Monday, March 14, 2011

Park Ridge School District #64 – On the road to referendum!

Park Ridge School District #64, like it’s neighbor EMSD#63, seems to be on the road to its own referendum.

Look at the Administrator/Teacher pay report below.

It’s time, not for a referendum but an interventionIt’s time to take away the credit cards and to stop their profligate spending!

Nine Year Dist #64 Yrs 2002-2010 Report

Park Ridge Public Watchdog has this to say!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Butterly, thank you for the report. Teachers and administrators in D64 are now over paid although that was not always true. I will not be voting for a referendum any time soon.

Anonymous said...

I will vote yes for one because higher taxes keeps the riff raff out, unless you guys like having illegals in your neighborhoods.

Anonymous said...

"It’s time, not for a referendum but an intervention."

Hmmmmm....what exactly is wrong with a rererendum?? You have an issue defined and placed before the public for a vote. People for and against get a chance to present their cases. People (like you and me) get a chance to do our own research and make a choice. This is bad??

I would think that even you would agree that one of the problems we have related to our education system is public apathy. All one has to do to see that is attend a school board meeting. You will have no problem finding a parking space (same at a city council meeting by the way).

My experience is that a referendum dramatically increases participation and discussion in a community related to the issue on the ballot. In my relatively brief time in PR we have had referendums about swimming pools and police stations and, yes, the last d64 referendum. While one might question the results of these votes, all received serious public scrutiny and discussion.

If D64 is headed toward a referendum that is fine with me. If the public feels the way you do it may very well serve as the "intervention" you are looking for. A no vote would send a very clear message from the community. If the public votes yes, well thats life!!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 2:21 PM,

Are you sure higher taxes keep out the riff raff? Also, I havn't read much about an illegal problem in Park Ridge. Even with our lower taxes.

Anonymous said...

Just cause you haven't heard about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. My husband is a Park Ridge cop and you would be surprized of the drug and gang problems Park Ridge has.

Anonymous said...

March 17, 2011 2:03 PM,

Oh my! Drug and gang problems at Park Ridge School District #64?

Say it isn't so!

Anonymous said...

Gee Mr B....these are sure some interesting comments!!! You haven't been publishing mine lately. I wonder if this one will make it.

Anyway.....3:02 (et al), D64 covers only through grade 8. Based on my experience (Lincoln and Emerson) there are no gangs in middle school. It has been a few years, but I am fairly confident there are no gangs in elementry schools.

So if you are talking about gangs I would say you are talking about 207. My only comment on this is that it would appear that there is a pretty big difference in this area between schools, just as there is a pretty big differece in test scores.

Related to immigrants (whether legal or not) there is a fairly large immigrant population that would attend D64 schools (mostly Maine East). This population is mostly based in Maine township. You can go over to the Maine township hall and they have a variety of services including a food bank to assist these folks. If you want to refer to them as riff raff - well that is your business.

Lastly, related to drugs. If anyone with kids, teens and up, thinks that their kids in PR do not have access and opportunity to use drugs (including alcohol) they are just plain stupid!!! Good lord it was all available in a very small town highschool attnded by yours truely about 30 years ago!!

Kenneth Butterly said...

March 17, 2011 4:34 PM,

Yes, most of these are interesting comments.

Now, let me discuss that part of your comment directed specifically toward me.

“You haven't been publishing mine lately. I wonder if this one will make it.”

Answer: Yes, I did not publish your last comment at “Educate yourself - US Department of Education….” because you kept ranting about a subset, all be it an important subject, and not about the primary subject being discussed. I was not interested in our continuing to travel down that road and expressed my position, more than once.

Now, this is a new comment, one discussing the subject at hand. That’s why you’re back in the game!

Anonymous said...

You also did not post a comment I had about referendums and why they are a good thing.

Folks, please understand what Mr. B admitted to. It is he who deems a post worthy or reaching the actual blog. Of course that is his right - he runs the show. This issue is not unique to his blog but is a reality of the medium. Just don't for a second believe that you are getting any honest review or discussion about a critically important and complex issue.

(by the way I will be shocked if this one make the blog)

Kenneth Butterly said...

March 18, 2011 4:07 AM,

You will notice, should you press the “PgUp” key a couple of times, your comment, dated March 16, 2011 2:26 PM, now appears. I found it in the Blogger SPAM file. Google has created an algorithm designed to automatically filter out spam comments. The program is designed to automatically keep the blogger site from having to deal with "spammers".

Why your comment registered as spam is unknown to me at this time, although the use of quotation marks in the first line might have something to do with it. I’m just not sure. I couldn’t see anything else within your comment that could have possibly triggered it. That said, I have no control over that program but will start keeping a weather eye on the spam file.

Thank you for bringing this problem to my attention.

I will address your March 16, 2011 2:26 PM in a separate comment.