A Quality Education For Our Children is Too Important to Abandon

Focus is our key to greatness.  At our last school board working session,  the school board strayed away from the fluff that it ordinarily involved itself in to a higher purpose of focusing upon student achievement .  We hope and pray that this focus will continue.  The role of school board members is to improve student achievement levels and to engage the school district community to achieve this goal.  With this aim in mind, The Rich Township Coalition For Better Schools is working to build our organization because we need to hit the ground running in 2012 in preparation for the April 2013 school board elections.  To save our schools is the reason folks in district 227 are pitching in to help organize for our school board elections.  We'll be calling upon supporters to ask them to get involved.  Our neighbors in our district 227 community who are working toward a future of limitless possibilities for our children have been ramping up their organizing skills for months now.  The continuation of our meetings on  Saturday from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. are the next steps forward to reach out and make the connections to the school board candidates who will make a difference in our 227 school district.  The meetings will be held at the old Olympia Fields Village Hall located at 207th and Governors Highway in Olympia Fields, Illinois   60461.  Our first meeting of the 2012 school year will be held on January 7, 2012 from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.

Our initiative is a concrete step to insure that folks in district 227 have the information they need at this important and historic moment in selecting school board members who are student-and-community-centered rather than merely self-centered.  It is the first step we can take to help build a district 227 campaign in support of those school board candidates who will put student achievement and school success before political patronage and school board unaccountability which has led to over two decades of failure.  At this critical juncture in the history of our school district we, as a community, cannot afford to just go away.  The fight for a quality education and a bright future for our children is too important to abandon. 

Leadership needs public input.   None of us is as smart as all of us.  That's why selecting a school board of vision and integrity who will engage all board members and then the entire school district community is so important.  As guest columnist Bob Shelstrom so aptly described district 227 in his Southland Insight column in the South Town Star on Sunday, December 11, 2011, "The resources for success are there at these Southland high schools.  Putting student achievement before political patronage and administrative unaccountability apparently is not."  Many on the school board claimed that they went to the school board to serve the people.  But it is more than apparent today that they want to stay there to serve themselves.  So much corruption, negligence,  mismanagement,  lies, lack of community input, and non-transparency have occurred until  this has resulted in an electorate that is asleep at the wheel.

In April 2013 our community will be looking for four  outstanding school board candidates who are four different people, fair,  but don't have any preset agendas when we come together beyond turning our school district around from a twenty year history of failure to a new milestone in school district accountability and success for all children.  We will be looking for school board members who are focused on student achievement and can develop, listen, value, respect, and maintain a good working relationship with other children-success-centered board members and especially with our community.  We will not be focused on politics but on the Rich Township 227 High Schools.  On this new progressive school board, all school board members,  students, parents, staff members, teachers, and community will be able to trust the school board, freely voice their concerns to board members without  being ostracized,  muzzled, disrespected or threatened with arrest for asking questions, and without fears, or repercussions.  

The new transparent school board will be customer friendly, accountable  with an open mind, a push for excellence and a willingness to learn their roles and acquire the governance tools and skills necessary to increase student achievement levels.                                                                                                              

David E. Morgan, Ph.D.,  Educational Leadership,    School Board Member,   Rich Township High School District 227,   Olympia Fields, Illinois   60461