We Can't All Be Heroes...

somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. ~ Will Rogers

Congratulations to the Lyons Township High School Student Council!

They raised $50,000 to sponsor an entire Honor Flight.

On Wednesday, May 11, an Honor Flight of 97 veterans will fly from Chicago to Washington, D.C. for a day of honor and to visit their memorial because these students cared enough to make a difference.

Thanks to the feeder following schools, their staff and students that helped make it happen:

Highlands Middle School $8,274.11

Gurrie Middle School $6,804.00
Park Jr. High $6,565.25
St. John of the Cross $6,100.00
St. Cletus $2,179.00
St. Francis Xavier $942.87
McClure Jr. High $445.00

Way to go LTHS!! We are sooo proud of you!

School Board Holds 'State of the District' Forum

Superintendent and parents share concerns about the future of the district.

By Alex Keown

On Monday, the La Grange School District 102 board held a “state of the district” meeting at Park Junior High School and discussed some of the issues facing the district, including finances, enrollment and meeting academic challenges.

http://lagrange.patch.com/articles/school-board-holds-state-of-the-district-forum?ncid=M255

Pleasantdale Board of Education Organizational Meeting Scheduled

The Pleasantdale School District 107 has scheduled its organizational meeting for Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 7 p.m.

You probably wouldn't know this because of the lack of communication in our district.

Unlike other events such as Internet Safety Night, PTA End of Year Celebration or Santa's Workshop where an email blast is sent out to district families, the Board of Education probably won't be worthy of a blast.

And it especially won't be important to let the rest of the community know about anything either since they don't even have kids in the schools. Remember that fireside chat and pledge to look out for the 80% that don't have children at Pleasantdale? Yeah, we do too.

Since the district won't provide information, we will.

The public is welcome to come out to see the new board members take office at 7 p.m. on April 28th.

We'd tell you who is going to be seated, but no official announcement has been made. In fact, the candidates themselves have not been told who will be seated. No contact has been made with them by district administration or the board.

This shouldn't surprise you though, since poor communication is par for the course.

Count on us to provide you the information you need, when you want it.

Reality vs. Fiction

Below you will see just one example of the discrepancies between what actually took place at a Pleasantdale Board of Education meeting and the district's version of what took place. This is a perfect example of why the Board of Education should videotape and broadcast their board meetings for the public.

What the district said took place:

This is what actually happened:

The following letter was sent to all members of the Board of Education with no acknowledgement or response. Tune in to the April board meeting to see if the BOE fixes their "mistake."

Dear Board of Education Members,

After reading the March 16, 2011 Board of Education Meeting 'Highlights', I was appalled to see this blurb:

"Heard from a parent who commented that she believed the District was not moving forward with the implementation of 

standards based grading and reporting prior to receiving a recommendation from the Parent Advisory Committee."

That is not at all what I said. 

After careful review of the meeting videotape this evening, you will find below, the verbatim account of what I said.

"Just listening to tonight's discussion regarding the town hall meeting and the Standards Based Grading, it sounds like the district is moving forward with Standards Based Grading, but as a member of the Parent Advisory Committee, this has not been made clear to us. 

We have asked if we are going with Standards Based Grading and the answer we get is, "well, that's what we are trying to figure out."  I believe I echo the sentiment of many members of the Parent Advisory Committee when I say in order for our group to be effective, we need to know definitively if we are going to use Standards Based Grading so we can start moving in the right direction, or in that direction I should say. So if the board is talking about it, I believe it is important for our committee to know, yes, we are doing it, or no, we're not. I think if you ask the majority of the members on our Parent Advisory Committee why we're meeting, they will tell you they have no idea."

I do not appreciate being misrepresented or misquoted in the board highlights/minutes after speaking in the open forum portion of board meetings. This has occurred numerous times over the past three years when I have spoken in open forum. 

I am requesting that the March meeting minutes be revised (before they are approved) to include the actual verbiage that was spoken, as was done for Mr. Rigley at the February meeting. 

I would be happy to make the tape available for you to view if you so chose before approving the March meeting minutes.

This instance is just one more reason that the school district should record their board meetings and make them available to the public.

Sincerely,

Gina Scaletta-Nelson

Part-Time Homeschooling Deadline Approaches

http://www.illinoisloop.org/homeschool.html:

Is your child struggling, or not being challenged, by some particular program at your school? Or, are you generally content with what your school offers, perhaps with the exception of math, or reading instruction? Illinois parents have an option that is almost unknown: part-time homeschooling.


Illinois state law permits parents to withdraw their children from specific classes, with that subject's material to be covered through homeschooling instead. In some cases, the student leaves the school during those times; in other cases, this becomes an extra study period.

Part-time homeschooling is covered by this section of Illinois' school code. (Note that the phrase "nonpublic school" includes homeschools.)

(105 ILCS 5/10-20.24)


Sec. 10-20.24. Part-time Attendance. To accept in part-time attendance in the regular education program of the district pupils enrolled in nonpublic schools if there is sufficient space in the public school desired to be attended. Request for attendance in the following school year must be submitted by the nonpublic school principal to the public school before May 1. Request may be made only to those public schools located in the district where the child attending the nonpublic school resides.


To accept, pursuant to the provisions of Section 14-6.01, in part-time attendance resident pupils of the types described in Sections 14-1.02 through 14-1.07 who are enrolled in nonpublic schools.


(Source: P.A. 80-1509.)

The key part of that paragraph is that you must file your request prior to May 1st, stating that you will be part-time homeschooling the following year. In some cases, schools may be very agreeable and helpful, but in other cases you may have to doggedly pursue your rights. It is likely that many school administrators are not even aware that this option exists.
 
Parents that wish to homeschool their children and enroll them in public school "part-time" must forward this request to their school principal before May 1, 2011 for the 2011-2012 school year.
 
http://www.isbe.net/homeschool/faq.pdf See #12.

Board of Ed to Honor Mr. Jim at April Meeting!

The Pleasantdale Board of Education has decided to honor Mr. Jim Lucarelli for his outstanding service to the district at the April 20th board meeting at 7 p.m.

Mr. Jim has been with the district for over 14 years. He is passionate about the middle school children, spending his own money to buy them ice cream and treats on their birthday. Mr. Jim is also a super fan - attending middle school sporting events as well as students' non-school sponsored sporting activities on the weekends. Mr. Jim is a true inspiration to Pleasantdale's students. Many return to Pleasantdale years after graduating, so they can visit with him . During the February blizzard, Mr. Jim walked to school, (because his car was snowed in), to get a jump start on snow removal. His dedication to our district is unparalleled!

Please come out to the board meeting on Wednesday, April 20 to help honor Mr. Jim. Visitors can leave before the remainder of the meeting gets underway.

Smart Cookie

Bloggers Wanted!

We are looking to add a few good bloggers!

Bloggers post articles of interest, write stories or commentary, research stories and data, videotape or photograph events, gather and communicate information, attend meetings, etc.

Bloggers can use their real names or are welcome to create a pen name/pseudonym to use when posting. If you are interested in becoming one of our bloggers, please email us at pleasantdaleblog@gmail.com.

Blog disclaimer: 
This blog has no political affiliation. It is a blog of news and opinions designed to bring attention to matters of public interest and to encourage community participation in local governments. Our focus is to raise awareness and involvement throughout the community. The viewpoints and opinions expressed here are those of the bloggers, writers and commenters.

We intend the comments portion of this blog to be a forum where you can freely express your views on blog postings and on comments made by other people. Given that, please understand that you are responsible for the material you post on the comments portion of this blog.

We are here to perform the service of raising awareness in our community.

Lots O' Change

Adiós, 再見, vaarwel, au revoir, 안녕, Auf Wiedersehen, αντίο, arrivederci, さような, adeus, and до свидания to Mrs. Shinabarger/Gottstein (5th grade language arts/social studies), Mrs. Thompson (7th grade language arts), Mr. Bray (middle school P.E.) and Mrs. Berndt (elementary school social worker). 


http://www.applitrack.com/d107/onlineapp/jobpostings/view.asp?internaltransferform.Url=


The elementary school will now be going on its FOURTH social worker in FOUR years.


Does it surprise anyone else that we go through so many new teachers? What is it with Pleasantdale that no one stays for very long? 


Hmmm, can you say admin and BOE?

Shallow

"Studies of students of different ages have found a statistical association between students with high scores on standardized tests and relatively shallow thinking....’"         ~ Alfie Kohn

Interesting Student Perspective

I am the product of a generation of parents, teachers, and policy makers who have pushed students so hard that we’ve never been able to develop a sense of self. We’ve been told that in order to succeed later on in life, we have to be good — no, excellent! — at every single thing that we do. We’re young when people tell us such things, and we really take it to heart as a result. We learn to formulate our own ideas of ourselves based on other peoples measures of us. And as we get older, it only gets worse. The stakes get higher, the pressure increases, the work gets harder, and we have increasingly more responsibilities. School and extracurricular activities (the ones that supposedly help us become more well-rounded people) take up all of our time —we never get the chance to really develop our own interests because we’re too busy doing things that someone else wants us to.

Read the entire article at:

http://hilltownfamilies.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/huntley/

Middle School Musical This Weekend!

The middle school musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory will be held on April 15th and 16th at 7:00.

Everyone is invited to attend and admission is FREE!

Please come out and support the middle school students that have been working very hard to put this event together.

If you cannot attend the evening performances, a dress rehearsal will take place Thursday at about 1:45 p.m.!

Friday Packet Corrections

Please note the dates for the third week of Summer Academy are incorrect 
and should read June 20th -23rd.

Also, please note that Field Day will be held on June 3rd, not May 27th. 

Right on the Mark...

Todd Farley

Author of Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry

Standardized Testing: A Decade in Review

Posted: 04/ 8/11 05:37 PM ET

There are those who think American public education is in shambles and needs to be completely remade, arguing that the standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind will be a vital tool in turning around U.S. schools: They say student promotion and graduation, teacher pay and employment, and school funding should all be tied to NCLB tests. As someone who spent many years working in the assessment industry -- not to mention someone who has been reading the newspaper for the last ten years -- I can't say I understand that idea. What exactly has occurred in standardized testing over the last decade that justifies such belief in large-scale assessments, or such blind faith in the completely unregulated, massively profitable industry that writes and scores NCLB tests?

We know that testing data can be manipulated to tell any story. We know that a school administration -- by making test questions easier or lowering cut scores -- can portray improvement in its classrooms even when such improvement doesn't really exist, as happened most recently in 2009 in the New York City schools. We know that "rogue" teachers or administrators -- by erasing incorrect student answers and changing them to correct ones -- can show student achievement even if there is no such achievement, as scandals in Atlanta and Detroit during 2010 both revealed and the current erasure debacle in Washington, D.C. also seems to show. And we know, from my book, that the testing companies fudge numbers all the time, whether reliability numbers (to show the industry is doing a more "standardized" job than it really is); validity numbers (to show the industry is doing a more accurate job than it really is); or score distribution numbers (when test scoring companies work to ensure student results match the predictions of their own psychometricians). 

Psychometricians, of course, are the rock stars of the testing world, omniscient statisticians doing a job virtually no one comprehends. While I don't claim to understand their mysterious math, I do find it odd that during my long career writing and scoring tests I only once laid eyes on a psychometrician, and that was during a pick-up soccer game on the grassy grounds of ETS. Never when I wrote tests, or scored tests, or met with teachers to discuss those tests, did I see a psychometrician, meaning the most important people in the testing industry are people who don't often know what the tests look like and don't usually see the students' answers to them.

Read more at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-farley/standardized-testing-a-de_b_846044.html

Winners, Waiters and Others

Congratulations to Lisa Houk for getting the highest number of votes in the Pleasantdale School Board Election and winning a seat on the board. We trust that she will continue to serve the best interests of the entire community over her next four years on the Board of Education.

Best wishes to Steve Rockrohr for having the courage to throw his hat in the ring in an effort to make our school district the best it can be. He has many more years of children in the district and we hope he will consider another run in 2013.

Best wishes also go out to Rick Rigley. Thanks a "latte" for your service on the board over the last four years!

As for Beth Tegtmeier, Doug Gilman and Gina Scaletta-Nelson, well, they are the waiters. They must wait until the election is certified on April 26 before it can be determined for sure who the actual winners are.

While you wait, enjoy a repost of a portion of the April 8th blog entry after the 2009 school board election...

"There were many other winners, some even before the votes were tallied.

The teachers were winners. We hope that by sharing their “voices” with the community we were able to raise awareness to their plight. We had hoped that by winning we would be able to make some positive changes on their behalf. We can only hope that the awareness that was raised will lead to fairer practices and garner them the respect that they deserve.

The community won as well. This blog was started so that everyone’s voice would be heard. Our stats outpaced themselves almost on a daily basis. It was evident to us and to others that this was one way for residents to communicate whether it was openly or anonymously.

We hope that by bringing to light many of the concerns of the community, our superintendent Mark Fredisdorf, will take notice that smoke and mirrors will not make problems, concerns, complaints and parents just go away. When the dust settles, they will always remain. We hope that he will set aside his monopoly on our school district and work together with the community in making our schools the very best they can be. We will remain ever vigilant to the needs all district residents, especially the children.

We plan to keep our blog open because we feel this is one avenue of communication that will continue to grow. Not every blog on the Internet is what you’d like it to be. Some are politically correct so as not to rock the boat, and others seek to bring truth to light. Our intention is and will remain to shed light on the wrongs and the rights, the good and the bad, and unfortunately, even sometimes the ugly.

Please click on the link to the right to subscribe to our blog. If you would like to contribute a column to the main page, please send us an email to pleasantdaleblog@gmail.com.

Finally, in true Chicago form, we say, see ya next election…it’s only 730 days away and there is much more work to be done!"

Thanks to All!

Thank you to all who supported this effort. You know who you are. This would never have been possible without each and every one of you. For that, we are very grateful!

One is better than none, but we need more. The next election is in 730 days and there is no time like the present to begin planning.

How sad to hear a teacher say they are tired of having to whisper. Hopefully this will bring some positive change. Much thanks to everyone!

Thank You

In just 11 hours, Pleasantdale voters will hit the polls and make a vitally important decision about the future of our school district. No matter what camp you choose, the six people who have had the courage to step up and offer the voters a choice deserve to know that you care enough to show up and vote. You owe it to them and to the children and residents of this community.

Elections like this can be tough on small towns; business owners are asked to put up signs for competing camps; people find themselves with friends on both slates. Families, even, find that they do not agree on which candidates are best. On the positive side, most of us know most of the candidates who are running - they looked after our daughters or coached our sons, they go to our church or attend the same social functions we do. And because we know them, it's hard to vote "against" them. But people who put their names on a ballot know that they will not get every vote: They know everyone won't agree with them; they know some people will vote against them. They know it won't be easy, but they still do it. They put their names out there and spend their own money to take a "job" that pays nothing in terms of monetary reward and can, at times, offer nothing but headaches. They do it largely because they care about their community. And for that, to these six who are running for School Board, we say "Thank you." ~ BC4C

Election Day is Tuesday, April 5!

Your vote is your voice - make it heard!

Blank Checks Need to End

Dear Editor,

We need more people on our school board that will look out for all the families in the district and not just a few. Our board of education recently allowed our superintendent to spend thousands of dollars in an effort to kick a homeless family out of the district.

Sadly, neither Superintendent Mark Fredisdorf nor the Pleasantdale School Board of Education took the time to learn the laws concerning homeless families. Had they done so, they could have saved the hurt caused to this family as well as thousands of dollars wasted on this illegal endeavor.

It's time to stop the blank checks our school board gives to the superintendent. I support Doug Gilman, Steven Rochrohr and Gina Scaletta-Nelson because their idea of implementing a check and balance system would put the best interest of all district residents in mind.

Sincerely,

Julie Ryan

Burr Ridge

Costly Oversight Calls for New Board

Dear Editor,

I recently learned of a $132,000 penalty Pleasantdale School District 107 received this year.

Five years ago the Illinois Association of School Boards sent a letter to every school district in Illinois informing them that the pension laws have changed so they must in turn change their teacher and administrator contracts or it could result in school boards owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties. Pleasantdale never did this. As a result, the district incurred a huge penalty.

In the private industry, an error of this magnitude would cost someone their job. Our tax dollars should be used to educate children, not to pay for mistakes. Had this not been brought to the public’s attention, we would undoubtedly be paying even more penalties in the future.

It’s time to elect some new people to the Pleasantdale School Board that will have the best interest of the taxpayers in mind. Please join me in voting to elect Gina Scaletta-Nelson to the Pleasantdale District 107 Board of Education.

Sincerely, Debra Markmann

Willow Springs

District 107 Needs Fresh Perspective

Dear Editor:

I attended Wednesday night's Candidate’s Forum for Pleasantdale Schools and was pleased to see the fresh perspective from Doug Gilman, Steven Rockrohr & Gina Scaletta-Nelson. There were many questions from the audience and these candidates had very insightful responses.

Gilman, a V.P. for Aon who manages people globally, explained that other countries are "hungry for our jobs". The need to increase technology skills & resources are a must, as our children will be competing globally, not just locally; they need to learn to think critically and creatively to be successful against that global competition.

As far as accountability, our district paid a $132,000 penalty when an administrator retired early. Scaletta-Nelson, an adjunct professor at Northeastern University, said school districts in IL were notified to include verbiage in all contracts stating that employees who elect to participate in the early retirement option would be solely responsible for all employee contributions due to the TRS. Pleasantdale never did this and was required to pay the penalty.

Another interesting topic was regarding transparency & open communication via our board. The audience suggested videotaping all District meetings. Gilman, Rockrohr & Scaletta-Nelson were very supportive of making information available to the community 24/7.

There were several questions regarding Standards Based Grading, a new initiative piloted in D107 last fall with mixed reviews from the community. Rockrohr, explained that the district bought a program and we didn't do due diligence. As his role as a school administrator, he sees many programs aimed at improving education and “in the end, the only ones that are successful are those that have been properly researched to ensure that they fit the needs of the students they are intended for.”

Sincerely,
Kim Barker

Willow Springs

Meet Gina Scaletta-Nelson

    

Election 2011: 

Pleasantdale School 

Board of Education

Meet Gina Scaletta-Nelson

What is the primary reason you are running for this office?
I am running for the school board because I believe there needs to be a system of checks and balances in place that is not currently there. Also, communication is at an all time low and needs to be significantly improved. Finally, I feel my background and knowledge would make me an excellent board member who is willing to work hard to get things done and move this district forward.

What will be your single most important priority if you get elected?
I believe that the most important priority is to provide a system of checks and balances for the district administration. Our school district was recently fined $132,000 as the result of an oversight by three administrators and no one was held accountable. Our tax payers work hard for their money and deserve better than that.

What sets you apart from the other candidates?
What sets me apart from the other candidates is that I grew up in this district and I
attended Pleasantdale as a child; my roots are here. This school district once had a
wonderful sense of community where communication played a key role. I’d like to see that sense of community returned to our school district. I think the phrase, “There is a school in every community, but not community in every school” sums it up best.

How long have you lived in district?
I have lived in this school district for 45 years.

What's your favorite thing about the district?
I enjoy the small town feel of our district. I loved growing up in this community and am grateful for all the opportunities it provided me while growing up.

What is the biggest problem in the district?
I think that lack of communication is the reason for many of the district’s problems. It was one of the reasons they were fined $132,000. There needs to be accountability in our school district as well. To hear a community leader say that they sent numerous emails and left countless phone messages to a middle school administrator in regard to a township wide project and never got a response is just not acceptable. There must be a system in place where this kind of thing does not happen.

Read more at http://burrridge.patch.com/local_facts/election-2011-meet-gina-scaletta-nelson