| KEEPING OUR DISTRICT 227 COMMUNITY INFORMED IS KEY TO IT ALL! At the Illinois Association of School Board's Annual Convention at Chicago's Hyatt Regency from November 16 to 18, 2012, we saw dedicated and effective school boards across Illinois presenting their success stories, still pushing for student success, and serving on the front lines of public education who are better trained, more prepared, and deeply engaged in the school board work that must be done that have enabled them to achieve greatness in student success at the highest possible levels. For school board members who care, attending a school board convention is not just another party. Rather, it is an occasion to attend training in effective school governance sessions and connecting with those who wish to learn how to be a better board member and to honor the work that we can do to make a difference and restore a legacy of progress and educational excellence in our schools and communities. In our own district 227 community, pushing for student achievement, school success, and respectively and democratically encouraging full board and community participation to achieve this goal does not make us "Thugs and Bullies." Rather, it may be those who are fighting, restricting, and resisting the community's push for improved academic performance and in developing a culture of integrity and excellence who are acting like "Thugs and Bullies." No good can come to our school district or to the world through such community debauchery and slavery tactics. Without full board and community participation from parents and those who care, we cannot succeed. With community support, we cannot fail. Our community, parents, and minority board members have a right to public participation and to defend themselves against the board majority's negligence, community and parents abuse, speech suppression, and unfair attacks at open board meetings, without right to respond or due process, against us. Under the present board majority, these board member positions have been abused, under served, and misrepresented. We are still being abused, disserviced and unrepresented. When the facts change, we must change our minds where less than three out of every ten of our high school students were at grade level in the 2010-2011 school year. These are very telling statistics which underscore what we have said for ten years now! The board members who are loyal only to themselves, who are in it for self only and not about the children and our community whom we have sworn to serve, represent, and protect, and who continue to abuse us must be replaced by those who are ready to join our efforts in taking our school district from tragedy and defeat to success and meaningful self direction for our children and our community's future. What we need today, more than ever before, is a school board with integrity. A lie, dishonesty, bullying our parents and community, denial, and speech suppression never produce any positive results and is meant for evil. We need a fundamental Marshall Plan on accountability, change, ethics, community involvement encouragement rather than suppression and discouragement, ways to achieve progress (unencumbered by speech suppression), school improvement and reconstruction. We are one of the highest taxed school districts in Illinois with little to show for it. To save our children, our families, our homes, our schools, our tax dollars from being wasted and misspent again, and our community's future, on April 9, 2013, we must not sleep again on election day. For school district 227 turn around and to go from failure and distress to success and meaning, we need a rescue. When we tell the truth, this school board who has lied for two decades, thinks it's hell. The new board must develop a plan for district turn around, resuscitation, rescue, and reconstruction. But the school board majority, who doesn't play by its own rules, who naively believes that it has more rights than us, like children keeps cutting line, and being unfair and unethical. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service and justice for all Americans surround the globe. As a result, as US citizens, we must never relegate ourselves to the back of the line and to second class citizenship again. After the school board elections of April 9, 2013, which will mark the regaining of our freedom of speech, the voting in of a school board who will listen and represent our constituents rather than just themselves, our right to express ourselves in open forum in solving our district's problems, our right to public participation, and for a brighter future for our children and community, it may take some time to recover from the trauma that we have experienced under the failures, blocking communication, bullying, dysfunctions, and our community's speech suppression of a dysfunctional school board. Today, after twenty years of failure, we now realize that the school board majority who are without a clue as to how to improve student achievement levels, cannot help us. Rather, they need help. The board majority needs to stop crucifying and disrespecting our parents and community in speech suppression and public participation denial because we want to do what is best for our children. This non-transparent school board majority needs to stop wasting millions of our tax dollars in frivolous, destructive, and foolish lawsuits fighting our community in trying to do the impossible: Deny us our First Amendment Freedoms and right to public participation unencumbered at public participation venues. In the future, these misspent funds will go toward hiring new teachers rather than firing them, as a hundred employees were let go over the past two years due to misspent funds. Our parents and community have a right to have their public questions answered at open public participation board meetings. Theirs is only one way to be united, and that is through collaboration, conversation, student achievement progress, integrity, fairness, inclusion, and a common vision that represents children and our community's future. But with the school board majority's lid put on the act of two-way-full-board-community-public participation efforts in solving our problems, the community's questions are still not answered by a nontransparent dictatorial school board majority who stifles school improvement conversations and free speech. On April 9, 2013, we can begin building a successful-child-centered-community-representative school board because today, we know where the landmines are. Our country represents freedom at home and around the globe. Real leadership means influencing others and encouraging others to participate, not bossing, suppressing, and stripping our community and targeted board members of our rights to equitable public participation. Real leaders don't boss, control, suppress, disempower, lie, misrepresent, and disrespect their colleagues and the public they have sworn to serve. In integrity, there are no losers. They don't have to cheat, be unfair, keep the public in the dark and dumbed down, and to subvert the democratic process to win office. Rather, effective leaders inspire, empower, acknowledge, motivate, listen, encourage public participation, and respect their fellow board members, our parents, our community constituents and tax payers, and watch their organization's student achievement levels, and organization soar. In doing so, they build an organization of full board and community participation, commitment, respect, progress, and support. David E. Morgan, Ph.D., Educational Leadership School Board Member Rich Township High School District 227 Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461 WEB ADDRESS: richthscoalition.org WE INVITE AND ENCOURAGE PUBLIC COMMENTS AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ON THIS WEBSITE. |
