Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Our Most Heartfelt Thank You to D181's Retiring Teachers, Nurses and Staff

A reception for D181's retiring teachers, nurses and staff will be held tonight (May 27) at Prospect School at 6:15 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by a reading of individual Resolutions honoring each one. While the D181 Family E-Newsletter and the Board Docs agenda reference these events generally, we thought it important to identify these wonderful teachers and district staff by name, in order that all students and parents whose lives they touched in the past or present will know and have the opportunity to attend and share in the celebrations.  We believe these 16 individuals deserve a celebration all their own in recognition of their MANY years of service and commitment to D181.

We are deeply honored and humbled that they have educated, molded, helped and guided our children. So, we give thanks to (in alphabetical order):


Arlene Berger, CHMS

Marilyn Bottorf, Instructional Assistant
Nancy Costea, CHMS
Maria Bradley-Farias, HMS
Victoria Freiberg, CHMS
Betty Hogan, The Lane School
Barbara Johnson, HMS
Mary Ellen Kuikman, HMS
Carol Kwiat, Business Office
Becky Marshall, Instructional Assistant
Joannne Medenis, CHMS
Kathleen O'Connell, School Nurse, Prospect
Sue Odelson, District Nurse, The Lane
Margaret Source, Monroe
Stephanie Stewart, HMS
Theresa Wilkie, HMS

You will be missed!



24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Bloggers.

CHMS Parent said...

Thank you Mrs. Freiberg for your many years of service.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Mrs. Odelson! You were one of the few people at my child's PPS meeting who I felt truly cared about my child. I wish you a happy & healthy retirement!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Ms.Wilkie! You rock!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Mrs. Hogan, for being a kind, loving teacher to my son. You were one of the only teachers who ever "got" him, and he really respected and liked you for it. Thank you!

The Mayer Family said...

Thank you Ms. Wilkie, Mrs. Kuikman, Mrs. Stewart, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Bradley-Farias!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting the names bloggers. So sad that the administration didn't do this. Just looked on Board Docs and there is no specific information in the tab called "Recognition of Retirees."

jay_wick said...

There is a weird disconnect in the district's policies regarding recognizing any of what would be considered "standard" employee "milestones".

So far as I know there is no prohibition from the state for having "proclamations of appreciation" issued after 5, 10, 15, 20 year anniversaries,instead of just these sort of perfunctory "farewells" nor is there anything that prohibits the district sending congratulations on the birth of a child / condolences of a loved ones passing, yet district policy has never done such a thing.

No doubt the cost would be trivial and so long as it was done uniformly should not engender anything but "normal" workplace relations. For whatever reason no one on the BOE has ever promoted such admittedly small gestures that perhaps would foster a bit less adversarial relations between various layers of personnel...

Anonymous said...

Well that's not completely true. The district does send out a congratulatory north announcement. However it's kind of shadowed by the number of angy parents.

Anonymous said...

Wow. How disappointing to hear the "blanket" retiree resolution read followed by each retiree getting a small certificate. What happened to the individually written resolution for each retiree given in the past (for as many years as I can recall) that showcased their finest moments as D181 teachers and staff? What happened to the beautifully framed resolution being presented to each one? Someone took the time to read an individual statement about Dr. Schuster leaving, followed by applause, but no one in the administration took the time to follow past tradition? Someone should be ashamed of themselves!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Ann Mueller (former D181 BOE member) for doing what the administration should have done. You spoke from the heart tonight during public comment and made a more personal statement honoring and acknowledging the retiring teachers than the administration did. The teachers greatly appreciated it.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else notice how Board Member Yaeger couldn't be bothered to sit at the board table while the resolutions were read? He was milling about in the hallway the whole time. How insulting to our retiring teachers and what a sad commentary.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps next year, if there are any teachers who retire and the administration has a reception followed by the reading of the resolutions, it can do all this BEFORE any Ambassadors of Excellence certificates are awarded. That way, parents and students will have to stay and listen to the teachers be honored first, before the students are honored, and there won't be a flood of parents/students exiting as the resolution is read. After 4 years of witnessing parents/students immediately leave after Ambassadors of Excellence presentations, didn't the administration realize this would happen tonight?

The Parents said...

Is it really true that board members were not assigned to read individual resolutions for each of the retirees? If it is true, it is unbelievable. For as long as we can remember, the (former) Director of Communications took the time to write beautifully crafted and personalized individual resolutions for each retiree, that reflected (with humor, quite often) memories of their most important achievements and highlights of their long careers. These individualized resolutions were then framed and presented to each of them during the board meeting, not just a small piece of paper called a certificate of merit. Our retirees this year deserved for someone (anyone in the administration) to honor them in this way. If it really didn't happen, then someone dropped the ball big time. Dr. White, please make sure this never happens again.

The Parents said...

And if Mr. Yaeger really was "milling about" in the hallway and not sitting in his seat when the retirees were honored, he should be ashamed of himself!

Anonymous said...

Shame on Board President Turek for forcing the retirees to "share" the spotlight with outgoing Dr. Schuster. Her "last day" is not until June 30. Fine if you want to thank her. But the reception yesterday that should have only been for the retirees and the presentation of impersonal resolutions (which I personally witnessed) should not have been overshadowed with the undeserved accolades that you showered on Dr. Schuster. Who has given their entire careers for your kids, Mr. Turek, and for the kids of every single board member sitting at the table (or milling in the hallway)? Not Dr. Schuster. You have lost touch with what is right and just. Shame on you.

Anonymous said...

If either Yaeger or Turek dare to run for re-election next Spring, I certainly won't vote for them.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't the boe have to approve the funds to buy the books and training for the pilot? Why no vote last night? Why no control group for middle school? Why will fifth grade use glenco if they are getting rid of it at the middle school? And why four resources at k-5 when last year we said 2 were too much? And the pilot last year was k-4 so why lie and say it was only 4th grade?

Anonymous said...

Why investigations? I thought that resource was panned as being awful last year.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone who attended the meeting last night please let us know approximately at what point the math pilot discussion began? I was unable to attend the meeting and had no idea that a plan for the middle schools was being proposed. I've reviewed the information on BoardDocs but there is very little information there that would be helpful to parents in trying to discern exactly what will be happening in math classrooms next year. I am hopeful that the discussion last night will provide some more substantive information. I am also wondering if there was any discussion about the administration/schools providing information to parents who children will be participating in the pilots regarding the materials, timing, etc... Given the disastrous outcome of the last pilot program parents in the know are concerned about the prospect of this one going any better. I say "parents in the know" because many of the parents I have spoken to recently have no clue that there is even going to be a math pilot program. Shouldn't there be some kind of notice? It would have been helpful if an e-mail had gone out to parents alerting them to this important discussion that was taking place last night. While I'm sure that the BOE and admin. were trying to avoid the 100 plus parents who showed up for last year's math pilot discussion, it seems wrong to approve this without parental notice when there was so much discussion and concern about it just a year ago. I for one would have hired a babysitter in order to enable me to attend the discussion if I had been notified that it was taking place. Yes, shame on me for not checking BoardDocs Tuesday afternoon but its a busy time of year for parents. This is important stuff and we should be made aware of opportunities such as this inform ourselves about what will be happening in the classroom next year. A brief e-mail notice about the meeting similar to those about the mold at HMS would have been greatly appreciated by most parents and would have gone a long way in convincing us that we are considered partners in our children's educations.

Anonymous said...

It was right after schusters report about 15 minutes in

Anonymous said...

Last year the math pilot was voted down by the BOE because they didn't approve the funds. This year they didn't vote. Just looked at 2013/14 budget. There is a line item for $500,000 for new textbooks to align to common core. Not very transparent. You don't tell public about the pilot and you sneak the cost in months prior into the subtext of a budget. Way to build parent trust and make us equal partners.

Anonymous said...

It was a sad day in D181 as many retiring teachers, who have given their entire careers to the district, expressed disappointment in the way they were treated during the BOE and Administration's public "resolution" at last night's meeting. No handshakes from the BOE members? No personal resolutions read aloud? No thought or care into how these valued members of our staff were publicly thanked for years of service? I feel badly for those who went out of their way to attend such a generic, cold, thankless send-off. Thank you to the parents and community members who have taken the time to be sincere. If not for you and your amazing children, many teachers would be long gone. It doesn't surprise me at all that Ann Mueller's public comments were so heartfelt. The support we felt from her BOE was unique and something we all loved about working in this district. Morale was high; the climate was amazing; we were all on the same team, working towards a common goal. It's a shame that the leaders of our board and district appear to have such disregard for teachers. I hope someone takes note of how the retirees felt and how many teachers currently feel. I hope they realize the strength in truly knowing your staff, valuing their contributions, and taking the time to say a heartfelt thanks when it's warranted.

Anonymous said...

How shameful for Turek to give more recognition to Renee Schuster, when she only worked (and I use the term worked very loosely) for our district for a few short years, when the retires worked much longer, amd recorded far less in salary. The local papers already gave Schuster undeserved recognition! For the board to allow our teachers to not be respectfully recognized for their many, many honorable years of service to is and our children is truly a disgrace.