented? Vendors should be able to change some policies/procedures. District needs to support the parents with encouraging methods
• Jill – Is the wellness council mandated? Yes
• Email Ellen questions
• Mandated so all vendors will have to be responsive to this

        E. Agenda Items for May 1, 2006

• Sue – Discussion/action about Fed Ed
• Sue – Discussion of policy numbers to implement on fall about Wellness, maybe delay action
• Jill – Discussion about what we are expecting in surplus in EOY budget so we can make discussion about tech and gifted
• Jill – Information on legal possibility to transfer interest into Ed fund. (Dan look into that – have a part of budget discussion, is it ok to have monthly negative balances into some funds?)
• Kristen – Are there legal requirements for line item transfers
• Ellen – Fred Schuster life safety report (plan required every 10 years)
• Kristen – Website discussion Ellen – Melinda Bush can present capabilities
• Keith – Conversation about Lakeview school purchase monies and should it be targeted use (Maybe added into next meeting budget discussion)

        F. Future Agenda Items

• Sue – Delay tech until second May meeting, maybe some info next time or as available
• Jill – Band & chorus, do we need RFP?
• Kristen – Bond discussion – second meeting in May

    2. Action Items

        A. Special Education Staffing

• Ellen
  • Delayed because of questions about numbers
  • Increase of 8 staff for next year
  • Will be able to have a balanced budget with these new staff
• Jill – Can PMA show us how they are running the numbers to show a balanced budget? Ellen – sure
• Approved – 6-0

        B. Madrona Easement

• Approved as presented last meeting 6-0

        C. Approval of 2006-07 School Calendar

• Ellen
  • From the surveys we don’t have enough staff development. How do you do that without additional cost?
  • Looked at early release days
  • Have enough time to bank hours with current instructional time
  • 4 days chosen (Oct, Nov, Feb, May) that are the same as the high school days without additional costs
• Approved – 6-0

        D. Approval of Gifted Assessment

• Cheryl – Throw out a dollar amount to let Ellen and whoever she designates to make the final decision.
• Ellen – Would like to talk to the leadership team about these 2 tests
• Jill – Personally would like the different day/times for testing. problem if results don’t get back in time.
• Sue – Longer test may be better for many kids
• Keith – Need to vote on amount because there is a problem with a timeline issue if not. Should approve the $18K test because it falls within the parameters given originally.
• Kristen – Where is the money coming from? Dan – from the contingency fund most likely, Jill – Is there supply money it could be taken from
• Cheryl – Can we give Ellen authority tonight so they can decide and go forward?
• Karen – Would like to go with $25K and let the leadership team decide.
• Keith – Allow leadership team to decide, board authorize the 25K.
• Karen – Motion up to $25K with considerations of future year testing as well as more data and less cost in that the gifted committee would be happy with both tests and to try and keep the cost under the original board parameter of $20K
• Kristen – Would like to see the same testing for several years
• Sue – Would like to strongly suggest that the board would prefer the cost to be under $20K
• Approved 6-0

        E. Approval of Curriculum Parameters

• Approved 6-0

        F. Approval of Board Goals

• Suggestion on goal 4 change included
• Kristen – Noticed there was no goal or measure of a goal for academic progress.
• Keith – Should this be in the Mission statement instead. Goals should be measurable.
• Kristen – Measurable similar to how Jill explained it at the last meeting
• Add “annual improvement” under 4.6
• Approved 6-0

J. Public Comment

• None

K. Closed Session – Open Meetings Act 83-378 – To consider information regarding appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body, approval of closed session minutes for public review & the probability of discussing action in front of an administrative body.

L. Adjournment

It was interesting that the website for this group was brought up several times, but noone ever gave out the web address. I just searched for it an found it. It is www.thefeded.org if you want to learn more about this group.

The question that kept hitting me last night during their presentation was, who is representing the taxpayer? The school districts have the AFT, the NEA, the ISBE, Fed Ed and others lobbying for them in both Springfield and Washington. How are the voices of the voters going to be heard? Who is providing legislators information about what the taxpayers want? It is no wonder why Big Ed is able to circumvent accountability, pad the bureaucracy, get silly mandates passed and then come to the taxpayers demanding more money for the kids. I think it’s time for more taxpayers to get organized.

I am sure the district and community members wishes each of you well in your future endeavors.

The most interesting name on the list is Dr. Mosshamer. The technology committee he is leading with staff members and parents will be making several presentations to the board over the next few months. How will this affect these recommendations? The first recommendation on a database system is to be presented at the board meeting this coming Monday night (See agenda below).

A. Call to Order

Ellen introduced Illimunations

• Music program at Middle School
• Special Presentation performed for those present
• They have 20 members
• At contest they had 17 first ratings and 1 second rating
• Several perfect scores, names were read

B. Roll Call

• Everyone present

C. Establishment of Quorom
D. Pledge of Allegiance
E. Approval of Agenda

• Sue 2 changes
  • requested delay school calendar until no more changes are to be made
  • requested delay for special education staffing, more information is needed

F. Public Comment

• Student (7th grader) – Gifted progam
  • Skipped 4th grade, missed gifted for last 2 years
  • taking algebra at Sylvan for enrichment
  • reinstate gifted program
• Mary Jane Lucas
  • What are the Administrative raises in Item 2C?
  • What does the District go outside for in regards to Administration?
  • Cheryl – Somone would get back to her with answers
• Lennie
  • Exceeded voter approval with 1999 bond issue last November by $6.9 Million
  • Now know the truth, so do what it right and abate the bonds
• Kelley Dickson
  • Equal Opportunity to struggle (Challenge Program)
  • Differentiation and other opportunities to allow each student to build skills in learning
  • Allow challenging and stretching to learn
  • Helps teach time management and hard work
  • Talked about her children in how the older children had the challenge program while her youngest was in the challenge program until third grade when it was cut and would still be in it
  • Thanked the teachers who challenged her kids

G. Consent Agenda

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Approval of Accounts Payable
3. Approval of Personnel Report

• Approved (7-0)

H. Superintendent/Board Report

• Keith
  • starting a classroom sponsorship
  • how would funds be handled? Ellen and Dan working on this
  • Mike Desco
    • Sponsor a classroom – local business
    • $300 per class with potential revenue up to $60,000
    • Would receive
      • web site mention/link
      • plaque for classroom door
      • plaque for business window
      • Friday flyers mentions
    • several hundred businesses in Grayslake
    • work off business licenses to start
    • probably tax deductible as marketing expense
  • Cheryl – what would this money be used for? Still being worked on
  • Sue – This is not related to the foundation, not deductible as a charity expense? Correct
  • Sue – if get a large donation, then maybe run it through the foundation with specific earmarks [This could be a potential problem issue. It would be better not to run it through the foundation]
  • Keith – if don’t get enough sponsors, then rotate the money if not specific
  • Cheryl – helps to bring a sense of community to the schools and businesses
  • Keith – schools and classroom receives benefit, business receives benefit
  • Sue – any negative aspects seen by other states doing this?
  • Mike – will appeal to some and not others
  • Next step
    • will be sending out a letter based on business licenses
    • would like permission from the board to attach to the friday flyers
    • would like permission to contact papers
    • MIke and Keith will fund initial letters (300 letters)
    • asked district to pick up paper cost for Friday flyers
  • sponsorship cannot go into the classroom
  • some businesses off limits due to product or service
  • Kristen – what is Ellen and leaderships team?
  • Ellen good idea, will consult leadership team tomorrow, need ideas if not full sponsors of all classrooms
  • [Need a policy on money handling before they start collecting money. Don’t want to invite extensive audits and problems experienced by High School District 127 and Warren High School]
  • [Maybe outside classroom plague can be a small board for teacher to keep list on classroom needs on for the parents similar to what Millburn does]
• Jill
  • express continued desire for board to find ways to communicate to the community
• Sue
  • attended SEDOL meeting wed prior to spring break – 3 district students honored
• Mark
  • Nothing
• Karen
  • Nothing
• Kristen
  • Thank you to Marcus on the electronic communication they send out
• Cheryl
  • attended SEDOL fundraiser – husband company buys table
  • money goes to sending kids to camp
• Ellen
  • Notified last week – CCSD 46 – financial recognition by State
  • Thanks to past and current board members for their work in this accomplishment
  • Attended conference down town over weekend – language arts curriculum
  • Made sure to say we are not shortening school day. It’s a simple form that only allows for the total instruction time during the day to be filled out. It’s a quirk of the form

I. New Business

1. Discussion Items
   • A. Gifted Committee – Discussion of Aptitude Testing and Faculty Survey Results
     • Dr. Mosshamer and parents – Interim report to the board
     • Parent 1
       • NCLB – fostering mediocrity so no child gets ahead
       • Ask district to purchase aptitude test – helps with all students
       • Clustering within classroom
       • Dual enrollment in high schools classes
       • Work with CLC
       • Look at volunteers with Science Olympiad ( will be competing in state championships )
     • Parent 2 – Without Gifted Program
       • Students Underachieving
       • Not learning to study because they are not challenged
       • Student doesn’t learn much
       • Learn in 2 hours instead of 6
       • Higher rate of dropout
       • Higher rate of suicide
       • Losing love for learning
     • Peggy Holme – Teacher
       • Define gifted – those students who have the highest levels of academic potential usually defined as the top 3-5% of the population. In our district that equates to 125- 210 students
       • Summarize findings of teacher survey
         • Board has copy of full report
         • Need standardized aptitude test as step 1 for all kids
         • 50% responded
         • Teachers believe the know when see them
         • Not adequately trained
         • 80% not enough time in class [Then why does the teacher unions negotiate shorter work days?]
         • 67% not adequate resources
         • 3/4 know differentiation
         • < 50% don’t know where to get help
         • < 15% believe district is providing valuable service to gifted
         • Comments – gifted students have fallen through the cracks
         • Many other comments
     • Patty Sloan – 5th grade teacher at Frederick
       • One size does not fit all – our students some in many sizes and shapes with different needs
         • Absent minded professor
         • Role model student
         • Passive child
         • Many other types
       • Need more information to be effective improving student achievement
       • Achivement – what has already been learned
       • Aptitude – what is the potential for learning
       • Need 3 sources to determine gifted
         1. Teacher recommendations
         2. Achievement tests
         3. Aptitude tests
       • Parameters to look for in a test
         • Administered to 2nd – 7th
         • Cost effective
         • Generate results quickly
         • Testing in spring if possible
     • Parent 3
       • Asking for assurance from the board that it will support the work of the gifted committee with reasonable funding
       • Pilot program in 2007
       • Full program in 2008
       • Test cost possibly up to $20 K
       • Will have final test recommendation at next board meeting
     • Pam Gish – 3rd grade teacher Avon
       • Read 2006-07 school year state guidelines of school code
     • Board Comments/Questions/Answers
       • Sue – How realistic is this goal of testing before school gets out? Yes, it depends on the test.
       • Jill – What is our flexibility? There are requirements, but there is flexibility. Have to be identified. No guidelines to how effective. That is for us as district to decide.
       • Keith – What is the final $ number going to look like? The importance of several programs in our goals. Need options from committees. Need a commitment from the board
       • Cheryl – Agrees that aptitude test is first step.
       • Jill – We wanted to have money set aside for aptitude test in restoring programs last year.
       • Ellen – supports this tests
       • Sue – Was this always the case that it was administered to all students? Yes, it was part of CAT.
       • Parents had to ask for this information.
       • Mark – What happens if student doesn’t test well and only 2 of 3 tests? Student has an appeal process for this.
       • Mark – How is this realistic if approval is not given until April 17th? Are we rushing this too fast and missing students? Is this in the students best interest? Don’t need results before school is out, just the test given.
       • Cheryl – Will you bring recommendation to approve at next board meeting? yes
       • Mark – Will you bring more than one option? Yes.
       • Jill – Bring pros and cons
       • Mark – Please bring costs as well as pros and cons
       • Jill – Would kids in advanced classes be pulled out of gifted classes? not neccessarily. need more options first.
       • In favor by consensus of supporting aptitude test (all yes)
   • B. ELL Presentation
     • Lynn Barkley
       • Teaches english language proficiency
       • Tries to move them out of ESL – 3 year normal – use testing to help determine needs
       • D46 offers transitional bilingual education TBE (20 or more students same language) – must be offered in home language, history of native land and culture and of US. – 4 schools
         • Salaries $100,972
         • Benefits $ 15,130
         • Material $ 29,703
         • Several Other Expenses
         • Total > $150,000 in grants
       • Transitional program of instruction < 20 students (TPI) - all six, assistance to extent necessary
       • Summer school – over 120 last summer (K-8) (100% funded with grants)
       • Adelante – Kindergarten jumpstart program – 3 week summer school (100% funded with grants) over 50 students
         • Total – $32,800 in grants
         • Summer school and Adelante just received additional $16K (with restrictions)
         • Salaries – $17,325
         • Transportation – $12,715
         • GCHS (required) – $2,600
         • Materials – $160
       • Bilingual Kindergarten- pilot program at Avon (half day spanish, half day english) 25 students – data being collected for each language (covered 100% with grants)
       • Immigrant education program – $16,235 grant
       • Identification
         • Home language survey
         • Individual language proficiency test within 4 weeks of enrollment
         • A year behind grade level
         • 27 – 1 student/teacher ratio (90% per class in that school)
         • Must be taught in same facilities, cannot be separated
         • Must provide staff in-service
         • Have a Parental Advisory Committee (PAC) – 4 times per year, sign off on grant
         • D46 stats
           • 425 ESL (10%) – 115 in 2001
           • 13.5 ESL teachers 4 assistants
           • Over 26 languages and cultures
           • Prairieview – 170 ESL students
           • Will present proposal for bilingual at Avon and Prairieview
           • Research dual language program for 2007 school year (offer second language to English speakers)
           • Met AMAO for 2005 – 62.9% for LEP reading 53.6% in math
   • C. Review of Curriculm Parameters
     • Reviewed the lists given at the last meeting
     • several items moved to goals instead
   • D. Board Goals
     1. Financial/Budget
        • Cheryl – Provides focus and direction to the Administration, but is not all encompassing
        • Jill – Can the there be reporting by school? Dan, yes, it has already been started.
        • Dan – will be providing different types of reports for the board to decide whether they like them or not.
        • Jill – communication with the foundation and businesses? Dan, already started communicating with the foundation.
     2. Communication
        • Jill – How to improve and effective way of communicating with the community. Wants consistent information to the public. Maybe approve certain items to be put on the web.
        • Kristen – Supports this idea.
     3. Facilities plan – immediate and future
        • Pre-K 2006-07
        • Pre-K Permanent
        • Jill – Add mobile plans
        • Jill – Need to address bond issue
        • Keith – we need to do this, but should it be tied to facilities plan
        • Cheryl – does not need to be a goal, but does not need to be a goal
        • Sue – it will evolve, but does not need to be a goal
        • Kristen – should be a discussion item, but not a goal, cannot be put off a year
     4. Curriculum
        • Jill, Ellen – discussion on how to show student performance within district and against state. Jill trying to set a goal to maintain or improve our actual scores on academic tests even if just by 1% compared to the state. Jill has said she graphed scores from the past 6 years and the gap specifically in Reading and Math has gotten smaller, in other words the District has gotten closer to the state average. Jill tried to explain that it could simply be a goal to try to strive for as other districts have set this type of goal. [As you'll see further on, Keith and Kristen said they understood these concerns, but no other board member would support putting this on the goal list. Why do the majority of board members not want to set a high goal of achievement?]
     5. Ellen will bring back ideas on parameters that can be measured
     6. Need to see how we can move students from level 2 to 3 and 3 to 4. Also, how to keep them at that level
     7. Sue – doesn’t thinking tying to specific % will be atainable
     8. Mark – already in goals 4.6.8
     9. Keith – understand Jill’s concern. Herald report in IL dumbing down ISAT. Lot of variables. There is an area where a report is needed like Mark said. Start with the positive and move building a solid foundation
     10. Kristen – understand Jill’s concerns

J. Public Comment

• None

TENTATIVE AGENDA
BOARD OF EDUCATION COMMUNITY CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT 46
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2006 at 7:30 PM
GRAYSLAKE MIDDLE SCHOOL

A. Call to Order
B. Roll Call
C. Establishment of Quorum
D. Pledge of Allegiance
E. Approval of Agenda
F. Public Comment
G. Consent Agenda
    1. Approval of Minutes
    2. Approval of Accounts Payable
    3. Approval of Personnel Report
H. Superintendent/Board Report
I. New Business
    1. Discussion Items
        A. Gifted Committee – Discussion of Aptitude Testing and Faculty Survey Results
        B. ELL Presentation
        C. Review of Curriculum Parameters
        D. Board Goals
        E. Financial Update
        F. Monthly Enrollment Report
        G. Madrona School Easement
        H. Future Agenda Items
    2. Action Items
        A. Approval of 2006-07 School Calendar
        B. Approval of 2006-07 Registration Fees
        C. Approval of 4% Raise in Administrative Contracts
        D. Approval of General Ed/O & M Staffing for 2006-07
        E. Approval of Special Education Staffing for 2006-07
        F. Approval of Interim Obligations
J. Public Comment
K. Closed Session – Open Meetings Act 83-378 – To consider information regarding appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body & the probability of discussing action in front of an administrative body.
L. Adjournment

Also, for your convenience you can email the entire school board with a single click: Email The D46 School Board . I had considered this before, but thought it would be better to just email each person individually. That was until I received an email from a board member who did not like the fact that I set up a personal alias to use. They thought that it was an inappropriate use of their email address. I removed the email alias from google and apologized for offending them. It was not my intention to do so. I just wanted an easy way to send them an email instead of typing in each address.

Since that time, I have thought about this more. My actions were appropriate. The board does not have a board email address anymore. They gave out their personal email address instead. The addresses are to be used to contact the board members. An alias makes that easier for many of you out there including myself. I decided not to create an alias though. I decided to encrypt their email address and place them all into one mailto link. This link can now be used by everyone so you don’t have to create your own personal alias like I had originally done. This link will be included on my sidebar for easy access at any time you wish.

You may read the entire article here.

UPDATE: I had this photo sent to me. I thought it was appropriate to add it here.