Well, whatta ya know...another secret special meeting... http://www.pleasantdaleparks.org/PDFs/boardMins/2010/02_26_10a.pdf

Good Bye and Best Wishes

We'd like to take time to wish middle school assistant principal Kim Freislinger well in her retirement at the end of this school year. 

Kim has a constant presence in the middle school and is well liked by both students and parents for her approachable demeanor, the connection she makes with the kids, her take charge attitude and the fact that she truly cares about the students. She will truly be missed!

The position of middle school assistant principal has been posted here under #107 Pleasantdale: http://www.cook.k12.il.us/EmploymentOpportunities/ViewVacancies/tabid/123/Default.aspx

The posting of this position brings up an interesting question. Does Pleasantdale Middle School really need an assistant principal? 

Everywhere in the news lately you will read about Illinois school districts facing unprecedented deficits and having to make budget cutting decisions not only in the classrooms, but in regard to hiring teachers and administrators and with various programs such as transportation. Below are just a few of the many articles found in the news that highlight the plight of Illinois schools.

• http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northnorthwest/ct-met-teacher-layoff-0223-20100222,0,5322021.story
• http://www.pioneerlocal.com/lagrange/news/2045134,lg-102cuts-021210-s1.article
• http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/lemont/breaking/x562899321/District-113A-proposes-to-layoff-70-school-staff-members
• http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/2041566,2_1_AU11_SCHOOLFUND_S1-100211.article
• http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=352632
• http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/huntley/news/education/x655693673/District-303-receives-grim-report-from-superintendent-on-budget-cuts
• http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=359923&src=2
• http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7273235
• http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=358237&src=2

Pleasantdale middle school has approximately 333 students in grades 5 through 8. The elementary school has 505 students. There are 172 more students at the elementary school yet they do not have an assistant principal.

If you look at the all district middle schools that feed into Lyons Township High School only districts 101 (grades 6-8), 102 (grades 7 & 8) and 103 (grades 6-8) have assistant principals. However, their enrollments are much higher than ours with 537, 634 and 675 students respectively. 

So why does Pleasantdale Middle School with a low enrollment of just 333 need an assistant principal? Why can't current principal Meg Pokorny handle the middle school on her own?

Should Pleasatdale show the taxpayers that they, like every district around them, are tightening their belt rather than doling out over $116,000 a year on a position that really isn't necessary?

Congratulations to Lyons Township Park Bond Award Recipients

Congratulations to the Village of Willow Springs for receiving grant money to be used for their parks from the Township of Lyons.

Willow Springs was awarded $367,360. Lets hope the cash strapped village uses the bond money for the projects it was intended for.

We have received confirmation that Pleasant Dale Park District has not been awarded any money as of yet. We will be following this and let you know if and when Pleasant Dale Park receives any money and what it is to be used for when we find out.

February Park Board Meeting Recap

The meeting started on time and was conducted by Colleen Pettrone because Brad Martin arrived late. Surprise, surprise.

During open forum, a few residents complimented the park district and Matt Russian on a well run weekend basketball tournament. 


Once again the board was asked the financial picture of the Chalet. For the third month in a row, Katherine Parker rattled some numbers off the top of her head. She never comes to the meetings with a prepared financial statement, it’s always a guesstimate. She always uses words like, “I think” or “It was about...” Can't she, for once, come to a board meeting with something on paper instead of in her head? Every month her numbers are different. She talks about revenue but not expenses. They want you to think they are making tons of money, but they're not. If they were, she would have something concrete to show, but she doesn't.

Also during open forum, resident Edie Zuccaro stated she was shocked that everybody was so disheartened. When she served on the park board they passed a motion to spend a MILLION dollars on the Chalet but it got voted down. She said the Chalet is a great facility and it is finally making money and she can’t understand why people are complaining about it. When Edie was asked how she knew the Chalet was making money, she stated, “It was in the board minutes for December. They made $30,000, $60,000.”

Maybe she should stop drinking the Kool-Aid and take a minute to READ the board minutes from December. Nowhere in these minutes does it state that the Chalet is making money and especially not $60,000! Here is a link to the minutes so you can read them yourself.

http://www.pleasantdaleparks.org/PDFs/boardMins/2009/12_08_09.pdf

 Edie also spoke about there being nothing wrong with having special meetings. We know that. The complaint is that they are never publicized or scheduled at times convenient to the public. Here is a link to the Illinois Open Meetings Act that she might want to read and share with her friends on the board.

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=84&ChapAct=5 ILCS 120/&ChapterID=2&ChapterName=GENERAL+PROVISIONS&ActName=Open+Meetings+Act.&Print=True%20)

The pressing business that was to be conducted at Monday's special meeting had to do with some fitness equipment that members of the park board would like to purchase. It is being sold by Velocity Sports Performance because they lost their lease. The equipment is used and the asking price was approx. $41K. According to Ernie Moon, the Chalet is in need of updated workout equipment. Velocity must sell their equipment or it will be sold at auction because they lost their lease and this equipment is collateral on a loan they have. The auction process is supposed to start on Thursday. Brad Martin suggested offering Velocity $35,000 for everything. He was more worried about the needs of Dale Deatsch and his deadline for the auction than he was about getting the best bang for the taxpayers' buck. At one point Martin stated that Deatsch was down to the wire and needed to get the most money he could for the equipment at which point Cainkar said, "They're broke." Martin stated that Deatsch paid $80K for the equipment and he only wanted half the value. Ernie Moon made a motion to offer Deatsch $18,500 for the used equipment. After the motion was seconded, the roll call went Moon, Brewer, Pettrone: yea and Martin: nay. 

NAY??? 

Brad Martin said he thinks it is worth more than $18,500. He wanted to offer more money. This coming from the guy who in July stated the park was in financial ruin. Does it strike anyone as odd that Brad Martin wants to offer top dollar to a company that has a partnership with his sister-in-law, Sue Keck? Velocity Sports Performance has a page on their website that lists their partners. Two of the partners listed on their website, 1st Alliance and Lions Jrs. are club's owned by Martin's sister-in-law. Isn't this a conflict of interest for Martin? Should he be voting on ANYTHING  that will directly benefit his sister-in-law's companies or their partners? 

Discussion then turned to outsourcing jobs at the park district. Namely financial and payroll services. When Ernie Moon asked about this, Katherine replied you missed the meeting when this was discussed. Yeah, so did we because it was one of those secret special meetings that they didn't tell anyone about. This secret meeting came about at the December 8th board meeting. After 20 minutes of regular meeting, the board went into executive session to clear the room. About 10 minutes later, the recording secretary came out. She was asked if the meeting was going to reconvene and she said it was over and that they continued the meeting. They continued the meeting without telling anyone so that they could have discussion on December 10th with no one present in the audience. Sneaky. 

The jobs they want to outsource are financial services and payroll services. Ernie Moon asked 'by outsourcing jobs, would they be eliminating some jobs?' Brewer added that by gathering bids to outsource jobs, they were looking at how much money the park district could save. This was rather ironic. A few minutes earlier, Martin was looking at how much money he could spend to help Deatsch out of his debt, and now they were talking about eliminating jobs of long time employees. It is obvious where Martin's loyalty is...with a partner of his sister-in-law's. 

The most absurd part of the meeting was when Moon brought up Carol McMurray's resignation. Pettrone stated, "Unfortunately we didn't have any discussion, which is unfortunate for all of us." 

No discussion?? 

Where was the discussion with Carol when they purposely changed the meeting to a night she specifically said she could not attend due to work commitments? People are not as dumb as they think. They FORCED Carol's resignation. There was no discussion with her. For Colleen to act all innocent is preposterous. Brad, Wade and Colleen should be ashamed of themselves for what they did to Carol McMurray. The residents of this community voted Carol into office and in one fell swoop, the three stooges tossed her out. No discussion...come on, Colleen, give us a break!

Finally, Cainkar drafted some kind of resolution for changing the appointment procedures for vacancies in the office of park. At his direction, the actual resolution was not read out loud except for the title. He said the resolution parallels state statute and his suggestion for the board is and has been that the board should advertise for the position. He offered to put something together for the board, and put it in the paper, request resumes and interview candidates. We'd be willing to bet that doesn't happen.

You might be wondering what Martin's role was for the remainder of the meeting. Well, to be honest, he sat there and sulked over the low offer for the fitness equipment. He did not participate in discussion on any other matters, just Velocity. 

We don't make this stuff up, you can view the entire meeting on tape if you would like. 

Residents lash out at Pleasant Dale Park Board

The Doings Western Springs

Comments

February 11, 2010 

By KAREN SORENSON

Angry residents dominated the first portion of the Pleasant Dale Park Board meeting Feb. 10 to question everything from how the Chalet athletic center was being marketed to why a meeting date was changed to exclude one board member.

Even the board's decision to make a bid to purchase used gym equipment for the Chalet was questioned by resident Steve Kuehn of Burr Ridge, who interrupted the board's discussion with, “You don't have the money (to do this).”

More than a dozen people attended the meeting, and many of the comments made centered on four issues — how much the Chalet remodeling work cost, why the board called for a special meeting two days prior to the regular meeting to discuss the same agenda items, why the board's monthly meeting date was changed when members knew 12-year board veteran Carol McMurray could not attend and why items the board intended to vote on were scheduled for after the board's closed-door session.

McMurray's decision to resign because she could no longer attend the monthly meeting date after it was changed from the second Tuesday of the month to the second Wednesday was particularly divisive. The board was aware of McMurray's schedule conflict when they made the change, Kristin Violante, of Willow Springs, said.

“It's a slap in the face to all of the people who voted for her,” Violante said.

Gina Nelson of Willow Springs questioned why the board called a special meeting for 1 p.m. Monday to discuss the fitness equipment purchase, outsourcing jobs and personnel issues when all three topics were also on the Wednesday meeting agenda. (The meeting ultimately did not take place when The Doings charged the board failed to provide 48 hours' advance notice to the media, per the Illinois Open Meetings Act.)

Nelson, who filmed the Wednesday night meeting, also asked why the board would choose to meet at 1 p.m., when most people are at work and could not attend.

“Can you tell me why (the special meeting agenda items) couldn't be discussed here?” Nelson said. “You were elected by the public to serve the public, not yourselves and when it's convenient for you.”

While the board listened to most of the comments without response, member Colleen Petrone did take umbrage at Nelson's allegation.

“I'm here for every resident, every taxpayer,” she said. “Not a few, but the whole.” Residents were given a total of 15 minutes to speak with the board, and Petrone stopped Nelson mid-sentence. “Please, enough. Thank you. You've had your time.”

Despite the negative comments, several audience members told the board they liked the changes that had been made at the Chalet and how things were being run. One person defended the board's right to meet during the afternoon, and said it was a common practice of previous boards.

The board did respond to one criticism by reshuffling the agenda so that all items would be discussed prior to the board going into closed session. Much of the regular board meeting was devoted to a discussion on whether a bid ought to be made to purchase used equipment from the Velocity Sports Performance in Willowbrook, which is closing.

Among the items being sold are weights, batting cages, a crash board and two retractable basketball hoops. The equipment was priced by the owner at $41,116, and is slated to go to auction if no bids for its purchase is made, board member Ernie Moon said. Anticipating that the owner and the bank receiving the money would likely prefer not to go to auction, where anywhere from 5 percent to 10 percent of the proceeds will go to the auction company, the board decided it would make an offer of $19,000 and see if it would be accepted.

Only board President Brad Martin voted against the motion, saying he feared the district bid would be rejected because it was too low and they would miss their opportunity to buy the equipment.
“I think we're going to lose it,” he said.

If they are successful in buying the equipment, the board would take a short-term, low-interest loan that could be paid off in a couple of years, per the advice of their attorney, Vince Cainkar.

LTHS 2010 Kids Summer Activity Programs

Once again Lyons Township High School is offering summer activity programs for kids.

These programs are fun, reasonably priced and a great way for children to learn or advance in a variety of activities and sports. They are offering the following programs this summer:

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Choral
• Cooking
• Drumline/Percussion
• Football
• Guitar
• Gymnastics
• Kayaking
• Lacrosse
• Rock Climbing
• Running
• Sewing
• Soccer
• Softball
• String Development
• Swim Conditioning
• Swimming (Learn to Swim)
• Track and Field
• Volleyball

The 2010 LTHS Summer Activity Program dates and times can be found here:

http://www.lths.net/export/sites/LTHS/Academics/Summer_Programs/_files/Activity_Camp_Grid_10feb.pdf

More information can be found at: http://www.lths.net/Academics/Summer_Programs/Activity_Programs.html

Early registration begins on March 1, 2010 and ends on March 7, 2010.

Job Well Done!

Pleasantdale students send items to Marines

The Doings Western Springs

February 4, 2010

Pleasantdale Elementary School students, families, staff and PTA recently completed a comprehensive education-based service project involving a Marine group stationed in Afghanistan.

The project started when Jean French, parent to six children, asked Principal Matt Vandercar about coordinating a letter writing and care package campaign to a friend's son, a marine stationed in Afghanistan. In response, The Write Stuff, a monthly writing activity led by PTA parents Rosaria Becker and Julia Doyle sponsored these two campaigns. This idea fueled a schoolwide effort to support and encourage our troops through heartfelt letters and supplies.

The school's annual Veterans Day celebration was the kick-off activity. Many years ago, Pleasantdale Elementary District 107 opted to attend school on a day when many school districts take the day off in observance of Veterans Day.

"Veterans Day is a very important day in District 107" said Vandercar. "Every child in the building participates in meaningful activities celebrating this special day."

The culminating activity for Veterans Day is a schoolwide assembly. Veterans are invited to attend and speak to the student body. In addition, each grade level in the preschool through fourth grade building gets a chance to present the special guests with some sort of tribute.

This year, Jim Martin of Western Springs spoke to students, asking them to write letters to his son, Michael, a young marine and graduate of Lyons Township High School and his platoon, the 2/2 Weapons Company stationed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Vandercar said this was a very powerful and emotional plea.

"I imagine most of the students went home that afternoon and started their letters. The students were very empathetic to Mr. Martin," Vandercar said.

"The generosity and kindness shown by Pleasantdale families and others was unbelievable" Vandercar said.

There were enough magazines, razors, shaving cream, foot powder, lotions, candy, snacks, sunscreen and socks to fill nearly 60 boxes. Pleasantdale families, along with area contributors, donated $700 to pay for shipping.

The district thanks to Hinsdale Boy Scout Troop 8; Antares Institute, Willowbrook; West Suburban Women's Health LLC, Willowbrook; The Law Firm of Gunty & McCarthy, Chicago; and Attorney Daniel Donnelly, Western Springs, whose contributions also made this campaign a success. A group of parents and students came in over the holiday break to sort, package and ship everything to the Marines in Afghanistan.

Last week, Pleasantdale students received a very exciting phone call from Michael Martin in Afghanistan, which was played over the loud speaker. The message thanked the students for all the letters and treats. Martin told the students that they are very appreciative and plan on visiting Pleasantdale Elementary School when their stay in Afghanistan is over.

"Hearing from the Marines was quite a climactic event. Every student was touched and felt they had made a difference in someone's life" said Vandercar.

More Park Shenanigans...Will it Ever End?

Pleasant Dale Board cancels meeting after Doings complaint

February 8, 2010

By JANE MICHAELS jmichaels@pioneerlocal.com

Minutes before a special meeting was due to begin Monday afternoon, the Pleasant Dale Park Board canceled the session called to discuss personnel matters and proposals to buy used fitness equipment and outsource jobs.

Executive Director Katherine Parker said the meeting was canceled to avoid violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act, after The Doings challenged whether the required 48-hour notice had been given to the newspaper.

“I thought I faxed it and sent e-mails. I put it on the Web and posted it at the Recreation Center Saturday,” Parker said. “But if you didn't get it, we don't want to risk it.”

Instead, the topics will be discussed at the board's regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Recreation Center, 7425 Wolf Road, Burr Ridge. The meeting was to include a closed-door session to discuss personnel issues, followed by an agenda item “hiring and firing of personnel.”

A handful of residents waited for the meeting to begin and expressed surprise that it was canceled.

The specially called meeting comes just after board member Carol McMurray of Willow Springs resigned in January after 12 years on the board. McMurray stepped down because other board members changed the meetings, held for years on Tuesdays, to Wednesdays when she was unable to attend due to conflicts with her job as a teacher. Two years remain on McMurray's term. The board Wednesday also plans to consider a resolution changing the procedures for vacancies on the Park Board.

Editor's Note:

If the park district was so concerned about having an open meeting, why didn't they post the secret special meeting on the marquis outside the main park building? Instead, they posted the Wednesday evening meeting on the marquis but not today's secret special meeting. Hmmm....

Guess this was going to be the meeting before the meeting. If the three musketeers (Brad Martin, Colleen Pettrone or Wade Brewer) conduct their secret special business during the day when the public is unaware and largely unavailable, no one will attend or question their practices.

Maybe they don't like their meetings to be recorded so they tried to pull a fast one and conduct the bulk of their regular meeting at the secret special meeting. We can't imagine they would do that, can you??

If you look at the agendas of each meeting (http://www.pleasantdaleparks.org/pages/newsMinutes.php), they are basically the same except for the consent agenda and the announcement of the next golf course meeting. In other words, they were planning to have a five minute meeting on Wednesday night because all their business was to have been conducted on Monday afternoon. Makes you wonder what they are hiding, doesn't it?

You might also notice that they placed the "resolution to change the appointment procedures for vacancies in office of park commissioner" after the executive session. This agenda item is strategically placed there so everyone will go home and not be present when this discussion takes place.

Who do you blame for this? Is it Katherine Parker or Martin, Pettrone and Brewer?

Thinking back to Brad and Wade's campaign promises of just one year ago, they said they were going to make some changes at the park. They just didn't say they were going to change things for the worse.

Hero

Our prayers go out to the Jalovec family of Willow Springs. Jim Jalovec went to Haiti, to provide medical supplies to those affected by the earthquake. He was killed Thursday night in a tragic helicopter crash while there. 

Jimmy was a Pleasantdale alumni and his family still lives on School Street. CNN called Jim a hero. We couldn't agree more. 

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/05/dominican.helicopter.crash/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Holecek Fundraiser Coupon

This is the coupon that you MUST bring with you to the fundraiser on February 10th. We have now been told they will not be available at the door. Sorry for the confusion.

Click on the image to make it larger. If copying and printing the image does not work for you, please email us and we will email a better copy to you. See you there!!

Some Novel Ideas

One of the things we do here is get the pulse of what is happening in school districts that are in close proximity to Pleasantdale as well as those that feed into Lyons Township, also called feeder schools.


We particularly enjoy following what is happening in School District 102 in La Grange. Our very own superintendent Mark Fredsidorf and middle school principal, Meg Pokorny both hailed from district 102 and the president of our school board, Leandra Sedlack currently teaches there. 


They are doing some amazing things in La Grange these days, hopefully some of which will rub off at Pleasantdale! 


Last year, they rolled out a full day Kindergarten program for free and have had a tremendous positive response to it. In fact, they had so many students sign up for the full day program, that they had to freeze enrollment! Hmmm, full day Kindergarten? For free? There's an idea.  
http://www2.dist102.k12.il.us/school-information/barnsdale/full-day-kindergarten/frozen-summer-kindergarten-enrollment-for-2009


They have a brand spanking new interactive website powered by PowerSchool. Check it out, it's awesome! A regularly updated website? What a great idea! http://www.dist102.k12.il.us


They have a Financial Advisory Council made up of staff and parents. There is no limit on the number of parents in the Financial Advisory Council. This council helps the Board of Ed make important decisions that impact the children of the district as well as the community. They welcome participation from parents! Can you imagine that?? What an idea!
http://www.dist102.k12.il.us/about/fac-volunteer 


They broadcast all their school board meetings on the internet! Can't make it to a board meeting? No problem! In addition to that, they upload their board packet to their website for anyone and everyone to read. Imagine that! No secrets there. Talk about open and transparent government!  What a novel idea! Check it out! http://www.dist102.k12.il.us/board-meetings/board-meeting-01282010-0


Their new superintendent has even created his own blog on the district website. You can ask questions, and he will answer them!! A school district that values communication and wants parents involved? What a novel idea!! While Pleasantdale just likes to talk about improving communication, the folks over in La Grange are actually doing some thing about it. Check it out!
http://www.dist102.k12.il.us/blogs/shilliwa/encouragement-register-and-participate-blog


Along with his blog, the superintendent created a Wiki on the district website where students in the district can comment or ask questions of the superintendent. A novel idea? You bet! We need this guy over here! 


People may think we have an amazing school district because we win the shiny red apple award every year. But really, you have to dig deeper. Ask questions. Investigate. Look at what other schools are doing. How do we stack up? There is a lot more to a good school district than high test scores. Are we really all that amazing?


It may seem to some that we knock Pleasantdale. But hey, we are just stating the obvious and sometimes the truth hurts.

Peace and Gratitude

Very busy day on the blog! Thanks to everyone that stopped by. But don't just stop by here, make sure you stop by Max and Erma's Wednesday the 10th for either lunch or dinner to support the Holecek family. This fundraiser is not limited to Pleasantdale families, so please bring your neighbors, your friends, even your mother-in-law! We still don't have the coupon yet; hopefully there will be one in this week's Friday packet. We will upload one here as well when we get it. Peace.


Editor's note:
There is no Friday packet this week. Please use the coupon above when you go to Max and Erma's. See you there!!

Please Go Eat!

A family in our school district needs your help. Please consider eating at Max and Erma's Restaurant in Burr Ridge on Wednesday, February 10. Lunch or dinner - it doesn't matter. Max and Erma's had kindly agreed to donate 20% of your bill to the Holecek family. You will need to bring a coupon with you which we will upload as soon as we get it. Thank you for helping this local family in need. Click on the photo to make the flyer bigger.