#12: Mr. Turek
does not believe in open governance for “others” as mandated by Illinois
law. As we discussed in our
November 3, 2013 post (click to open post), one of the"absurdities"
that took place during the October 28, 2013 board meeting was Turek pontificating
on his plans to meet with Illinois Representative Patricia Bellock to ask for
reform of the Freedom of Information Act in order to limit the public’s right
to access public records. If you haven't listened to the Podcast of the
meeting, we encourage you all to listen to the FOIA discussion that took place. It begins at 2:15:20 (or with 8:05 left) on the time counter. It is
important to hear how ignorant Turek is about the realities of the Freedom of
Information Act and the reforms that the Illinois legislators implemented in
2010 to EXPAND, not LIMIT, the public's right to access public records. Illinois legislators realized that there was a need for more
"sunshine"laws (as FOIA laws are commonly called), not darkness! Mr.
Turek said: "I, as a board member, and possibly as a individual am
going to be contacting Representative Patti Bellock who has historically
spearheaded FOIA reform to get us out of this business of FOIA reports that
take up our staff 60+ hours and over $4,000." In our opinion, Turek is
exactly the kind of public official that FOIA reform was intended to protect
the public from, rather than see re-elected into office.
***
Running List of the Daily Reasons:
Reason #1: Four years ago
the Hinsdale Caucus got it right when they did not endorse
Mr. Turek.
Reason #2: As the board president for the
last 2 years, Mr. Turek's job has been to preside over the board meetings,
however, his actual authority during said meetings is no greater than the other
six board members. (Board Policy
2:110.) Rather than facilitate discussions during the meetings,
listen to and take his fellow board members' opinions on issues into
consideration, he has attacked them and tried to shut them down. Case in point,
suggesting during the 12/9/13 board meeting that well respected Board Member
Brendan Heneghan was going down a "rat hole" when he suggested there
should be a curriculum committee similar to the finance committee. Less than
one year later, a curriculum committee called the Learning Committee has been
formed. We guess Mr. Turek got it wrong when he called Mr. Heneghan out.
Reason #3: Mr. Turek failed to oppose Dr. White's promotion of Kurt
Schneider into the position of SOLE Assistant Superintendent of Learning, on
July 8, 2014 (or at any meeting since then). (Link to 7/8/14
Superintendent's report.) Schneider is now responsible for
both the curriculum and special education departments. In our opinion, D181's
curriculum chaos is the direct result of the lack of true leadership in the
Department of Learning and Mr. Turek's support of poor leadership decisions
evidences his inability to act in the best interests of D181's students.
We would be remiss in failing to point out that one reason Mr. Turek
failed to publicly oppose Dr. White's critical organizational change in the
Learning Department was because he did not even attend the 7/8/14 board meeting,
the only board meeting scheduled last July.
Reason #4: During his tenure on the BOE, Mr. Turek approved
Dawn Benaitis' promotion from principal of Monroe School to Director of
Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction in the Department of Learning. He
also approved her raises. As we previously reported, in less than three years (from 2012-2013 to the 2014-2015 school
year), Benaitis' base salary increased 18.8% from $109,660 to $130,250.
Further, despite community concerns regarding Ms. Benaitis, on May 29, 2014,
Turek voted to approve a multi-year contract for her. (Sources: 3/18/13 Consent
Agenda, 5/6/13 Consent
Agenda, 3/24/14
Personnel consent agenda, Benaitis
Multi-year contract) In our 6/4/14 Post we
raised serious concerns about the multi-year contracts, including Benaitis',
that Turek voted to approve on 5/29/14. More on that tomorrow......Until
then, in our opinion, Mr. Turek's votes to approve outrageous raises and
promotions for Benaitis are further examples of poor leadership decisions that
establish Turek's inability to act in the best interests of D181's
students.
Reason #5: In our opinion, Mr. Turek showed a lack of fiduciary duty and
disregard of D181 taxpayers, when he voted (on 5/29/14) to approve multi-year
contracts for 6 administrators that had effective dates of 5/30/14 (during the
2013-2014 school year). See 6/4/14 Post. As we explained in that post, the
beginning date of the multi-year contracts was May 30, 2014, just one day after
they were approved and overlapped with those administrators' 2013-2014
contracts approved on 3/18/13. Benaitis, for example, was given a multi-year
contract that had a term of 3 years and 1 month, with an end date of
6/30/17. Click to open
5/29/14 agenda item with links to each contract. In our opinion, by approving
multi-year contracts that overlapped with existing contracts, Mr. Turek (and
the BOE majority) circumvented the intent of the Illinois Pension Reform
Act for existing staff, negatively Impacting D181 taxpayers.
How? Under the Illinois pension reform act, pensionable salary is
capped at $110,000 OR the highest salary specified at the end of an
administrator's contract in effect on May 31, 2014. By starting the new multi-year
contracts prior to 5/31, the administrators' pensionable salary will
be based on the highest salary specified in the last year of each of their
contracts. By entering into multi-year contracts with a start date of 5/30/14,
rather than 7/1/14, the administrators avoided having their pensionable
salaries be their lower 2013-2014 salaries, as would otherwise have been
required under the pension reform law. Instead, their pensions will be based
upon their highest salary contracted during the term of the contract. This will
directly impact D181 and all Illinois taxpayers whose taxpayer dollars fund the
pensions. This will cost everyone more money to fund the existing
administrators' pensions in direct contravention of the intent of Illinois
legislators whose intent was to "stop the bleeding" by capping
pensionable salaries. Is this really what our taxpayers want?(Note: On
11/21/14, an Illinois court struck down the pension reform act. It is
unclear at this time what impact the ruling will have, if any, on the existing administrators'
pensionable salary calculation when they eventually retire. However, when
Mr. Turek voted on the overlapping contracts, the negative impact to the
taxpayers was clear and he approved them anyway.) (Click to open
Chicago Suntimes article.)
Reason #6: As we reported in an earlier post,
we are concerned that Mr. Turek does not adequately prepare for meetings or
spend the necessary time reviewing and reflecting on board materials in order
to be able to participate in a meaningful way. During the 9/9/13 meeting,
Turek, referring to his review of the annual ISAT data presentation included in
the Board docs for that meeting, stated “I hope my boss isn’t
listening because I read it today at work.” His
“admission” was greeted with laughter by some of his fellow board members and
administrators. Board members receive their meeting materials via
Board Docs at least the weekend before a Monday meeting so they have time to
review and prepare. We know from past board discussions that members are
urged to submit questions they have to the superintendent by Monday
morning. How reflective can Turek be, especially in his role as the
board president, when he waits until the day of a meeting to review board materials,
and then does so while he is supposed to be working? The community should elect
members who are willing to adequately prepare for meetings, not do so at the
last minute and not shirk their other responsibilities in the process.
Reason #7: Mr. Turek has violated the board
agreement that all board members are to have the same information from the
Superintendent. One example we discussed in an earlier post was
that during the 8/26/13 board meeting, Turek acknowledged that he had known
ahead of time that during the summer, 7 administrators had attended an all
expense paid trip to a Social Justice Institute in Milwaukee at which Dr.
Schneider was a presenter, and which at least one board member asserted could
have been given internally, saving the district and D181 taxpayers thousands of
dollars. (See: Meeting
minutes.) In spite of the board agreement that the seven board
members agreed to follow, Turek did not share the information he received from
Dr. Schuster. By not correcting Dr. Schuster's violation of not providing
all board members the same information, Turek also violated the agreement and
showed a lack of respect towards his fellow board members.
Reason #8: Mr. Turek has been absent from
critical board meetings. For example, he missed the November 24, 2014
Board Meeting at which the board discussed Dr. White's 2013-2014
Achievement and Goals Review Presentation. As we explained in
our 11/25 post, last year the
board approved 3 performance goals that it directed the administration to track
and assess at the start of this school year. At the 11/24 board meeting, the
administration finally presented the board with its formal report on the
indicators tracked and measured to determine if the 3 goals were met. In
addition, the administration presented this year's individual School
Improvement Plans. As the Board president, Turek works directly with Dr.
White to set the meeting agendas. Turek scheduled these two important
matters on a date that created a conflict for principals and parents who might
want to attend, but could not due to parent teacher conferences or
Thanksgiving travel plans. Even worse, in our opinion by failing to
attend and particpate in the meeting, Turek showed a complete disregard to
his board member duties spelled out in Board Policy
2:020 and in particular Subsection 10 that requires a board
member to "[e]valuat[e] the educational program and approv[e] School
Improvement and District Improvement Plans. Presenting the District report card
and School report card(s) to parents/guardians and the community; these
documents report District, School and student performance." Why
was Turek absent? Was he on vacation? Was he attending evening parent teacher
conferences, rather than schedule his for the next day? Turek could have
directed Dr. White to schedule these agenda items for another date much earlier
in the school year, rather than the last meeting in November during a week that
guaranteed poor attendance by the community and apparently by him. The
board needs members and a president who will comply with the board policies and
schedule agenda items in a manner that will promote transparency and community,
staff and board member participation.
Reason #9: Mr. Turek is rude to community
members who attempt to participate at board meetings as committee members or
who wish to make public comments. He conveniently "forgets"
that board meeting procedure allows for public comment at the end of each board
meeting. One example was during the 8/26/13 Board
Meeting at which the Board attempted to set the performance
goals it wanted the administration to track and measure. As we previously
reported, a committee had been formed to develop the goals and included a
community member, Matt Bousquette, who is highly respected in our community and
currently serves as the D181 Foundation President. Despite his service on
the committee, and Member Heneghan's and Garg's requests that he be allowed to
address the full board regarding the administration's recommended goals, which
Mr. Bousquette believed were inconsistent with those developed by the
committee. The administration and Turek (who as president runs the meetings),
denied him permission to address the full board during the goals discussion.
Not only did Turek refuse to acknowledge Mr. Bousquette and give him a forum to
speak, at the end of the meeting, Turek attempted to adjourn the meeting
without allowing public comment. Fortunately, this did not happen and Mr.
Bousquette finally had an opportunity to express his concerns, albeit, not in a
timely manner that allowed the board to his issues during their goal's
discussion. Mr. Bouquette pointed out that refusing to allow him to participate
during the discussion, and question the administration's recommendations
that did not match those developed by the committee, proved that the committee
a "sham." Appointing a parent to a committee, only to prevent
his full participation and then to treat him with disrespect at the public
meeting at which the committee's work is discussed, is the polar opposite of
involvement, does not create an environment of trust and is precisely what Mr.
Bousquette called it -- a "sham." The community deserves to have
board members who respect all community members, especially those who provide a
public service by participating on committees, take time to attend
board meetings and desire to make public comments. In our opinion,
Turek's action show his disdain for community member input and establish yet
another reason why he should not be reelected.
Reason #10: In our opinion, Turek has made no effort to accommodate
community members' requests to participate meaningfully in community engagement
opportunities; in the process he has violated board policy by failing to ask
his fellow board members what their positions are before he announces
"board" decisions. One example was at the 10/17/13 board meeting
which was run as a round table "Visioning Workshop." Participation
during the "workshop" was by administrative invitation only, although
public comments were allowed at the beginning of the meeting. (See Post on the
10/17/13 board meeting.) During public comment, one parent
asked the board to allow community members who were in attendance to join a
workshop table. Another community and former school board member, Ann
Mueller, asked to be allowed to join a round table as a member of the
Facilities Committee, pointing out that there would be room at one of the
tables, since Board Member Michael Nelson, who was also on the Facilities
Committee, was absent again. At the conclusion of all comments, without
seeking input from any of the other board members, Turek simply denied the
requests, saying it would not be possible to add additional chairs to the round
tables. His rationale for denying the request was proven false by community
members who stayed at the meeting and reported that there were empty seats at
some of the tables. Turek's failure to accommodate any of the non-invitees and
allow them to fill empty seats at the workshop tables, along with his complete
lack of engagement with his fellow board members to seek their opinion on the
public's requests, show that Turek has assumed powers and authority not allowed
by Board Policy
2:110. That policy states that while the president "presides"
over the meetings, "[t]he President is permitted
to participate in all Board meetings in a manner equal to all other Board
members" and does not afford him the
right to make individual decisions. The community deserves a board of SEVEN
EQUAL members, all with the same decision making authority, not a board member
that behaves as if he has more authority than the rest.
Reason #11: At the same time that Mr. Turek has limited the public's ability
to participate in a meaningful way during board meetings (see #9 and #10) and
shown that he waits till the last minute to prepare for meetings (see #6), he
has also downplayed the importance of people's actual participation in
meetings. Case in point, at the same 10/17/13 board meeting referenced in
#10, he made the following (in our opinion) inappropriate statement:
"I am confident that everybody had something better to do tonight
than to come here but I do appreciate it." We couldn't believe the board
president would actually make such a ridiculous statement. Is it too much
to believe that all of the community members, teachers, PTO presidents, Finance
Committee members, administrators and other hand picked invitees actually
wanted to be at the meeting and viewed it as a priority? We do believe
that everyone who participated in the round table discussions took their job
seriously and if they showed up, they wanted to be there. Perhaps the
disrespect Mr. Turek showed them in his comment was reflective of his own
lackadaisical attitude towards participating as a board member, an attitude
that no board member should have if they really want to be reelected.
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