Is EMSD#63’s Financial Task Force – Just Kabuki Theater?

I’ve been following the progress of East Maine School District #63’s (EMSD#63) Financial Task Force (FTF) from day one. 

Purpose of FTF

On his blog, EMSD#63’s Superintendent, Dr. Scott Clay states the purpose as follows:

“The East Maine School District 63 Financial Taskforce has been formed to bring the Board of Education recommendations by early Spring 2011 that can provide financial stability to the District for at least the next six to ten years.”

Six Meetings Held To Date

Based on their published schedule, East Maine School District #63 Financial Task Force meetings were held on: 09/13/2011 – 09/13/2011, 10/04/2010, 10/18/2010,11/01/2010, 11/08/2010, 12/06/2010 and 01/10/2011.  Future meetings are scheduled for: 01/31/2011, 02/23/2011 and 03/02/2011.

Note: Click on blue highlighted date to review the FTF presentation. Also, some of these EMSD#63 attachments take some time to open.

Financial Task Force Members

Initially, there were 21 members of the Financial Task Force.  Take a look at the list to see how it’s grown. 

At the November 1, 2010 Financial Task Force meeting, according to Dr. Clay, “over 100 staff, board members, and community members” attended. One blog site said there were more than 200 attendees.

Thinking the discrepancy between these two normally reliable sources as being somewhat large decided to FOIA EMSD#63 to get a copy the “official” sign-in sheet. 

Curiously, no one can verify who actually attended that meeting as apparently, no sign-in sheet exists.

FOIA - 101116-001 - Requesting Nov. 1, 2010 Sign-in Sheet

Sign-in Sheets for meetings held on: 09/13/2011, 10/04/2010, 10/18/2010, 11/08/2010, 12/06/2010 and 01/10/2011 do exist.

Financial Taskforce Sign-in Sheets

Why would there be no sign-in sheet for the largest, most important and most attended Financial Task Force meeting held in this series. 

Maybe someone who was there can make some sense of this conundrum.

So who are these people anyway?  Why would they attend?  What’s in it for them?  What kind of dog do they have in the hunt?

First, let’s take a look who’s on the list – and who is not.

There are three parts to the report displayed below. 

The 1st part shows the reader who is on the list, their title (Board, Administrator, Teacher, Union Activist, etc.), whether they were an initial member of the Financial Task Force.  There is a matrix displaying each members attendance, the number times attended and their attendance rate. 

The 2nd part is another matrix, one displaying the names of EMSD#63 Board Members who have not taken part in the proceedings. 

Why they would choose to sit out this important process is beyond me.

The 3rd part displays attendance totals by title.  For the most par, the attendance percentages speak for themselves.  However, notice the small percentage of citizen participation. 

Financial Task Force Member List

Why are they there?

Board Members

Board Members are there because it’s their duty and the Board can not afford to have the public perceive Board incompetence or willful neglect. 

The real question is: why was the entire Board not fully involved?

Administrators, Teachers and Union Leaders

Administrators, Teachers and Union leaders are there because they have a dog in the hunt.  No one wants to see their school activities or department budget slashed or diminished in any way without at least an opportunity to deflect the ax or protect their turf. 

Concerned Citizens

Concerned Citizens are there because they actually believe that their participation will “make a difference”.  I know, I was one of them in 2003. 

Pre-Referendum Kabuki Dance

The Financial Task Force (FTF), as the Budget Reduction Committee (BRC) before it, is highly structured kabuki designed to give the impression that your will, will be done.  It’s purpose is to place a stamp of civis veritate (citizen authenticity) on EMSD#63’s future and unpopular budgetary related Board decisions. 

That’s why citizens are invited to participate. 

EMSD#63 does not dance alone.

Other School Districts, like Former EMSD#63 Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Williams prior employer: Lawrence Kansas School District also has a Task Force.

Here for your consideration are a few other FTF references as found through Google; in no particular order.

Del Mar Union School District Arrowhead Union High School Upper Dublin School District Hillsboro Oregon School District School District of Fort Atkinson Southfield Public Schools Shaker Heights, Ohio Santa Monica-Malibu School District Hermosa School District Allentown School District Castle-Shannon School District Washington Township Hoover City Schools USD Topeka Kansas Nashua New Hampshire Rockford School District Tempe School District Medford School District

Lets not forget Park Ridge District #64.

Failure to Address Fundamental Problems

Each FTF member is there, in my opinion, because the East Maine School District #63, led by President Jane Wojtkiewicz and former Superintendent Williams and Superintendent Clay, failed to adequately address the fundamental financial problems of the District following the last tax increase referendum of 2004. 

The creation of a Financial Task Force or a Budget Reduction Committee as we called it in 2003, is the first step of a multi-step process designed to lead district citizens toward another tax increase referendum.  This purely political process is specifically designed to insert citizen input into the budget reduction process, thus allowing the Board and Administration the luxury of blaming future changes or painful reductions in services, on someone else.

This kabuki dance will not solve the district’s underlying problems as last nights FTF recommendations will illustrate.  The process will however, give the Administration and Board cover for what is to come.

Like pigs at the trough….

The farmer is almost broke, he has had to take on a second job.  His wife now works in town at Wal-Mart, his kids are almost shoeless, the bank is about to foreclose and the pigs are complaining that they might loose their say in the quantity and quality of the slop.  

On Wisconsin!

Yesterday in Wisconsin, we saw the near-future; Wisconsin citizens protesting at their capital, demanding a halt to uncontrolled public employee spending.

Like so many in the country, taxpayers in Wisconsin are hurting.  Good private-sector jobs have been in decline.  Good hard working men and women are loosing their homes.  Wisconsin’s tax base is shrinking. 

I took this graph off the Wisconsin Department of Workplace Development.  This is not a pretty sight.

School Systems are going broke!

Wausau, the District now employing former EMSD#63 Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Williams, is facing a financial crisis of its own. 

Recently retired Superintendent Williams, as you will recall, led EMSD#63 through a 22% tax increase referendum in 2004.  It took two tries but the Superintendent/Board won by 1% of the vote. 

Unfortunately, for us, it’s 2004 again.  Last time the unemployment was low.  The Real-estate market was booming.  Inflation was under control.   That’s not the case today.

Education is a shared responsibility.

For years US Citizens have been told by the teachers, their unions and school leadership and other “experts” that education is a shared responsibility.  The “It Takes a Village” approach to allocating responsibility is conveniently used when discussing the industry's poor job performance, but this approach is quickly forgotten when discussing ever-increasing job costs.

Wisconsin is not alone.

Those Wisconsin teachers who went to Madison to protest, have yet to come to grips with reality.  They still have jobs – many of them, really good paying jobs. 

But what about their neighbors?

We have uncontrolled pension problems too.

We are in this together or we are not!

Should we be upset with good public servants wanting to make as much money as they can?  Of course not, that’s what we’re doing.  It’s human nature. 

What we (Wisconsin & Illinois) taxpayers should be upset about, is public union leadership’s continued lack of empathy,  their lack of Village Spirit and their unwillingness to share the burden with us.

Teachers and other public employees tell me that “they are taxpayers too”.  Indeed they are.  However, they don’t seem to understand that their jobs do not create or expand the pool of money that sustains them!  It’s the private sector that does.

Of course, teachers and other public employees are not pigs.  But they’re not farmers either.  The symbiotic relationship is out of balance. 

I suspect, in the end, the ultimate question will be; who will run the farm?

I hope the people in Wisconsin fare better then their neighbors in Illinois.

Are smaller classes always the answer?

The English school system, once the envy of the world, is finding it more and more difficult to educate their diverse and growing student population.  Like us and like the rest of western society, teaching establishments have come to believe that smaller classes = better educated students.

Based on research presented on statemaster.com, the average student:teacher ratio in Illinois is 16.5 students per teacher.  The the student:teacher ratio for EMSD#63, as reported at education.com is “14 students for every full-time equivalent teacher….”.

Britain, the country that birthed the commercial jet age just might be onto something here.

70:1 Student-Teacher Ratio - UK Daily Mail on Line

So, it’s back to the future!

Did District #39 Board see this before the vote?

I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.

District #39 Board Approves Referendum

Nine Year Dist #39 Yrs 2001-2009 Report

A blog worth doing….

One of the reasons for publishing this blog is my belief that some school systems, and EMSD#63 specifically, fail to provide their community adequate information and transparency.

I recently wrote a post congratulating Melzer School on passing No Child Left Behind’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). That post was in response to East Maine School District’s Dr. Clays “Academic Excellence Award – 2010 Illinois Honor Roll”.

Last Spring I was astounded to have Superintendent Clay responding directly to some of my posts.  The dialogue lasted only a couple of months and ended when Dr. Clay created his own blog site where he could control his message.  Too bad for us he couldn’t take the heat.

In his latest post, Dr. Clay reaffirmed one of the reasons for my writing this blog.  Note the posting dates.  Without someone questioning the result of his work and it is his work as Superintendent that I am ultimately questioning, he would not have felt any need to respond.

So, I guess this is as good a time as any to ask a couple other questions.

The report presented below displays three important trends:

• Attendance/Non-attendance rates
• District Superintendent salary rates
• and Total Expense rates

between 2006 and 2010.  Source for these facts are The Illinois State Board of Education (Annual Statement of Affairs Report) and FOIA requested EMSD#63’s Detail Budget Reports.

Rate of Attendance 2006 - 2010

So, how does Dr. Clay justify the outrageously high absentee rate in light of the extraordinary Superintendent pay increases and District expense history.

Money is the mothers-milk of Public Education.  In the near future District #63 parents and residents will be faced with the prospect of forcibly lowering the cost and quality of educating or increasing revenue through a tax increase referendum.

I bet East Maine School District #63’s current Financial Task Force has never seen numbers like these at their meetings!

Congratulations Melzer!

I was surprised to read Dr. Clay’s post titled: “Academic Excellence Award – 2010 Illinois Honor Roll”.  This January 31, 2011 post was a direct response to my January 25, 2011 post: “So where are the educational achievements?”  In that post, I opined about the District’s lack of academic achievement at each of it’s seven schools. 

Melzer School’s achievement is laudable. 

Melzers Principal, Shawn Schleizer, deserves our praise.

That said, Dr. Clay’s retort, in my opinion, is no more than an excuse for EMSD#63’s continued lack of academic achievement at each of the other schools.

So let me ask this question?

What about Apollo, Gemini, Mark Twain, Nelson, Stevenson and Washington?

EMSD#63 - Adequate Yearly Progress Results

Data derived from Illinois Interactive Report Cards

AYP Yrs 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010                   District N/A No Yes Yes Yes No No No                   Apollo No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Gemini No No No Yes Yes No No No Mark Twain No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Melzer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Nelson Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Stevenson Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Washington Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

There is one failing school that concerns me the most, Gemini Junior High School; the only Junior High School in the District and the direct feeder school to District 207’s Maine East High School (MEHS).  Based on recent discussions with MEHS teachers, too many EMSD#63 graduates still appear to need remedial work upon entry into the 9th grade.

As you can see, long time Gemini School Principal Scott Herrmann has failed to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) 6 out of of his last 8 years. 

Mr. Herrmann’s  services do not come cheap!

Scott Herrmann – Gemini Principal – Pay Data 2001-2009

Mr. Herrmann is a likeable fellow.   That said, he is the same Principal who, based on District#63 FOIA documents, permitted extraordinary grade inflation at Gemini Junior High School in 2006.  I wrote about this subject in 2006-2007.  See Counterfeit Excellence and Counterfeit Excellence – Update. 

My father owned a horseradish factory.  From the time I was 10 until I was 18 I spent my summers working in the factory.  One summer, when I was a teenager, I asked my dad why we didn’t add turnips to the horseradish so we could turn a bigger profit like some of our competitors.  My father provided me a “teaching moment” when he said: “Ken, my customers are buying horseradish and they will get horseradish, nothing less”.

EMSD#63 taxpayers believe they are buying an educated student and they deserve nothing less!

Maybe it’s time Mr. Hermann consider retiring.  I’m sure, if he needs extra money, he can always follow Dr. Williams to Wisconsin.  Just an idea!

Finally, let me say this one more time!

Based on my experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone does the best they can, all the time, no matter what the endeavor. I believe no one enters into any enterprise with the intention of failure. 

If my belief is true, then it will be impossible, with EMSD#63’s current personnel and leadership to succeed. 

One can not do better than their best, no matter how much additional tax money they get.