• 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.

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.

If you want to stop the continual money grab by legislators, county, township and school boards, then visit the Illinois Citizen Coalition and see how voting YES on a Constitution Convention this November can change this.

Extremewisdom.com has an alternative education funding plan that fully funds education, but results in a tax cut. View a short video presentation and read the Executive Summary.

For background information on HB750 now SB2288 review the following articles:

• Teachers To Springfield Part Duex
• School Funding: Where the Candidates Stand
• Study Showing More Faults with HB750
• HB 750 Not Dead Yet
• Tax Increase Cost an Average of 20%
• HB 750/SB 1484 Flyer
• HB 750 Analysis Roundup
• More HB750 Analysis
• HB 750 – Massive State Tax Increase

The following is an excerpt from the email I received about the ruling [Emphasis mine]:

I don’t see how the judge ruled against bidding these contracts. It is obvious there are other sources to buy energy through. This fact is documented with the consortiums and school districts I have identified in my research into this issue. It has even been stated by a consortium director that some schools would rather focus on cost avoidance instead of saving money.

The taxpayers of this state should not be forced to pay more than necessary. This process should be handled in an open bid process instead of with some deal that hands kickbacks to other school organizations. With this ruling, school districts will be free to cut whatever deal they want, with kickbacks going to whomever they want. This is wrong for the taxpayers and for the school children who will suffer because money is and will be diverted away from actual education.

We’ll find out in the next 30 days whether this case will be appealed. With the information I have, I believe it would be the correct thing to do.

You might be asking yourself why I am holding out Round Lake as different than other particpants in the IEC, IUPC, or other energy consortiums who did not competitively bid energy contracts. The answer is simple, Round Lake schools have been under State Finance Authority since 2002. In other words, while under State Control, the school district has been allowed to continue the practive of no-bid contracts.

The SFA fixed the glaring financial mismanagement that had been rampant in the district necessitating the State oversite. They allowed the no-bid practice to continue that has enabled other State organizations, the IASB, IASBO, and the IASA to collect millions of dollars at the expense of the taxpayers.

This no-bid practice must cease. Taxpayers are being forced to pay for this practice.

On June 6th, the court will rule on Tarsitano V. District 211. Hopefully the courts will have some sense and stop this practice although it appears this decision may be moot. Both the House (House Bill 261) and Senate (Senate Bill 48) have passed their bills. They are now in committee in the others’ branch. It is imperative that you contact your legislator today to stop these bills from getting to the Governor’s desk. You can find your on the General Assembly website under Legislator Lookup.

Check to see how your Representative voted. Sandy Cole voted Yes to the government school bureaucracy and No to the taxpayer.

Ken Falkingham has administered the IUPC for 20 years now and it has existed for 21 years. The first administrator costs the schools a great deal of money which is what prompted the Board of Directors to hire Ken. There are 5 Board of Directors who are elected by the membership. The current Board of Directors are:

• Bill Harkin – Wauconda Unit (Chairman)
• Charlie Cohen – Aptakistic Elem
• Don Goers – New Trier High School
• Audrey Liddle – Lake Villa Elem
• Christie Sefcik – Grant High School

This consortium now has 99 members (See Participants List) and all members are required to buy both electricity and gas. There a exceptions, but they are only until existing contracts expire like the gas contracts in Elmwood Park, Buffalo Grove Park District, and Cook County Library. Waste management is a service that is now used by 10-12 members.

NOTE: This make 78 taxing bodies who buy energy without bidding their contracts.

Ken informed us that the majority of the districts come to them and that none of them bid the contract. Ken stated the reason for this is that “districts don’t have to bid utilities, insurance and architecture projects.” I believe he is wrong on this. If not why is there a bill in both the House (House Bill 261) and Senate (Senate Bill 48) to remove the need for bidding on these items.

I am not going into details about how all the pricing works at this time. I will do that at a later time if requested. I will however explain how this consortium is setup and a few differences with the IEC.

The IUPC members all pay the same rate no matter what size they are. This does cause some districts to pay more and others to pay less. Ken stated, “Sometimes cost avoidance is more important than cost savings”. The goal over a 12 month period is to beat the utilities cost. They are sometimes successful at this, but not always.

The IUPC negotiates prices with the utility companies. The districts then contract directly with these utilities at the negotiated price meaning no money runs through the IUPC for energy costs. This seperate contract practice protects each districts from others not paying their bills. The IUPC receives fees from the members. They are set as follows:

• Annual fee – $25
• Monthly Fees
  • $30 electricity
  • $25 natural gas
  • $25 waste management

The IUPC handles the monthly nominations (estimate of gas to be used by each district) for the next month and then following up monthly to make sure the balances are correct. All this work prevents the schools from having to learn and do this work themselves.

The IEC reportedly charges $20 per meter. Their fees are also higher charging a 1/4 cent markup for each sponsoring organizations (IASB, IASBO, IASA) for a total markup of 3/4 cent. The IEC targets districts that are entirely electric.

Kensa Corporation is the company owned by the Falkinghams. Kensa just administers the IUPC for the schools. It has some corporate clients, but does not sell energy itself. They will soon be offering services in Wisconsin.

Ken has already notifed the districts that they can cut their gas budget this year by 20% based on their current projections.

I will state here that Ken was very open about their processes and how the IUPC worked. From this conversation, it appears that the IUPC is attempting to save districts money, although they are not always successful. It also is clear that there is a potential for corruption depending on who the administrator is. I believe at this time that Ken and his son Jason are honest hard working people trying to do what is right.

The problem I see with the IUPC is that there is no way of truly determining whether a school district or other taxing body ever saved money with this purchasing arrangement. Each of these districts by bidding contracts may have saved more with that process. Unfortunately, we will never know that answer. The question then becomes how can these taxing bodies change this process going forward. There is only one solution and that is to bid these contracts.

Dusring this process I have discovered a third energy consortium here in Illinois. This one is the NIMEC and taughts themselves as having over 100 members. Their website is under construction and only contact information is present.

I will be updating the list of known participants at the Illinois Energy Consortium information website shortly as well. As I have time, I will scan in the documents and link them as well. Below is the list of newly received participants:

• Fremont Public Library
• Milburn School Distict 24
• Park District of Highland Park
• Lake Villa School District 41
• Zion Park District
• Antioch High School District 117
• New Trier Township High School District 203
• Lake Villa District Library

The letter from New Trier was interesting in that it stated, “the IUPC Agreement is the same document you have already requested from other agencies in our cooperative.” Mr. Goers , the Associate Superintendent at New Trier is also an Executive Committe member of the IUPC.

Two of the taxing bodies are requiring that I fill out their FOIA request form before they provide the documents requested. They are the City of Highland Park and Libertyville Township. I will comply with both requests this time, but I will also enclose this excerpt from the Illinois Attorney General Website:

As you can see, a FOIA request is not required to be on a specific form. It is only required to be in writing, which is what I had done. I also suspect from teh fees I am being charged that most of these taxing bodies are overcharging for the actual cost of reproduction. I’ll have more in the coming days on how my district, Grayslake Elementary 46, and also Winthrop Harbor schools are doing exactly that.

To also update you on House Bill 261 and Senate Bill 48, the bills to eliminate bids on energy and other contracts, is moving along in the Senate but stalling in the House. This update is from a friend in Springfield.

• 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 .

I emailed the Energy Consortium. The only information Dr. David Grace would provide was that, “The calculation for the savings was made comparing the price paid by our customers versus the tariff rates approved by the ICC for the utilities.” In other words, they calculate savings from the highest rate the ICC allows. Schools would not have to pay this rate since they would always have to get a bid price. This is a deceptive practice since it exagerates any possible savings. As learned in District 211 there may not be any savings at all.

He also refused to give me the list participants, “The information containing our customer list is proprietary and is not provided to others.” I was able to able at least a partial list in the FOIA documents from Distrct 46 schools. I typed in the participants below so you can FOIA the information from your local school district or taxing body. If you notice, the majority of those participating are located in Lake County. I did exclude the private schools I recognized since they do not the same bid regulations that governmental taxing bodies have.

The following is what I FOIAed from District 46:

A lawsuit is underway over the energy consortium used by about 300 school districts to buy energy. The consortium was setup to save school districts money. According to the suit the districts may be violating state law since many are not requiring bids before the purchase of energy. The consoritium also is collecting millions in fees and may not be the lowest cost of energy for all school districts.

This practice sounds familiar. These are no-bid contracts with kick backs to the school associations. It is also run by school officials.

For those wishing to track this case more there is a new blog setup by a taxpayer in District 211 called, District 211 Public Schools. They have an interesting article up about this story entitled “How did the Illinois Energy Consortium calculate how much school districts have saved?”

Bruno Behrend of Extreme Wisdom has interviewed the attorneys in this case and has shared his thoughts on this case. You will find it very interesting indeed.

The Energy Commision website can be found here. They have a response to the Chicago Tribune’s article. It can be found here.

Locally, I am aware the Grayslake Elementary District 46 does purchase energy from the consortium. I will have more details on that later.