A Community's Disgrace in School District 227.. August 1, 2012 FROM: Citizens of district 227 TO: The District 227 Community From citizens of district 227 to citizens of district 227 Citizens of School District 227: Everyone who has seen this school board operate can see that it is without the slightest interest in doing the right things, improving student achievement levels, and representing our community. Everyone in our district 227 community who has followed this school board over the past five years agree wholeheartedly that this school board must be replaced by responsible citizens within our community. Today, only two elected board members have earned the respect of voters. But election time is too late. It's time to fight back now. This board, who was last seen looking out for itself, was elected to serve the residents of district 227, not the other way around. It is time for residents, parents, and students who care about quality education in district 227 to take control. It's time to join the efforts of committed activists, parents, and residents who have poured much sweat and tears into this school district. At this time, many parents with school age children are moving to communities that offer a quality public school education for their children. Businesses like Sears, Jewels, and many more who helped ease our homeowners tax burdens will continue to leave our community. Even now, our community is still under siege and taxed to death based upon corruption, greed, board 227 frivolous lawsuit fighting our community using the tax payer dollars to do so, negligence, lack of oversight, and mismanagement. Today, we can't afford to let Owens, Norwood, and their cronies run us out of town. We can't let them off the hook. It is time to take back our children's education and the future of our town. If not us, then who? Given the same failed conditions, we will have the same expensive and failed results. LET'S STOP THE PARTY OF "NO" TO STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND OVER TWENTY YEARS OF FAILURE. Let's stand with turn-around and the beginning of accountability and progress with our school district, community, and progressive board members. Let's stand for lasting change and progress on April 2, 2013. Today, less than three out of every ten of our children are reading and doing math at grade level and we are still being taxed to death while our homes have dropped to nearly half of their original value. No one, who values education, with children wants or needs a home where schools have failed them. School board 227's majority, in its refusal to listen to all board members, in its denials, war against facts, lack of real accountability, negligence of its roles and lack of moral leadership with oversight, let's the school admininstration and staff make decisions that are the responsibility of the full school board. Let's be clear. The role of the school board is to hire and evaluate the superintendent, its employee. The administration acting in the role of the school board, is like the tail wagging the dog. With lack of academic and moral assessment leadership at the top, anything can and will continue to happen. But with a lid put on the acts of full board and community communication from both sides of the aisles, board tolerance, respect for others views and input, transparency, and lack of board-district evaluation with data analysis in place, academic and moral lapses will continue to happen ten times over until we vote in a new accountability-driven with oversight, and proactive school board on April 2, 2013. To do otherwise would be to continue to fail our children and destroy our community. ****************************************************************************** Parents of District 227: A community rises or falls based upon the quality of its schools. Everyone who has observed what has gone on within school district 227 over the past several years have grown more appalled and amazed at what they have seen and have agreed that we must vote in a new school board on April 2, 2013 before we will see any improvement in student achievement levels. The reason why the students are not achieving with higher achievement scores is due to everything that the community has mentioned and complained about. However, everything begins at the top with an effective, honest, data-driven, school board whose role is to improve student achievement levels and to engage the school district community to achieve this goal. As a school board 227 member I will describe exactly what is going on that prevents our student from being successful. It all starts at the top with an effective school board. When there is no accountability at the top, no one else is compelled to be accountable in the school district beginning with the district administration. That' why the board's first role is to hire and effectively evaluate the superintendent, using data. Consider my first hand experience as a call to action. I'm the school principal who led a school on probation in West Englewood to triple its student achievement growth in just three years. If schools can be turned around and made to work in Chicago's West Englewood community, then it can happen anywhere in America. The key is great leadership found in an effective school board with vision, oversight, and integrity. Effective school board members do not make excuses for failure, neither they do they blame the victims, our parents, children, and community. I will begin by informing you that district 227 is one of the poorest academically performing districts in the south suburbs and in Illinois. This doesn't match up with the district's highly educated residents and living standards. It is presently becoming worse while the present school board continues to say that nothing can be done. As a results, district 227 has been on the state's watch list for over a decade. Recently, in the absence of informing the community of their move and being forewarned, in the absence of reflection but merely knee-jerk reaction from the school board boss, and with no community input, and without a shred of evidence, they have voted the superintendent a new contract until 2017. I will answer your question by posing another question and answering it as well. (1) Who is responsible for setting district 227 policies which would facilitate the improvement of student performance on the state mandated annual examinations? The elected school board. This is a predominantly black school board who continues to suppress targeted progressive board members, the progress of black children through negligence, and a predominantly black community whom they refused to represent. (2) Who is responsible for implementing these policies? The Superintendent. (3) Who is responsible for the drastic decline in student achievement for the past twelve years?" Only the minority school board members who were recently elected have accepted responsibility for this situation. (4) Who were the school board members elected by the community to positions of public trust and were charged with the responsibility of efficiently governing the district, overseeing and approving district actions, and conserving district taxpayer's funds for the past twelve years? The present majority school board members. (5) "Was increasing Student Academic Achievement a high priority with this school board? Apparently not. An examination of past board proceedings reveals that there is little mention of anyone in the skewed school board minutes who advocated student achievement and that very little attention was given to monitoring, none to evaluation of the district administration, and increasing student achievement levels in the district. The truth is that since the majority had already reached their goal, which was getting elected, and insuring that their family and friends are employed there is little oversight, and no accountability, or evaluation, they are already satisfied. Upon getting voted "in", the majority school board members' attitude is that they already have what they came to the board for so why bother about learning their roles as board members or of being concerned about students or the community? Rather than respect the community, they continue to fight the community and violate their rights as citizens of the United States in frivolous lawsuits in an effort curtail our freedom of speech and public participation from those who want better for our children, schools, and community. The board's frivolous lawsuits fighting the community, who wants better for its children, are still going on and have been staged at both the state and federal levels, costing the tax payers millions. As a result, in recent years over one hundred people were fired, half of whom were teachers, while pouring hundreds of thousands of our tax payer dollars into frivolous lawsuits. On February 20, 2012 a letter was sent to the Board President Betty Owens along with the superintendent from the Center for Open Government at Chicago's Kent college of Law citing serious legal issues supported and perpetuated by the school board of violating First Amendment Freedoms of two school board members, Dr. David Morgan and Mrs. Cheryl Coleman. The Center advises and represents individuals in litigation who seek legal assistance in their efforts to serve in their roles as public officials, to improve transparency and accountability of government bodies. In addition, the center regularly examines open government issues with respect to public bodies, including school districts in Illinois. Mrs. Coleman and Dr. Morgan asked the Center for assistance with the matters described below. Based upon the Center's review, there were serious legal issues that must be remedied by the School District 227. It urged the School Board to comply with the U.S. Constitution's freedoms of free speech, press, and right to petition laws, the state's Open Meeting Act, Freedom of Information Act laws, the state School Code and the Rich Township Board Policy Hand Book generally with regards to Board members Dr. Morgan and Mrs. Coleman. These abuses of power against other board members included violations of their citizenship rights and right to public and equal participation as public officials. This is still an especially troublesome issue within the School District, confirmed by the Center's Chicago Kent college of Law investigation, reports from the Illinois Attorney General's Office, and reported on by the local media. The Center reminded the board bosses that a duly elected school board member cannot be silenced with a banging gavel when they have the floor and the right to speak. Parents and community who continue to sue the school district based upon these board 227 suppression and violations of our constitutional liberties and freedoms have continued to cost our tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars in state and federal court frivolous lawsuits. These tax payer funds should be spent toward properly educating our children, but they're not. (6) What appears to have been priorities for the majority board members in District 227? Nepotism (hiring their friends and relatives to lucrative positions from the superintendent on down) regardless of experience, a track record of success, or qualifications for the position. The rule appeared to have been hiring your relatives and friends first but keep it on the down low. Board members spent hundreds of thousands of district tax payer dollars on themselves by attending expensive conference held in resort like settings. As a result of attendance, it appeared that they were more interested in the parties in these settings than in attending the training sessions that would prepare them to become effective board members, understand their governance role, engage community participation, and in the process, improve student achievement levels. Instead, often family members and friends accompanied board members on these trips as well as selected administrative staff. It appears that none of the innovations and training in governance and effective leadership were learned at the conference as observed in our continued lowered achievement levels and board majority obstruction in any attempts to implement them at the district level, such as continuous evaluation for continuous improvement were blocked by the board majority. Thus, board meetings agendas demonstrate that none of these conference innovations were implemented at the district level to improve student achievement. The majority board members charged the district for expensive meals and hotels stays even when the conferences were held in the Chicago area where public transportation was readily available to downtown Chicago. But three board members took take the Metro Train to the seasonal and annual events. These are the same three who have refused to be entertained annually at the expensive restaurants in downtown Chicago by board approved million dollar business contractors, none of whom are located in our community. The board is not about searching for board approved business contractors in our community who supplements our homeowners huge property tax bills. Reinvesting our forty-million dollars in business contracts with our district 227 business community is the right thing to push for. (7) Did the school board members act in a fiscally responsible and prudent manner in the dispensing of tax payer funds entrusted to them by the community in their roles as school board members? NO! Excessive amounts of district resources are still being wasted on lawsuits designed to take away our freedom of speech and public participation which could have been easily avoided, if the district had been more ethically transparent in their actions with the tax payers. Over the course of the last three years, this alone has resulted in a cost to the district of over a million dollars, including insurance payouts. This amount alone was enough tax payer funds to hire fifty new teachers, rather than fire them, to improve student achievement levels in reading and mathematics. By spring 2011, the school board had continued to waste massive amounts of district tax payer funds, using one of the most expensive law firms in the south suburb in their opposition to the creation of Southland College Prep Charter Schools. Most of the district parents have supported the creation of this institution which caused the state to act in an effort to provide a quality education for more students. Over six million dollars of district tax payer funds are being spent on the questionable purchase of an old insurance facility to be used an administrative center. Already cited above are the huge sums of money which majority members spend on themselves The school board majority has represented not all board members but only itself in frivolous law suits in their efforts to uphold a wrong in abolishing the community's rights to a decent education for all children, in which they have failed at and in violating both our community and targeted minority board members freedom of speech rights with gag rules and threats of arrests for speaking. These violations-of-freedom-speech lawsuits are still being waged against the community using our tax payers funds which should be spent on instruction, on academic improvement and on rehiring almost one hundred employees, half of which were teachers, whom the district fired in spring 2012 due to lack of misspent funds. (8) Did these board members devote themselves exclusively to school board business, school district affairs, and training sessions on these expensive trips, and in learning their true roles to become effective board members? NO! Many of them held duo roles in the local village government such as village trustees or other public offices as well as being school board members while being bent on blocking school district evaluation and assessment progress to protect their friends from being accountable in their roles as district employees. Meanwhile, to insure that there will be no interference during periodic or annual Union-Board negotiation sessions, targeted board members are blocked from participation in Union-Board negotiation so that the school board bosses are free to give away the storehouse to their friends and relatives they have hired in the school district. The same patterns is followed for superintendent contract negotiation, where one school board boss decides the salary, and conditions in lock step with other board members who have filled the school district with their friends and relative without consulting the full board for input in the process. Meanwhile the assessment evaluation components written into the superintendent's contract is a joke, that is never acted upon by the full board. While the summary of a fictitious evaluation without data is kept by the school board boss, which is her own creation, in case of an investigation, no one knows about it neither is it shared or discussed with the full board, and never with the community. Meanwhile, the school board boss acts as if we are also the superintendent's employee instead of the other way around, while targeted board members are threatened with arrest for speaking and publicly participating as public officials. (9) Does the District 227 School Board operate in an open, ethical, moral, transparent manner where the views of all board members are welcomed and respected? NO! The board president acts as a Czar. The opinions of the majority board members are given preference over the views of the newer board members or those targeted to be silenced at both board meetings and in the board minutes. Board agenda items submitted by the newer board members or those the president does not agree with do not appear on the board agenda. Usually, only the majority opinions are heard or allowed at open board meetings and minority opinions are seldom presented in board minutes. Therefore, board minutes are skewed and do not reflect what actually took place at board meetings. Newer board members are often denied the opportunity to speak at meetings and in the recent past, some were even threatened with arrest for speaking. The board president refuse to recognize them, while allowing the majority board members to speak at will for as long as they please. Minority opinions, voices, motions, or insights other than the views of a failed status quo are often railroaded at open board meetings. Any time that targeted progressive board members requested items on the agenda or their right to participate in union-board negotiations, superintendent contract development, or at any level of public participation they were bullied, threatened with arrest, challenged and denied by the school board boss. (10) Does District 227 have in place a professionally developed, data driven, evaluation system for the Superintendent and all district administrators which is open and includes student achievement data as an integral part of this evaluation? NO! The usual scenario in District 227 is for the board president to direct the Superintendent to prepare her own evaluation as well as other administrators in the district. And she demands that the superintendent document is submitted to her. The superintendent is then directed by the board chair to distribute the so-called superintendent evaluation document, without full board input, to all sitting board members with demands that the board approve the document with no discussions, deliberations, or revisions based upon input from all board members, student achievement data, etc.! At no time in past school years have any of these so-called evaluation instruments been released to the public, except the one developed by a minority board member which included provisions for student achievement data, but was rejected by the majority school board members, as a result. At no time in the past school years have any of these so-called evaluation instruments included any student academic achievement data as part of the evaluation. Any concerned minority board member who sought to develop a professionally sound student academic achievement based evaluation document were both overruled, disrespected, bullied, and abused. Though minority board members have complained loudly about the fraud being perpetrated called an evaluation, no one listened to them. The majority board members have remained silent as our school district achievement levels have continued to trend downward into the abyss. By the year 2012, less than three out of every ten Rich Township high school students were at grade level. This is the main reason why no one in the district assumes responsibility for student achievement or the lack there of, beginning with the majority school board. If not the school board, then who? Keep in mind that District 227 is one of the lowest academic performing districts in the entire southern suburbs with one of the highest paid staff. It also ranks near the bottom of the barrel among the over eight hundred school districts in Illinois. (11) Does the public have an opportunity to observe these board proceedings? After much opposition from the board majority, but also fearing what the April 2, 2013 elections will bring, in their fear of transparency and the consequences for growing awareness of their continuing opposition against student progress efforts, the minority board members who want better for our community, the board majority finally voted with the minority for the first time, who want better for our community, to televise its proceedings on cable. However, even then, the most important part of the meeting showing community participation and feedback were left out in 2011. It was only recently in summer 2012 that community participation was included on the website when progressive board members suggested once again that " both community participation and the regular board meeting should be rolled into one meeting and that it should appear on the district web site," said David Morgan and Cheryl Coleman. The full board 227 meetings now appear on the Rich Township High School District 227 website where you can access the meetings at any time. This accomplishment in more transparency alone will help clean some of the corruption but not all. We need a new school board who is committed to our children, community, and tax payer interests rather than merely self interest. (12) What can community do to help this situation? Demand open, moral, transparent and ethical behaviors from your elected board members. YOU MUST MONITOR THIS PERSONALLY! Run for office to break up decades of corruption that has continued unabated. Be a part of the solution! Demand that school board 227 make the improvement of district student academic achievement levels their top priority! Demand that the board end nepotism in the district and stop the reckless wasting of tax payer dollars in lawsuits against the community. Since they, obviously, have no intention of doing better or accepting their role and responsibility for improving student achievement then let the "votes" do the talking. Join the progressive elements in our community who is tired of being cheated and run for the school board to make things better. Patrick Henry Said it best. "He who does not govern himself wisely will be governed by despots. The greatest way to lose our liberties is to exercise our freedoms irresponsibly." Vote wisely on April 2, 2013 for a new school board who is about improving student achievement levels and effectively engaging the school community to achieve this goal. Get to know those school board members who are about doing the right thing, who have been there and have done that as educators, and are about improving student achievement levels and engaging the school district community to achieve this goal. Encourage parents to be responsible and to become involved in their child's school. If the school reports to you as a parent about your child's poor attendance, behavior or poor academic performance, then take it as fact and correct the problem the way your parents would have done if it were you. The school is not lying about your child. They could just as easily ignore the problem and let the child suffer the consequences. Act now; make sure that your present actions are in the best interest of your child. The schools can only teach children, they can't raise them. Being a parent is tough work. The Lord didn't give us any special skills when he gave us children. He just give us the children and we had to make it as best we could. He did provide us with a training manual, however, THE BIBLE. (13) Is there a need for a District 227 Inspector General to monitor operations as in Chicago Public Schools? YES! Why do we need an Inspector General and Internal Controls Auditor? To insure tax payer interests and to monitor to insure that all board members are serving as a faithful protector of the school district's academic, instructional, and financial assets. At this time, this is not the case. To insure that all board members are encouraging and respecting the free expression of opinion by their fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board through ethical and constructive channels so that the school board can function democratically and effectively as a board with input from all board members and from all stakeholders. At this time, we have school board czars who insist on violating other board members rights as well as the community's First Amendment Freedoms to participate in the conduct of their community's own internal affairs. The board czars have continued to fight the community in court wasting hundreds of thousands of our tax payer dollars in an effort to deny freedom of speech and public participation to both its community and targeted school board members who represent the community. We need to insure that all board members learn their roles, not as tyrants, dictators, czars, and despots, but as democratic and fair school governors in improving academic achievement levels and engaging the school district community to achieve this goal in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, and the laws of the state of Illinois. Recipients of federal funds must have controls that: (1) Ensure federal money and state money is spent correctly. (2) Transactions properly recorded and accounted for (3) Prove federal money is spent correctly. (4) Transactions executed in compliance with laws, regulations, and provisions of contracts or grants. (5) Safeguard property purchased with federal money. (6) Funds, property, and other assets safeguarded against loss from unauthorized use or disposition. (7) Most of our forty-seven million dollars school district business contract funds are reinvested back into our community with businesses who help ease the homeowners tax bills. The business of our community businesses is, well, business. When the school board doesn't patronize their own community businesses, they move. One of the nation's biggest businesses, Sears, just moved from the Lincoln Mall in Matteson. Over the past several years, the values of our homes in the newer communities have decreased by forty percent and above. A failing school district has a great impact on property values when few families with school age children who value education will move to a district with failing schools. In the situation we are in right now, there can be no half way measures. An inspector general will be willing to investigate all district corruption or none at all. Of course, with the present board, any investigation of this nature would be impossible. Leaving things the way they are until after April 2, 2013 is not in anybody's best interest. School district 227 needs an ordinance that would transform the internal school district audit department into an office of the inspector general paid for by the school district and responsible for investigating corruption complaints outlined here that we clearly know about as well as those we do not know about involving district employees. The ordinance calls for complaints against the school administration, school board members or the internal inspector general to be referred to an outside agency for investigation. Our property taxes have almost doubled over the past two decades as our school district melt down has continued. A five hundred thousand dollar home in Olympia Fields, with failing schools, may cost fifteen thousand dollars in annual property taxes while in Naperville, with high performing schools, a home of similar value may cost only seven thousand dollars in annual property taxes. Seventy percent of our tax dollars go toward education. The schools are our biggest expense. As a result of all the negligence and incompetence on the school board, and the lack of reinvestment of our school districts millions of dollars in tax payer funds back into our community, we are being taxed to death as our schools continue to decline. Those with children of high school age are leaving the community to avoid having to pay two taxes, one to send their children to a private school to prepare them for college, and another to support a public school that doesn't work for all children. As a school district 227, near the bottom in student achievement and getting worse, if that is possible, among the eight hundred districts in Illinois, we are not in a good place now. We need help on the school board to root out the deep corruption, death, and decay that is clearly evident here if we are to survive and to thrive as a community. At this time, the school board has spent millions of our tax payer funds in frivolous lawsuits violating our First Amendment freedoms, keeping the community uninformed, misinformed, dumbed down, and under achieving and over the years fighting our community who wants better for its children. It has paid $873,000 to just one of its law firms in the 2010-2011 school years while firing 48 teachers for a total of 88 people. The money being wasted fighting our community would have been wisely spent in keeping the 48 teachers and other personnel who was fired and hiring new ones. If we are to save our children, our homes, our schools, and our community, we must do something. Yet the school board 227 insists that nothing can be done. WE DESERVE REPRESENTATION FOR OUR TAXATION. We can never stand before a great human problem and pretend that nothing can be done. To save our children and our community, on April 2, 2013, we must do something. That is why we are on this earth. Sincerely, David E. Morgan, Ph.D., Educational Leadership, School Board Member, Rich Township High School District 227, Olympia Fields, Il.60461 Cell Phone: (708) 975-7001 A TEN YEAR ACADEMIC HISTORY OF SCHOOL DISTRICT 227 LEADERSHIP THE U.S. APPEAL COURT HAS LEFT NO DOUBT THAT, GIVEN THE LACK OF A QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL STUDENTS IN DISTRICT 227 FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, THE SOUTHLAND COLLEGE PREP CHARTER SCHOOL IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE STUDENTS OF DISTRICT 227. SCHOOL BOARD 227 WHO HAS SHOWN NO ABILITY WHATSOEVER TO IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, AND BY IMPLICATION, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, HAS FAILED THIS COMMUNITY FOR MORE THAN A DECADE. OUR DISTRICT 227 PARENTS AND OUR COMMUNITY, WHO VOTED FOR AN ALTERNATIVE NOW, BELIEVE THAT ALL CHILDREN HAVE A RIGHT TO A QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION. AS A RESULT, OUR COMMUNITY IS STILL LOOKING TO ELECT, ON APRIL 2, 2013, A SCHOOL BOARD WHO IS FOCUSED ON ITS ROLE AND AGENDA OF RAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS AND ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY TO ATTAIN THAT GOAL. NOW MORE THAN EVER BEFORE BD. 227 MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE, AND USE DATA IN DRIVING DECISIONS. THE FIRST SIGN OF OUR DYSFUNCTION, FAILURE, CORRUPTION, AND INEFFECTIVENESS IS THAT SCHOOL BOARD 227, AS A WHOLE, CANNOT SIT AND HAVE A CIVIL CONVERSATION, WITH EQUAL PARTICIPATION AMONG ALL BOARD MEMBERS, TRULY REPRESENT SCHOOL BOARD MINUTES, WITHOUT MAJORITY BOARD MEMBERS TRYING TO MUZZLE MINORITY BOARD MEMBERS. MEANWHILE, NONE WHO ARE UNJUSTLY AND UNEQUALLY GIVEN SPECIAL PRIVILEGE TO SPEAK ENDLESSLY BY THE BOARD CHAIR WILL SPEAK UP FOR THE ONES BEING DISCRIMINATED AGAINST SINCE THE ONE BANGING THE GAVEL INSURES THAT IT NEVER HAPPENS TO THEM. INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE. AS PUBLIC OFFICIALS, REPRESENTING THOUSANDS OF OTHERS IN OUR COMMUNITY, DENYING SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS THE RIGHT TO SPEAK EQUALLY AND WHEN THEIR TURN COMES, AND THEREBY DENYING ALL SEGMENTS OF OUR COMMUNITY, EQUAL REPRESENTATION AT OUR COMMUNITY'S TABLE OF BROTHERHOOD AND SISTERHOOD IS SYNONYMOUS WITH CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR. IT IS A VIOLATION OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACTS OF 1964 AND THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965. THE MAIN COMPONENT OF THIS 227 BOARD BEHAVIOR IS COMPLETE AND UTTER DISREGARDS FOR THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS AND THE RULES OF SOCIETY. THIS IS SELFISHNESS AND EGO-CENTRICITY IN THE EXTREME. IT CONSTITUTES VOTER FRAUD AND ELECTION FRAUD. OUR GOAL IS SUPPOSED TO BE CHILDREN FIRST AND IT TAKES A VILLAGE. BUT SCHOOL BOARD 227 BELIEVE THAT IT IS ALL ABOUT THEM AND IN ITS PURSUIT OF PRIVATE POWER AND PROFITS ASK WHAT CHILDREN AND WHICH VILLAGE OR COMMUNITY? IT'S CERTAINLY NOT THE STUDENTS IN SCHOOL DISTRICT 227. |
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