Sunday, February 9, 2014

Upcoming Monday Board Meeting: More “Celebrations,” Revised 2013-2014 Calendar, Shortened Summer School, Summer Fluff-Four-Day-Work-Week for Administrators, Non-Transparent Curriculum Committee Proposal and Proposed Staffing that Affects Class Size; What is the True Status of the District?


As we reviewed the upcoming board agenda for the Monday 2/10 BOE Meeting at Oak School at 7pm, we were once again struck by the lack of status reports offered by Dr. Schuster and her hand-picked administration. As has been the case for months, Schuster and her administrative foot soldiers (Schneider, Russell, Benaitis, Igoe) will be sitting in front of their computer screens during the course of the board meeting with little to no contribution or participation regarding the effectiveness and status of Learning for All, Special Education, or Testing and Assessment. By the way, it is common for Superintendents and Board Presidents to jointly decide on the meeting agenda, which probably means Marty Turek is actually approving the topics on the agenda recommended by Schuster. Truth be told: we see President Turek working on behalf of the administration rather than to represent and work for those he was elected to represent. We see this same pattern reflected in the participation of Mike Nelson (from afar) and Gary Clarin (recently elected and self-appointed administrative cheerleader).  May we remind these board members they were elected to represent and serve their constituents, not to promote the whims, spins, and tactics of Dr. Schuster and her administration.

Here are our immediate concerns:
  1. Dr. Schuster’s report (click to open report) consists of “celebrations” instead of offering a summary on how and where the district is heading. We congratulate Oak School for its nomination to apply for the blue ribbon award, however, there are 9 schools in this district, 4 blue ribbon winners in their midst, that have pressing curriculum issues that must be addressed right now. Parents need and want data and solid information on how the curriculum changes Dr. Schuster has mandated have affected our children. Mentioning a presentation by Dr. Ginsburg and her upcoming Lunch and Learn get together is hardly providing a comprehensive update to parents, especially after the instruction middle school students has been greatly impacted. Where is this discussion item?  (Considering that two of the last three Lunch and Learns have been cancelled and registered attendance extremely poor, perhaps it is time for Dr. Schuster to offer a real Town Hall meeting, open to all –- registered and unregistered participants – at which she and the board will have to answer questions on the spot.)
  2. The MAP test was given in mid January, yet no formal summary of results has been given by Dr. Schuster, Kurt Schneider, Kevin Russell or Dawn Benaitis. We have been contacted by parents who are concerned that the MAP scores for their children have gone down from Fall to Winter.  Test results should be communicated immediately; parents want and deserve this. Note: It appears Kevin Russell will be giving a presentation on MAP test results on 2/20 in yet another controlled setting with no opportunity for questions. This session is listed on the district homepage, but why isn’t Russell providing the test interpretation information at the board meeting where the board members can ask questions and discuss the results? And shouldn’t Dawn Benaitis, who was hired to be the assessment director, be providing a comprehensive report and presentation of the MAP results? What is she really getting paid to do as an assessment director?
  3. Class size is an important issue in the face of the Learning for All plan. It is obvious that the Learning for All plan cannot be effectively managed with class sizes are large as they are in most cases across the district. How is the administration handling class size? Is their recommendation reasonable?
  4. One positive, and yet concerning note: Dr. Moon and the newly hired consultant Dr. Friedman will apparently be presenting reports on the Learning for All (formerly the Advanced Learning Plan) at the next BOE meeting on Monday 2/24. Should be interesting to hear their take on the state of learning and differentiation in the district.  Our concern is that they will have only spent one day visiting classrooms across the district before they present their "report" to the BOE that same night.  How thorough and thoughtful can their report actually be if they do not spend more time in the classrooms, meeting with teachers, or even talking to parents about how the plan has impacted students? Also, what is the purpose of Dr. Friedman's involvement?  She is a professional colleague of Dr. Schneider, but is not affiliated with the university that Dr. Moon is from.  Is she taking over for Dr. Moon following this visit?  If so, why would the board cast Dr. Moon aside, since she was carefully selected through an RFP process over two years ago and her contract could be extended.  Will the board discuss this issue, or simply allow Dr. Schneider and Dr. Schuster to make this significant change without explanation?
  5. Summer school will be shortened this year from 17 days to only 14 days, and the second ESY (extended school year) session -- offered last August -- has been eliminated. This is the shortest summer school session in many years; prior to last year it was 16 days long.  The Administration made a big deal last year about the need for the two ESY sessions last year, in order to help students with disabilities gear up for the new school year.  Will the administration present any data to support this reduction in summer instructional time offered to all students, including those who are "opting up" into higher level math and english at the middle school? (Compare the last 2 summer school proposals: Click to open 2013 Summer School memo.  Click to open 2014 Summer School proposal.)
  6. Last year, despite opposition from a board minority, the majority approved a 4 day per week summer work schedule for the Administration.  This year, Dr. Schuster is once again asking for a shortened work week in July.  We cannot believe her audacity.  After all of the issues that have been raised this year regarding curriculum and facilities, it should be painfully clear to everyone that the administrators must work on site five days a week for the entire summer, unless they take time off using their paid vacation days.   We will eagerly watch the decision the board makes regarding this request this year and hope they vote it down.
  7. We are glad to see that Dr. Schuster wants to implement a Curriculum Committee.  Our concern is with her desire to close the meetings to only members and "invited guests."  She states that she will be complying with the Open Meetings Act by posting the agenda and minutes of the meetings, but the OMA requires meetings to be held in public unless they fall under one of the enumerated exceptions.  Discussions on curriculum do not fall under any exception to the OMA that we could identify.  Why wouldn't she want the community to listen to the discussions of this committee?  If she wants "buy in" from the community on curriculum changes, or the continuation of the current acceleration for all programs, she should "shine a light" on these discussions and not slam the door in our face.  High School District 86 has implemented many committees this year, but all of their meetings are held in public unless a specific issue requires an executive session.  Dr. Schuster should take a lesson from their willingness to be transparent, even if the community does not always like what it hears.
  8. The board is being asked to approve Human Resource software that includes "time clocks."  Are teachers and (we hope) administrators going to be "punching in" every day they come to work?  We were under the impression that the current teachers' contract does not define the length of the required work day.  Perhaps it should, however, without this contract provision, why should the board approve a nearly $38,000 expenditure?  How do the teachers feel about this?  And if it is approved, will ALL employees, including Dr. Schuster, be required to punch in each day? If required for even one employee, it should be required for all.  This will allow any community member to file a Freedom of Information Act request in the future to see how long each D181 staff member is actually on site.

These are important issues we believe should be addressed, and we encourage attendance and participation at Monday’s meeting.  Letters to the BOE can also be written that address parent concerns. The time is now to voice concerns; we cannot depend on the district administrators or the majority of the board to do so.




23 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of all, to hear that Dr. Schuster is proposing a four day work week for the month of July is absolutely unbelievable. I will research tomorrow how many highly competitive, neighboring districts' administrations actually reduce their work weeks during the summer. After last summer when so much work was needed to be completed by the D181 Administration, including possibly an investigation into the concerns of the HMS faculty that their building was a "sick building," the fact that Dr. Schuster would have the audacity to propose a shortened work week for the month of July 2014, for me, is grounds for her termination! The D181 BOE have to now decide whether they in good conscious and in the best interest of the students of D181 can any longer abide a superintendent that is not present in the district, makes absolutely no attempt to geniunely engage the D181 community and, instead of demonstrating a strong work ethic, suggests reducing the crucial summer work time of the administration. As a former educator, I was shocked at last year's reduced summer work week, especially with a very inexperienced, rookie administrative team that necessitated acclimating and training. However, I am now blown away that there is now the recommendation of a reduced work week for the D181 administration for the month of July 2014. The D181 community had better insist that the BOE put an end to this ridiculous situation now. I will also point out that the BOE had better abide by its own policy of establishing BOE committees in the areas of finance, facilities and academics immediately and not accept Dr. Schuster's recommendation of a SU{PERINTENDENT'S COMMITTEE of Learning. It is a D181 BOE policy to set up Board Committees with BOE members as the chairs who set the committee agendas and, therefore, run the committees. These BOE committees always existed in D181 and functioned with great effectiveness in guiding the operations of not only the BOE but the entire district. Not only does the BOE need to reestablish the BOE Committees, but the BOE needs to demonstrate leadership and RUN THE SCHOOL DISTRICT! In all my years of involvement in education, I have never seen such an example of the" tail wagging the dog" as has recently occurred in D181. The D181 BOE must take on the charge of the community that elected them and be the leaders that the D181 community expects. Or, resign and let people who have the interest and grit to do the job. I hope there are many parents and community members at the BOE meeting tomorrow night at Oak School to demonstrate this expectation!

Anonymous said...

How can Renee Schuster possibly think a four-day work week is justified? She and her "team" have tons of work to do, right? How about working extra hard to straighten out the mess you have created with the math acceleration? How about the new math program you will throw at us parents last minute? Any work to be done ahead of the start of school to be sure teachers know what in the heck they are supposed to do with yet another new program?
If Western Springs can work five full days during the summer and they have things under control, surely our higher paid administration can drag themselves into the office to fix their mess.

Anonymous said...

Rumors are flying that Gary Clarin is on the negotiating committee for the teacher's contract. Isn't this a conflict of interest since his wife is a teacher?

Anonymous said...

I fully agree with the need for the BOE to follow its own policies and institute transparent BOE committees. It is disconcering to see individual schools implementing whatever curriculum they want and toss aside brand new text and workbooks, while the administrators shrug their shoulders and deny any responsibility. Where is the teamwork and leadership in our district? How can our admin be given the authority to buy tens of thousands of dollars in textbooks, every year, yet not even be sure if the schools are going to USE them with students? So incredibly wasteful and unscrupulous. These are our tax dollars being flushed down the toilet.

If anything, the administrators should be working 6 days a week, to clean up the mess they have created. They should not, however be paid for more than 4 days a week. It is obvious that whatever they did last year to "prepare" our students and teachers before school was a last minute rush the week before school, and that it did not work.

The idea of only 14 days of summer school is preposterous! And why isn't there a committee for summer school, too? Because no parent committee members would have ever approved such a ridiculous plan. Did the results of the parent surveys ask for LESS summer school? No.

Finally, is Gary Clarin really going to be on the contract negotiating team? He obviously is so biased towards the teachers and the administration that it is painful to watch him. He should not be allowed to participate in contract negotiations because there clearly is a conflict of interest.

Anonymous said...

The bloggers' title for this post points out that during tonight's meeting the Board will discuss how to revise this year's calendar. Why isn't the Administration proposing an actual revised calendar for them to vote on? The report on Board Docs states that Schuster is looking for "guidance" from the board on what they want her to do. Then later, it says the recommendation is to make up as many instructional days as possible, but no proposed calendar is presented. Why is that? Is the administration incapable of making a decision about what is in the best interest of our students and then asking the board to approve it? Why do parents and the board have to wait until the meeting for Russell to present options? Why aren't they on board docs now? How hard is it for Russell to create options, submit them to board docs and pick one he is recommending? Why are Schuster and Russell suddenly looking for the board to "guide" the calendar revision -- isn't this "micromanaging?" Isn't this against what Schuster has stated repeatedly in public over the last four years that the board should not engage in? Or is it that she doesn't want to be the "bad guy" by presenting a proposed revised calendar that she knows will surely make someone angry. There will not be a perfect solution. Someone will not like the revised calendar. Some parents have already scheduled out of town trips over the President's weekend, Good Friday weekend or Memorial Day weekend. Some have already scheduled students to start summer activities the second week of June. If school is held on any of those days or extended into the second week of June, parents will have to make individual decisions about whether or not to change their plans and have their students miss school. But those should be decisions made by parents, considering all of their personal circumstances. As for the school district, students go to school for a full year of instruction and that is what the administration should offer. As a parent of a middle school and elementary student, I think the board should tell Dr. Schuster to hold school on President's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day and the 2 teachers institute days (2/18, 5/16). It should find out if the "institute days" that Russell said could not be used to make up missed days, can be used, even if it means that the teachers have their institute days pushed back to the end of the school year. He said at the last meeting that they could not be used. Is this really the case? Can't the ROE or IASB make an exception this year due to all the weather days and mold days? Has the administration even tried or asked for a waiver to see if this is possible? Also, I hope the administration tells the teachers to not spend one to two weeks "teaching to the ISAT test" and making the students take practice after practice test, as is usually the case this time of year as ISATs approach. This year should be all about making up the missed work. ISATs are supposed to test what is being taught in the regular curriculum. Perhaps for once the ISAT results might reflect what students have actually learned in their day to day classes, versus skewed results stemming from multiple "practice tests."

Anonymous said...

Few responses:
1. Clarin's wife works at HMS. She is a wonderful teacher. It is a good thing that Clarin was involved in the mold remediation stuff. He clearly had a personal interest in making sure the school was safe for his wife, as well as all the other teachers, staff and students. If he hadn't stepped up, who knows if others would have done so, but his vigilance and constant oversight at the school ensured that the work was getting done.
2. I can't understand why he has protected Schuster. Everyone knows that she was out of towns multiple times during moldgate. If anyone should see that she is not doing her job, it should be Clarin. Now, I wonder if she plans to use more of her "30 paid vacation days" to extend the President's Day weekend and this might be a reason why the administration will not be pushing for one or two of the missed school days to be made up then.
3. I agree that Clarin should not be involved with the teacher contract negotiations. Board members are supposed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. To negotiate their next contract will be a conflict of interest for him, because it is in his personal interest to ensure that the insurance benefits, pension benefits and salary benefits are as lucrative for the teachers as possible, benefits that he will then personally enjoy because his wife is a teacher. He should do the right thing and not be an active participant, not attend the negotiations and not cast a vote.

Anonymous said...

I'm bothered by the shortened summer school schedule especially since the adminstration recommends it if you want your child to "opt in" to a class. All these shortened schedules and work weeks is strange. Don't they want to work anymore?

MAP data should have been presented at this meeting. They get that info very quickly.

Yvonne Mayer, D181 Parent and Former Board of Education Member said...

Here is a letter I just sent to the D181 Administration and Board of Education.

From: ymayer@msn.com
To: krussell@d181.org
CC: rschuster@d181.org; mturek@d181.org; jvorobiev@d181.org; mgarg@d181.org; gclarin@d181.org; bheneghan@d181.org; gyaeger@d181.org; mnelson@d181.org; druscitti@dupage.k12.il.us
Subject: Revising the 2013-2014 School Calendar
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:25:33 -0600

Good Morning Dr. Russell:

This morning I spoke with Marge, in the Funding and Disbursements Department at the Illinois School Board of Education. That is the department that oversees school calendar issues. I asked her if the two Teacher Institute Days currently scheduled for February 18 and May 16 could be used as student attendance days. She said yes. She indicated that these two institute days could be moved for the teachers to attend at a later date, such as during the second week of June after classes have concluded. She said there is no rule, regulation or statute that makes these days unmovable or that would prohibit them from being changed to a later date and allow for them to be used instead as student attendance days.

I would urge you to contact her to confirm this information. As a parent of an HMS student, my preference would be to make up ALL of the missed school days. By using President's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day and the 2 Institute Days, our students would not need to attend school during the second week of June. I think in light of all the possible summer activity conflicts that parents district wide will have if school is pushed into the second week of June, it would be in everyone's best interest to move the 2 teacher institute days to that week, if it is the case that they are contractually or statutorily required and cannot be waived. Other districts nationwide are choosing to use the "legal holidays" and religious holiday to make up missed instructional days after determining that this is in the students' best educational interest. I hope that D181 follows their lead.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yvonne Mayer
HMS Parent, Taxpayer and Community Member

Anonymous said...

FYI - the MAP testing window did not close until February 7, 2014 so results are not complete yet

Anonymous said...

Results for MAP testing are immediate, unlike ISATS that the district has to wait months for. Also, middle schools finished some time ago.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous is absolutely right. MAP data can be obtained immediately. Parents can request their child's data from the principal since it has not been disseminated by the admin. It should've been a topic on tonight's agenda.

Yvonne Mayer, D181 Parent and Former Board of Education Member said...

Here is an email response I received from Mr. Russell, followed by my reply. I felt it necessary to remind him of what he said during the last school board meeting.

Russell's email:

From: krussell@d181.org
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 12:53:38 -0600
Subject: Re: Revising the 2013-2014 School Calendar
To: ymayer@msn.com

Dear Mrs. Mayer,
Thank you for your e-mail and we are on the same page with this concern. I have been working with ISBE and the ROE about this possibility and I plan on sharing an option to the BOE this evening that details how this can be done.
Sincerely,
Kevin

My response:

Subject: Re: Revising the 2013-2014 School Calendar
From: ymayer@msn.com
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 12:56:36 -0600
To: krussell@d181.org

I am glad we are now on the same page because we were not as of the last board meeting at which you stated that the district could not use the institute days to make up school attendance days. Glad to hear that you now realize that you can and I hope that this is the option that is pursued tonight.

Sincerely,
Yvonne Mayer

Yvonne Mayer, D181 Parent and Former Board of Education Member said...

Here is the outrageous email I received from Board President Marty Turek regarding the information I provided Dr. Russell this morning, followed by the response I sent him. (Also, note how he didn't copy all of his fellow board members on this email, only Jill Vorobiev.) He is quite a jerk and has some nerve suggesting that parents seeking their own information -- especially to confirm information provided by administrators during school board meetings -- are somehow acting inappropriately. Please resign Mr. Turek!

Email from Mr. Turek:

Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 13:16:09 -0600
Subject: Re: Revising the 2013-2014 School Calendar
From: mturek@d181.org
To: ymayer@msn.com
CC: krussell@d181.org; rschuster@d181.org; jvorobiev@d181.org; druscitti@dupage.k12.il.us

Mrs. Mayer, please confirm that you did not act as "an agent" of D181 while talking to ISBE?
Also I am confident that Dr. Russell has the contacts at the ISBE and capability to perform this type of "analysis" that you have taken upon yourself to do for him.

Please allow the district leadership to do their work.

Marty Turek
Board President

Response to Mr. Turek:

Subject: Re: Revising the 2013-2014 School Calendar
From: ymayer@msn.com
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 13:23:01 -0600
To: mturek@d181.org
CC: krussell@d181.org; rschuster@d181.org; jvorobiev@d181.org; druscitti@dupage.k12.il.us; gclarin@d181.org; bheneghan@d181.org; mgarg@d181.org; gyaeger@d181.org; mnelson@d181.org

How dare you attempt to suggest that I have done something wrong by calling ISBE as an independent parent who has concerns about the missed school days of my children. Not that it is any of your business, but when I spoke with Marge I told her that I was a parent of a student at HMS and a former school board member and I told her what Mr. Russell had said at the last board meeting and I asked her if that was accurate or not. I specifically asked her as a parent if the institute days could be used to make up missed student attendance dates. You have some nerve calling me out for doing the work that Mr. Russell should have done before he misrepresented the situation at the last board meeting. I suggest you crawl back into the rat hole from which you have emerged to essentially tell me to not get involved in my child's education. You are a piece of work, Mr. Turek and should resign immediately as the school board president.

Have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Yvonne Mayer, Current D181 parent, Tax Payer, community member and former school board member

Anonymous said...

Thank you Yvonne!

Another example highlighting the BOE majority's "superiority complex". Are we not to question anything? Really? I need to add that not all members are equal, and a few do a terrific job. (Garg, Heneghan)

Mr. Turek-another example of why parents in this district annoy you-because you aren't anticipating the issues and concerns of the parents who are concerned with their children's education.

And....We have been waiting for a long time for the leadership to do their work-let us know when they start.

Anonymous said...

Just saw on Board Docs that almost 100 (97) fourth grade students have been offered math tutoring by the district. 89 are currently participating in the tutoring program. Wow.

Anonymous said...

No doubt both Mr. Turek and the rest of the BOE as well as staff should review Policy Number 2:140 /23 Ill. Admin. Code § 1.220.

As for the BOE meeting open comments section perhaps these guys have the latest technology to allow for folks to step up -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGApYfC-7_A

Also available in blue: http://www.chromakeysuit.com/index.php/blue-chroma-key-suit-hood

Anonymous said...

100 4th grade students offered tutoring. This is a problem.

Secondly-I have children in 3rd and 5th grade. One is finishing Chapter 7 Math, the other just took Chapter 4 test. I don't understand why one can get through the material and the other can't. We can do homework over the weekend. One has just started vocabulary lessons and analogy worksheets, the other does not. I'm not blaming the teachers, there just seems to be a major lack of clarity as far as curriculm is concerned. Some teachers seem to be scrambling to enrich the curriculum. They are in a tough spot.

Anonymous said...

<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rc8k_D3yYoE/Tw4IyOKMysI/AAAAAAAAAls/awgasVzJMfA/s320/Stephen-Colbert-Popcorn.gif>How I felt when Mrs. Meyer did her public comment</a>

Anonymous said...

Dr Schuster may be on to something here.

My first reaction to the D181 missive that the mold fiasco was a “blessing” was to be horrified that anyone could be so naïve as to actually reduce such nonsense to writing much less distribute electronically.

My first reaction to the news of a potential 4-day workweek was probably a lot like everyone else, “What was she thinking?”
But maybe it all is a blessing. Maybe we’re not thinking about it the right way, being resourceful, creative and progressive while not losing sight of our children’s education.

I’m just an Oak School mom with a 4th grader and an HMS 8th grader but I did spend time earning a PhD in psychology at UofC after graduating from Duke (which really has nothing to do with what I have to say)
The overarching theme of my comments to follow is productivity – productivity from the efficient allocation of resources combined with technology.

Point #1 – Schuster’s 4 day work week – Since the teachers only work a 9 month year or 75% of the time, why not do what private industry is doing and make the teaching job a part-time job with benefits provided by ObamaCare (supported by the teachers union and their lobby) – This would help teachers be more mobile and encourage teachers to experience the private sector thereby providing teachers with enhanced insight as well as additional income.

Point #2 – Double up on the middle school – Use CHMS as the core facility – shorter classes, smaller classes, more effective learning – Tear down HMS, sell it, put the money in the reserve, then lower taxes How ? More effective use of technology to increase productivity.

Point #3 – Technology increases productivity many ways – one was is that technology reduces the skill required – in other words, technology displaces and replaces workers – we see examples of this throughout US industry – except for education – we don’t need better teachers, we need more “good enough” teachers working part-time, relying on technology to achieve enormous productivity gains.

Many Hinsdale house-wives and house-husbands could do a very effective job and create a community of participatory learning. We do it now in sports with “daddy coaches” why not in the classroom.

With technology properly employed our children’s backpack’s wouldn’t have to weigh 40 pounds – they probably wouldn’t even need a backpack.

Productivity is the key. I’m sorry Mr. & Mrs union, but it’s staggering to ask, “Why does it take 13 years to get an 8th grade education” look no further than the “make-work” unions unwilling to properly deploy technology to achieve the educational productivity gains evident throughout our society save for public education.

So let’s get technology deployed and get productive –

As for going part-time, we’re 85% there now, why not go all the way.

Anonymous said...

As interesting as some suggestions by Oak / HMS mom with Blue Devil & Maroon pedigree might be, her ideas are really too radical for most of the district.

Though they are entertaining.


Just Trying to Help

Anonymous said...

Wow. So this is what the community thinks of us? I am a teacher and I have to say I am horrified by your comment. I'm so sad you think so poorly of us, "anonymous". My heart breaks because I know your child's teacher loves your child and worries every day about YOUR child, if they are getting along with their friends, if they are happy in school, if they are confident in what they are doing. We work effortlessly to develop your child's mind, to help them become deep thinkers, to help them learn to get along with one another. We also work so incredibly hard to help your child achieve to their potential and will do anything to work with you and your child to get them to where they need to be. Please don't reduce our life's work to a mere "part time" job. If you only knew...

Anonymous said...

I think the teachers in this district are incredible. I believe that has been the consensus on this blog and so I would not be horrified. There has been no teacher bashing here-to the contrary the critiques of the curriculum changes have addressed impact on the teachers.

Respectfully

Torty Murek

Jill Quinones said...

Anonymous,

I, too, am a teacher and at first was shocked and saddened by the "Part Time" Comment. After reading the absurdity of the whole thing, however, I believe the comment was meant as tongue-in-cheek/sarcasm. Maybe the poster would clarify?
If it was not, I would agree with the other poster that the overwhelming, almost unanimous, postings about the teachers on this blog are positive, supportive, and appreciative.