November Board Meeting Recap

Here is a brief recap of some of the November board meeting in case you missed it.

 

Board policy was recently changed with a 5-2 vote to have our blog camera removed from the board table. It was then agreed upon with Board President Leandra Sedlack that the camera be positioned next to the board table so the camera operator Gina Scaletta-Nelson could reach it without being disruptive during the meeting. 

At the November board meeting, Dr. Fredisdorf suddenly insisted our blog video camera be positioned in the rear of the room claiming that it was "obstructing the view" of board secretary Erika Sawasko. When she admitted that it was NOT obstructing her view, Dr. Fredisdorf then claimed that it was blocking the path behind the board table where hardly anyone walks. Scaletta-Nelson offered to change seats with board member O'Halloran as there was a much wider path and Fredisdorf said no. He wanted his way and that was it! This is an example of how Fredisorf manipulates policies in an effort to bully others.

In other notes, current 8th grade math scores went down and are hovering below the 65th National Percentile Rank. It was interesting to hear Dr. Fredisdorf exclaim that the teacher who taught those students was no longer with the district. Last year, at Fredisdorf's discretion, district residents footed the bill for this newly hired math teacher to earn his certification in school administration. Soon after, he resigned to become the dean of students in Round Lake, leaving district taxpayers holding the bag. 

We were stunned to hear that the district is no longer using contracted statistician Dr. John Wick to predict Explore/ACT scores based on individual student performance on the ITBS test! Over the past five years, we have heard Dr. Fredisdorf sing the praises of Wick and his prediction program which has been the cornerstone of the district's continued use of the ITBS test. Now, after wasting a hundred and twenty thousand dollars on a conundrum of information, Fredisdorf is singing a different tune. Evidence of this was Wick's noticeable absence at the annual November meeting on test scores. We also learned that Wick may be ousted come January when his contract is up for renewal. Could this change of heart be the result of Wick failing to point out a seven year trend of test score decline in math computation? It took concerned parent, Kim Barker, just a few hours and no where near a hundred twenty thousand dollars to find this trend and bring it to the administration's attention. As a result, program changes were made, and this year the 3rd to 4th grade ITBS scores went up overall including math computation. Congrats to the teachers, parents and kids! Maybe district administrators will finally dump the useless ITBS test in favor of the more widely used MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) adaptive test, so our students can be accurately compared to their peers in the feeder districts.

We were not surprised to see board member Rick Rigley return to his old self with an angry outburst accusing a fellow board member Karen O'Halloran of texting during the meeting. Maybe he should direct his energies toward engaging his completely disinterested counterpart across the room. Why Beth Tegtmeier ran for a second term on this board remains a mystery. She rarely contributes to the discussion and aside from voting with the majority and passing out certificates, does not add any substance to the meetings.

Finally, we are curious as to what happens in the meeting after the meeting. The regular board meeting ended around 10:45 p.m. but a quorum of board members including Rigley, Mirabile, Sedlack and Fredisdorf lingered in the board room until 11:20. p.m. It is a violation of the Open Meetings Act to discuss district business once the meeting is adjourned. Tsk, tsk, tsk!