| LETTER TO BE MAILED TO REV. JACKSON - Helen Burleson We cannot forever sit silently and idly by as the continuing and inevitable seeds are sown for a second harvest of disaster for our children and community's future! Sunday, June 23, 2013 12:14 PM From: "HBurl1229@aol.com" <HBurl1229@aol.com> View contact details To: hburl1229@aol.com Dear Residents: This letter will be sent in response to Rev. Jackson's offer to mediate a local issue concerning the termination of the contract of the superintendent of schools of District 227, Dr. Donna Simpson Leak. Instead of advocating what is in the best interest of the students, Rev. Jackson erroneously tried to tie this to a Civil Rights issue. That is the reason for my references to all who have paid a price to advance the cause of equal justice under the law, economic, educational, social and civil parity in all American policies and institutions. Operation Push 930 East 50th Street Chicago, IL 60615 Dear Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. The community has been made aware of the fact that you have offered to assist us in a problem within our school district. We are appreciative of the fact that as a minister you are willing to mediate a troublesome situation. We know well your reputation and service as a person with lengthy experiences of intervention in many arenas. However, this local issue does not rise to the level of a civil rights issue. Protecting the present and the future of our collective children is of greater value than protecting the employment of a single individual who has been adjudged by Rich Township High School District Board of Education as failing to meet the requirements as set forth in their performance policy. We consider this an internal local problem that can be resolved and perhaps solved expeditiously without outside intervention. We feel that this problem was exacerbated by people from outside the community, whose out of control behavior flamed to a boiling point, a situation for which they had no historical perspective or intimate knowledge. This is a problem of a local nature which concerns the most precious members of our society, our children. Our children deserve and must get a world class quality education that prepares them well for the challenges to be relevant and competent in the global market, new to their generation. Never before have children needed to rely on their education and training as this generation will have to do. In the past, a high school education was sufficient to get the jobs of the past which enabled many of our parents to rise to the middle class. The national industrial revolution produced many employment opportunities where non skilled workers could find work to sustain and maintain their families. The paradigm has shifted and this international dichotomy brings a different range of challenges that we are determined to see to it that our children are prepared for and are able to compete globally with any known power and/or any future emerging power. This is new. We, the taxpayers of Rich Township High School District 227, as a highly educated and accomplished community, with fervor, are seeking the best that life has to offer our children. In order to attain our goal, we are going to have to make changes and adjustments. We are not satisfied that the latest test results showed that fewer than 30% of our students in District 227 meet state or national standards despite the fact that our budget reflects that we are spending more on salaries for staff and more dollars per pupil than more successful school districts. That picture has to change and it has to change immediately for students have only one time to matriculate through high school. When the MAJORITY of the children are not reaching their maximum potential, that is an indicator that we are on the wrong path. Anyone and anything on that defective path must be removed and replaced with those who share our common goals of ACADEMIC and CULTURAL EXCELLENCE. Mediocrity will not prepare our children for their world. The credo has always been that children should do better than their parents; and, hard working parents have traditionally tried to assure that their children have opportunities that were not available to them. The failure of District 227 schools (where less than three out of every ten of our high school students are at grade level in a community that is not poverty stricken) would not please Martin, Medgar, Malcolm, Myrlie, Fannie, Viola, Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman or Adam, Thurgood, Marcus, Harriett, Captain Robert Small, Doris "Dorie" Miller, Chrispus, Frederick Douglas, Booker T., W. E. B. DuBois, A. Phillip, Stokely, Chairman Fred, Ida B, Dr. Bobby Wright, Lou Palmer , Edward Gardner or Jean Pointe Baptiste DuSable, pioneers and activists on whose shoulders we stand and who paved a pathway to freedom, and liberty with justice for us all. We, the taxpayers and area residents can do no less than what is expected of our cherishing and holding tight to the baton which they have passed on to us. "We Shall Overcome," and we will do it alone because we are bold, we are qualified, we are ready, willing and we are able. Most sincerely, Helen L. Burleson, Doctor of Public Administration and A long time community activist, a former 9 year member of the Flossmoor Board of Education, from 1972-1981, former member of the Illinois State Board of Education, from 1981-1983, 1994 Founder of the Enhancement Organization of Olympia Fields, a former member as a participant in the Reorganization of the Social Studies Curriculum of the State of Illinois, the Illinois Humanities Council, the Governor's Task Force on Medical Malpractice, 1966 Founder of the Women's Board of the DuSable Museum of African American History and a neighborhood organizer of the successful Chicago Schools Boycott fighting the Willis wagons and the mis-education of Black children in the Chicago Public Schools. |
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