somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. ~ Will Rogers
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
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!
36 comments:
It is sad to not see Pleasantdale's name on that list. We are part of the LT Community and should have our name displayed with our "sister" schools. It is unfortunate that the Middle School chose to "ignore" phone calls and participate in such a worthwhile cause. To say I am ashamed is an understatement. Thank you for sharing this information and keeping the P-dale community informed even though our school district does not.
This just goes to show you the level of arrogance and lack of class our school administration has.
To listen to LT's director of student services and fundraising chair talk about the MANY calls to Meg Pokorny that were never returned and to hear student alumni say their emails went unanswered is unsettling.
This is the example we are setting in our community and with our students. Currently, we are the disdain of many that took part in this wonderful endeavor.
On May 11th, students from all these schools will gather at Midway Airport to welcome WWII heroes home and thank them for their service and for our freedom. It is a lesson these kids will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Sadly, our students will not be a part of it because of the ignorance displayed by those in charge at Pleasantdale.
You shouldn't be ashamed. Mark Fredisdorf, Meg Pokorny and the Board of Education should be ashamed for letting this happen!
There is no need for us to be ashamed, Bill O'Reilly. Pleasantdale was not the only feeder school not represented. If it bothers you so much, you should get to the bottom of it instead of continuing the speculation. This blog would be better served by focusing on the good and not always stirring up the negative emotions. Here is what I'm proud of:
1) For the last three years our schools have supported the Veterans with collections of goods and letter writing campaigns. This year alone we collected 17 boxes of donations!
2) During the holidays the baskets were overflowing for the community families whom we adopted. We collected gifts, hats, gloves, scarves and made a difference in the lives of our neighbors.
3) Two food drives have generated an abundance of food for local pantries.
4) The Art night for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society generated $1,300.
5) The Walk for St. Jude's this month will surely be a successful collection for that charity.
6) Through the movie day and restaurant promotions held by LTHS for Honor Flight, we all had the opportunity to support this worthy cause.
We are a community of strong volunteers and extremely generous people. There is nothing for us to be ashamed of.
If you are so proud, why are you anonymous?
Negativity just breeds negativity plain and simple. It's time to be proud of our school, the accomplishments of our students, the tireless dedication of our volunteers, the hard work of our teachers and administration. I am so proud of this community. We have accomplished so much as a district throughout the years. Thank you to the cast of thousands who have carried the load and brought us to this place of excellence today. The shame falls on those who do not recognize the hard work of others.
Are you also proud of our administrators wasting over $130,000 of the taxpayers dollars by allowing someone to retire without the proper requirements? They are all way overpaid for a two school district that they can't run without getting unnecessary fines for.
Dear Anonymous,
Kudos to Pleasantdale and its students for doing many wonderful things this year. No one is taking these successes away from them. In addition to participating in the LTHS Honor Flight Fundraiser, the feeder schools also took part in food drives, walk-a-thons, holiday clothing drives, etc.
This blog does focus on the good, that is why we brought up Honor Flight Chicago. We have been a big supporter of Honor Flight since we learned about it from Gurrie Middle School and their Every Monday Matters program. If you want to see a school that really walks the walk, take a look at this:
As of March 10th, Gurrie students and staff have combined for 3,212.6 Hours of Service to the community and beyond.
In just over 24 weeks they have found so many different ways to ‘Make A Difference’ including:
Gurrie adopted 12th Street Beach in Chicago and participated in multiple clean up days; students and staff held a reuse a shoe recycling drive that collected 502 pairs of shoes; students and staff raised over $350 and contributed it to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation; our advisories collected over 1,100 food items and contributed them to the St. Francis Food Pantry; students and staff helped rake leaves for the elderly in Countryside in partnership with Aging Well; Gurrie staff and students hosted a community blood drive; students and staff volunteered multiple times to make breakfast and dinner at the Lincoln Park Homeless Shelter; students collected and delivered donations for homeless shelters in Chicago; made over 90 blankets for Project Linus; raised money for Rotary International to help the cause to eradicate polio; a group of eighth grade students participated in a Northwestern University program that introduced them to contemporary social issues facing urban communities engaging in hands on service; over a hundred students have gone to Bemis Woods, on multiple Saturdays, to help clear invasive plant species from that forest preserve; over 90 students and staff welcomed home World War II veterans at Midway during two welcome home Honor Flights; a group of students volunteered to snow shovel this winter for area residents in need; our staff organized an Honor Flight Benefit dinner that helped raise over $3500 that is going towards the Lyons Township goal of sponsoring one entire Honor Flight in May.
What this blog is pointing out is that the middle school principal does not return phone calls or emails. We have spoken to and met with several people involved with the LTHS drive to fund an honor flight. Every message we got was the same. Pleasantdale's middle school principal would not return their calls nor respond to messages left or emails sent.
Is that something to be proud of?
I like a lot of things you point out on this blog, but I think you have such a personal connection to this particular charity that you are not being objective and fair to the school. You don't know how many solicitations the school gets for fundraising activities. Most businesses and schools receive many, many solicitations and you can't return every phone call. (Just like the phone calls we all receive at home from solicitators.)
Pleasantdale has done several fundraising events this year. Not everything they do is negative. They don't deserve a blackeye for every single issue.
This Honor Flight, in my opinion, is really a non-issue. We get it, YOU are upset.
Mrs. Pokkorny did not prevent me or any resident in our district from making a contribution to Honor Flight. The efforts of Highlands, Gurrie and Park were through their PTO (Parents and Teachers Org.) Surely our PTA or Student Council groups could have initiated support for Honor Flight. As was already said, this does not diminish all of our current efforts to support causes in our community.
Dear Anonymous,
I try to be in the loop on things but heard nothing about the art fair for Leukemia & Lymphoma, the St. Jude's walk, nor the movie day or restaurant night.
I know that I sent food to school with my son, but don't recall a veterans collection.
Was this information in a Friday Packet? My oldest is in college and I remember when we received Friday Packets every Friday - hence the name. I wish that they would go back to doing this! Communication is so important and I feel that the packets come so infrequently that there is a disconnect between the parents and school. The Friday Packet should be called the Monthly Packet!
Wow "Anonymous at 2:47 p.m." on May 1st, you make a lot of assumptions about me in my couple sentence post. Here are a couple of these assumptions:
1. That I have never publically thanked the individuals from the school for the efforts they have done to help our community or have not actively participated in any of these events.
2. That I "speculated" on something based on this one post and did not do my own investigation on the issue. I trust the source who posted on the blog and believe what they said about speaking directly with a representative from LT and hearing his frustrations with P-dale as well as other individuals who left messages with the Middle School Principal only to have them not returned. How do you know that I did not talk to that individual as well?
3. That I am ashamed of the school district as a whole and not proud of it's accomplishments. There is always room for improvement. No one is perfect.
Last thing, I am a strong believer that calls should be returned, especially from people/institutions in our community - ie. LT. If you cannot do it yourself, then have someone do it for you.
Jane,
Surely you can't be serious when you say "Most businesses and schools receive many, many solicitations and you can't return every phone call."
This didn't sound like just any old phone call.
For you to say this is acceptable just floors me.
That is like saying my child gets so much homework he can't be expected to do it all. Is this the message we are sending to our children?
If you don't want to participate, fine, but at least return the phone call.
Quick Rick – you bring up the 132K again. Do you even know and better yet understand the rule you speak of. There is nothing the school can do to prevent this from occurring. I checked into this matter with the State and lawyers the retiree was eligible under the letter of the law
Dear Anonoymous,
You are correct in that fact that there is nothing the school could have done about preventing the Administrator from retiring! Dah!
You are incorrect in your statement regarding the penalty!
Ask any teacher and/or administrator (not at Pleasantdale) and they will tell you that their contract states that THEY are responsible for any/all early retirement penalties incurred (not the school) if they choose to retire early and do not meet all early retirement requirements.
Apparently Pleasantdale did not have this clause in their contracts. Maybe it's time to get a new attorney!
Jim, Duh!!!
Go read the contracts from the other schools and YOU will find out that YOU are wrong!!!
Jim, the other contracts reward the teachers/admin with up to $600 per year of service if they DO NOT retire early.
So for instance if a teacher with 30 years of service at the age of 55 wants to retire the other schools are saying DO NOT. Stay for 5 more years - end of ERO - and we will give you $21000 - 600 X 35 years - PLUS bump your raise to 6% PLUS pay you - let's assume - $80000 for those 5 years - $400000 - when they could have brought in a new teacher at $40000 and not deal with the idea that the retiring teacher does not want to be there in the first place.
I do not know who you spoke with - but this is what is dictated in the other contracts AND supplied to me by the State of Illinois when I called.
Kim Freislinger was at our school for approx. 6 years of service to our district. Using your math, that comes to $3,600. Add another 5 years on and that would come to $6,600. $6,600 is a hell of a lot less than $132,000!
This is in the Western Springs School District teachers' contract.
"No provisions of this agreement shall result in a “TRS penalty” being levied against the
District. Should language of this agreement result in such a penalty situation, the issue
will be rectified through mutual agreement of the Association and Board."
Do we have that at Pleasantdale?
This is in the contract for LaGrange School District 102:
Limitations on Participation: The District will not, under any circumstances, be
responsible for any employee TRS contributions associated with retirement
benefits granted under this Agreement. The parties agree that if legislation is
enacted or administrative rules adopted during the life of this agreement that
adversely affects the Board’s obligations or employee rights under any of the
benefits set forth in this Section, the parties agree to meet within thirty days of the
passage of the legislation to renegotiate the provision and the impact on any and
all employees.
A retiring teacher who has accumulated more than 170 sick days will be
reimbursed at a rate of ten dollars ($10.00) per day for a maximum of fifty (50)
unused sick days beyond 170. In light of the amendments to Sections 16-128(d-
10), 16-133 and 16-158(f) of the Illinois Pension Code, enacted by Public Act 94-
004 and effective June 1, 2005, the Board shall not be obligated to pay that
portion of the increase in salary or benefit provided in Section 9.4 that is subject
to the penalty or additional cost imposed by PA94-004. As a result, the Board and
EA will meet to negotiate alternatives to Section 9.4 so as to retain as much of the
intended benefits of Section 9.4 for eligible teachers at not more than the Board’s
anticipated cost prior to the enactment of PA 94-004.
Does Pleasantdale has something like that in their contract?
The Lyons School District contract states:
The teacher must have a minimum of 15 years of service with district 103 and must be eligible to retire under the IL TRS early retirement without discount or voluntary normal retirement plans without any mandatory employer contribution or ERO penalty payment requirement for the board based on the teachers ages and/or years of TRS creditable service.
Does Pleasantdale have that in their contract?
Highlands has this in their contract:
In the event there are changes to the Teacher’s Retirement System laws or regulations that would result in the District having to pay a penalty or make an
additional contribution because of the benefits provided herein, the District and the Association will negotiate changes to this plan to eliminate the factor(s) that
would cause a penalty or contribution to be assessed.
Does Pleasantdale have something like that in their contract?
Pleasantdale has this in their contract:
(
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To Anonymous 5:39 - apparently you missed the part where I gave an example - try again
To remaining anonymous posts - pertaining to taking the wording out of the contract - look again at Western Springs and quote the whole section - including the part about "...the BOE shall..." make payment to the TRS system - read penalty - but I guess if you take things out of context you can make anything sound favorable. Also - these contracts will not override the ERO laws of Illinois - any teacher challenging their right to retire will win!
Dear Anon,
You are wrong. See the D101 contract below. Read the very last paragraph where it states "No Penalty."
APPENDIX C
Early Retirement
District 101 certified staff (full-time and/or half-time or more) shall be entitled to early retirement upon the following conditions.
Employees applying for retirement shall:
1. Be fifty-five (55) years of age but less than sixty (60).
2. Have twenty (20) years or more credible service in the Teachers' Retirement System.
3. Make a one-time contribution to the Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois. This contribution shall follow the guidelines set by the Teachers' Retirement System.
4. Submit an application for retirement to the Board, no later than February 1 of the applicant's final school year.
The Board of Education shall:
1. Limit eligibility to those employees who have met the above requirements.
2. Retain the right to exceed or not exceed the thirty percent minimum eligibility of applicants in any given school year.
3. Determine the order of participation among applicants on the basis of seniority in service to District 101.
4. Make a one-time contribution to the Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois. Said contribution shall follow the guidelines set by the Teachers' Retirement
System.
5. Pay eligible personnel a salary increase of 6% of their previous yearʼs salary, such increase effective upon receipt of application for retirement.
The age of retirement (whole year only) shall be the age of said employee at close of school in June. The date of retirement is the first day after the last day of employment.
C-2APPENDIX C
No Penalty
No provisions of this agreement shall result in a “TRS penalty” being levied against the District. Should language of this agreement result in such a penalty situation, the issue will be rectified through mutual agreement of the Association and Board.
If you want to go one step further, look at the contract from District 62 where the retiree came from. They have very specific wording in regard to early retirement. She came to Pdale 6 years ago. D62 protected themselves in their contract to avoid paying big penalties. Pdale did not.
I am curious, what department did you speak to at the state level?
Dear Anon,
Obviously you are missing the point! All surrounding districts have added verbiage to their contracts to prevent the ERO/TRS penalty. In a previous blog there was information stating that D107 BOE was notified by the IASB six years ago to tighten up their employment contracts. Pleasantdale failed to do this!
To your point that the contract can be challenged… any contract can be challenged – Duh! The question is have any been challenged? I doubt it. Again, ask a teacher that is employed outside of D107 and they will tell you that they know exactly what they have banked in their pension and when they can retire (without penalty). They have agreed to and signed their employment contract. Why would they challenge it? Besides, have you ever heard the saying that you cannot fight City Hall? Unlike school districts, most teachers don’t have an endless bankroll to challenge a contract which they have agreed to!
To Ed and Jim - go to the ISBE web site, call any of the numbers at the bottom and get bounced around like I did until you can speak to someone who will set you straight.
to jim - they do not need to use their money - DUH!! they have the backing of the teachers union law firms.
Busy today - I will reply further when I have time and explain the contracts terminolgy to you. in the mean time, ERO is part of TRS - the money comes from the same place. you should all be ticked that the other schools have actually added an incentive in to ask teachers NOT to use ERO. By bumping up the last 4 years of the salaries to 6% when they do retire on their 75 to 80 percent of pay, the money comes from you - the tax payer. you need only look at the recent 6 billion quinn borrowed to use 3.7 of it to replenish pension funds - that is YOUR tax money
To Anon,
Let me clarify your last comment… you are saying that it is better for the taxpayers to pay a lump sum penalty payment (of over $130,000 in our case) to the TRS, so that a teacher can stay at home (and draw a 75 – 80% of pay pension). As opposed to giving a teacher/administrator a yearly increase for staying on the job. I guess that I am missing your logic. Who pays to replace the retiree? Who pays the penalty? Who pays to fund the pension? The taxpayer!
It is too bad we have to have this type of dialogue on a blog instead of at a Board Meeting or through a Town Hall Meeting, and that people have to use "Anonymous" or made up names to make their point.
sure thing - Bill O'Reilly, Ed, Jim Schue, Admin, 3 Anonymous', Mom22, Gina, etc.
Bill - Jim - Admin - Gina - Multiple Anonymous - I looked on the districe site and noticed that ERO was a topic on the agenda for next week. I cannot make it, but will ask my wife if she can. I recommend that you all go - you may be educated - instead of coming here for lies
What is a districe?
What lies are you talking about?
Maybe the Board should have talked about it more at previous meetings so it did not have to be discussed on here. If there are such lies on here, then don't come on!!!!
My wife and I were not able to make the meeting two weeks ago. I just read the BOE highlites in the Friday packet - It does appear that I am correct - not wrong as some of you have insisted - on the ERO. Suggest checking all facts the future.
People will say anything if you pay them enough.
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