Bill Lloyd’s updates

District 211 school board member Bill Lloyd has posted School’s out for summer and an update on District 211 business issues.

As far as negotiating salaries with the teachers union, Mr. Lloyd writes:

For those who have asked and those who may be curious, the board has chosen to continue to follow its established protocol, thus the board has opted to continue to use district administration along with the board’s attorney to handle contract negotiations on behalf of the board. There will be no board member at the negotiating table or in the room as an observer.

This should be changed, in my never-to-be-humble opinion.

 

The rumor I hear is that the hearing in front of a judge about whether District 211 violated state law by entering into a no-bid contract for energy with the Illinois Energy Consortium has been moved to Friday, June 22.

 

When adjusted for cost of living, pension contribution, and experience, teacher compensation in Illinois ranks 3rd in the nation.

 

Alarming post about legislative end-run

Lennie at Education Matters filed an “open records” request with some school districts to see if, like District 211, they also used a no-bid business model in their energy purchases.

A lot of school districts who are buying energy from the Illinois Energy Consortium, as he has learned through his Freedom of Information requests, did not use a competitive bid process.

One of those school districts is Round Lake, as Lennie reports.

He says:

You might be asking yourself why I am holding out Round Lake as different than other particpants in the IEC, IUPC, or other energy consortiums who did not competitively bid energy contracts. The answer is simple, Round Lake schools have been under State Finance Authority since 2002. In other words, while under State Control, the school district has been allowed to continue the practice of no-bid contracts.

The SFA fixed the glaring financial mismanagement that had been rampant in the district necessitating the State oversite. They allowed the no-bid practice to continue that has enabled other State organizations, the IASB, IASBO, and the IASA to collect millions of dollars at the expense of the taxpayers.

Lennie notes that the Illinois Senate and House are pushing through bills as fast as they can to legally exempt school districts from having to get competitive bids.

It’s urgent that you contact your senator and representative. Lennie shows you how to do that.

 

Posting the school district checkbook online

At the District 299 blog, Alexander Russo writes about the idea of putting checkbook registers online, with some topical updates and a question for Chicago Public Schools…a similar question  to one I asked of District 211 awhile back:

Why not post the District 211 checkbook online?

 

We’ll know on June 6

Who will win Tarsitano v. District 211?
	Tarsitano
	District 211
	The taxpayers
pollcode.com free polls

 

Must be nice

Pensions.

But, really…it’s all about the kids.

Illinois pioneer of school district transparency.

 

A fundamental reform

Talk show host and blogger Bruno Behrend of Extreme Wisdom is floating a very intriquing draft of a proposal for school funding and educational reform in Illinois.

 

Update on Illinois Energy Consortium

It has been awhile since I looked at District 211’s official website update about its dealings with the Illinois Energy Consortium. Looking at it this morning, the first few paragraphs seem new (although I may just have early onset senile dementia).

Here are the first few sentences of the update as it now reads with my comments:

On May 11, 2006, the District 211 Board of Education approved the best offer received in the District’s request for proposals for electric and natural gas.

It has been reported over and over again and even, I think, stipulated in the court filings, that there were no written requests for proposals issued by the District. At best, I believe that a District 211 employee made some phone calls. So I think it is a significant exaggeration to refer to “the District’s request for proposals”.

 

The good folks at The Champion were recently interviewed by an ABC-TV affiliate. Excerpt:

Zettler started compiling pension stats five years ago after he questioned how his suburban school district was spending money. What he found stunned him.

“There are over 1.100 teachers who have pensions of over $111,000 a year and they can retire at age 55,” said Zettler.

It is stunning.