Whom do tax rebates truly help?

re: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/politics-and-government/2012-04-30/champaign-council-consider-rebate-proposed-hotel.html

I have been reading “The Great American Jobs Scam” (hat tip to Pattsi Petrie). If what Greg LeRoy says is accurate and precise, red flags and klaxon alarms start going off in my head when I hear about any kind of tax incentive that purports to “bring in new business”. The NUMBER ONE big thing, to me, is the need for transparency and accountability. These two are inseparable. And I want to clarify that I am not opposed to tax incentives in and of themselves – rather it is the need to know exactly where our money is going and why. It is the fundamental rule of being fiscally responsible and having a budget. If one cannot account for the flow of money, one is not mature enough to handle it, IMO.

 

As such, I have sent the following email to the Board (and I carbon copied Dr. Wiegand and Mr. Gene Logas):

Good morning, Members of the Board,

In regards to a News-Gazette article about a new proposal to bring in a hotel to downtown Champaign, the City is planning to offer substantial tax rebates. I am not certain if school board members typically get involved in such discussions or not, but I urge the Board to get involved if they are not. It is my understanding that such a new tax rebate, if put into effect, will further reduce monies coming into the school system. It is not such much that this is a “big evil plan”, but rather this is just one more example of how public tax dollars are funneled into the hands of corporate interests and away from our children. I know each of you care very much about education and all the students, and I thank you for fighting for them.

 

Dr. Chris Span at BTW tonight

Apparently a flyer went out to a limited number of schools inviting “All Parents/Guardians” to “a parent involvement discussion led by Dr. Christopher Span“. He is the guy that co-led the Rose & Taylor Education forum a while back. This seems like a really cool opportunity – I am wondering why it was not broadcast via KCN or on any of the school websites and why only some schools heard about it. We at Carrie Busey, who have one of the highest mobility rates and a fair number of low-SES families, did not get wind of this opportunity. Curious. Good luck finding the flyer online.

I have bugged Dr. Span several times for a report from the Rose & Taylor forum and am still waiting. I am not quite sure what the game is – Dr. Span seems to be collecting some really great community feedback, but what happens to it then? What good is the community input doing? From the community perspective, is it merely to get things off your chest?

April 23rd Board Meeting recording has been posted

Again, right-click and “save as” – streaming is still broken  :(

[note: if you wait for about 5 minutes, streaming seems to be working - your mileage may vary]

http://cb-pta.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/board_meetings/2012-04-23-special-board-meeting.mp4

The plan for Houlihans today

Aside from planning our future open forums, we are going to start looking at talking points we can consistently put in front of the Board at board meetings and make a part of the public record. I am going to fold in things we have gathered from our first open forum (ie, Discipline, Expectations, money/budget, etc) and subsequent forums.

 

I started to look at the budget and quickly got overwhelmed. Just looking through the check register raises a lot of eyebrows, but even more questions. I simply do not have the context to evaluate all this information. I am thinking a dedicated, money-wise and well-versed group of folks would be better suited. Ideas? What can the average joe hope to accomplish by looking over the budget and the many financial reports generated by Mr. Logas and his assistants? Perhaps that is the issue right there.

 

If you have a bee in your bonnet or a burning question, please bring them to Houlihans today. If you are a shadow reader of this blog and have always wanted to come to a Houlihans Wednesday, maybe today is the lucky day.

Letter to the Board: “April 23rd Board Meeting”

My letter to the Board follows – I am linking this to my previous post about the board meeting.

[sheesh, this wordpress formatting is HORRID - some kind of div fetish....]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Board,

I was unable to attend yesterday’s Board Meeting but I did intend to state a couple of things in Public Comment. So I am resorting to email as a secondary method to communicate.

First, I wish to again congratulate the Board on their choice of Ileana Saveley, and wish Ms. Saveley a satisfying and most successful term(s) of service with the Board.

Next, I wish to again implore the Board and the Administration to further seek out ways to achieve transparency and build trust with the community. There are two areas of immediate relevancy in regards to the direction of the School District and the community. For each, I list the issue and a possible solution – I am open to other possibilities as well.

1. High School Options. 
Issue: During the Feb 27th Board Meeting,

Putting every FOIA response online: good idea or bad?

Another thought occurred to me; is there a precedent set at any level of government where all FOIA requests and responses are posted online? It seems to me (naive as I am about such things) that this is a true FAQ, not the kool-aid version we so often get from canned questions. This seems to me an easy, low-hanging-fruit way to build transparency into the system.

 

Am I missing something? I realize there is some administrative overhead involved, but I do not believe that is enough of an obstacle to put the kibosh on the idea. Are there legal ramifications? I mean, the whole point of the Freedom of Information Act is to push public information into the public sphere. Right now, we only do half the job (FOIA requests are sent to an individual – who knows what happens to it after that).

 

I suggested this to Beth Shepperd in March of 2011. At one point, I also saw a link that had an index of FOIA requests, but I am no longer able to find it. And in June 2010 I offered to Tom Lockman that I could help index all the documents and reports they have on the website. Seems like such a long time ago…..

 

Open recruitment: all eyes on deck

I was forwarded an email about http://forthegoodofillinois.org/, which has launched a project to put all government spending records at your fingertips via http://www.openthebooks.com/. This sounds like a very ambitious project. The one example they are highlighting is quite interesting in itself.

So I am recruiting people to help me look through the open checkbook of Unit 4 after May 1st (when it goes live). The goal: make sure we are spending money on teaching kids. For many of us, the tax for public education is the largest percentage of our property tax (I think). I am not even going to go into the joke of how our State’s Constitution says the state needs to bear this responsibility. The rules: if you find something interesting, say something about it; we are not here to castrate or demonize any individual, but to look for deficiencies and suggest helpful alternatives.

I do not yet have a good way to organize our findings. I am open to suggestions. In the meantime, just make a comment on this thread. Or volunteer to become a guest author (here, Smile Politely, Halfway Interesting, etc).

 

More to follow.

 

PS – as a fallback plan if the above websites get taken down (politics, *sigh*), we can always file FOIA requests. I know a number of folks have already done this, and it would be oh so handy if we could combine our efforts and consolidate that information. I can help build a database and make it available online.

April 23rd Board Meeting

I am unable to make it tonight, so I am hoping that some of you were able to attend. I even had some statements I wanted to say in public comment….

 

Anyway, I am particularly interested to find out how the Board responds to the Resolution to Abandon the WCB (ie, will Jamar motion, will anyone second?). I am also interested in hearing feedback about the high school options. I am quite concerned that the board has made decisions to take things off the table (one high school, Garwood site, Boulder Ridge site, etc) and yet it appears (my perception is) that the board did this without much community input. I could be quite wrong. I am very much anxious to hear how the board intends to collect feedback outside Ms. Nelson’s website (which is good, by the way – she is doing some great research).

Resolution to Abandon Working Cash Bonds

From the Monday, April 23rd Board Agenda

Resolution to Abandon Working Cash Bonds: Judy Wiegand

I have heard rumors about how this happened (ie, reversing votes, etc). But nothing appears to be in the light at this moment. I wonder if any light will be shed at the meeting.

Majora Carter

I have carved out a bit of time to take advantage of Majora Carter being on campus. I strongly encourage you to learn more about her work and her group if you have no clue who I am talking about.

On the surface, “environmental justice” may seem totally disconnected with Education and Unit 4 in particular. Take a look at the information PDF for the sessions with Majora – you will see the dots start to connect between the University and the children. It seems to me, after watching several of her videos and especially listening to her last night, that Majora has taken a step back from life and has viewed things from the 10,000 foot perspective, and then zoomed in on just about everyone impacted, pushing, cajoling, sweet-talking, urging and basically getting people off their duffers and into action. One gentleman last night humbly got up to observe that we have a world-class University and yet their appears to be so little effect of such a prestigious institution in our own community. I myself have felt that way at times, and have heard others voice the same thought, even here in this blog. I think the workshops aspire to kickstart a new initiative to change that around, to open the door and push/pull people through.

I am going to go find out. I have taken a day off work to go to part of the workshops (have commitments for the afternoon already). This isn’t just about teaching kids. This is about improving the land, improving the people, improving the culture, improving our city. It is extremely ambitious. And entirely possible.

Learning from others: “Crossing the Streams”

I apologize for subjecting you to yet another bout of news from Springfield; I had some excellent conversations today and am compelled to share them. This is a long post;  the top 2/3rds deals with Peggy Cormeny, the bottom 1/3rd with Pete Sherman. The overall theme is of bringing parents and teachers together. I am reminded of Ghostbusters and the power of crossing the “streams”. What you read below is very much like that.

[note: any factual errors are bound to be my own - if you know of any discrepancies, please let me know]

The first one was with Peggy Cormeny, the Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) at SSD 186. I have been trying to get a hold of her for a little while and our schedules finally overlapped. My first question to Peggy was about the history and genesis of FACE. To provide a full context, she had to rewind all the way back to the early 90′s.

Roughly 20 years ago the Ball Foundation contacted the Springfield School District and started a partnership that is just now winding down. The Foundation provided grant monies to fund teacher home visits and teacher collaboration initiatives, opportunities that allowed teachers the incentives to visit with children and their families. Peggy related a story of one elementary school in which the 5th grade teachers were able to meet and visit with all the 5th grade families before school began. Wow. Around the same time, the “Parents as Partners” program was kicked off, a vital bridge between home and school.

When Peggy joined the team,

Tonight’s Open Forum

For our debut Open Forum, we had two Board Members (one for each hour ) 4 parents and 2 media folks. And a whole heck of a lot of discussion. I cannot possibly do justice to all that we covered, especially since I am tired. But I am going to convey the notes I took. In addition, I am hoping Meg Dickinson will write up an article, and we have a video (not sure about the quality). I am also hoping that those who were there (looking at you, readers!!) will fill in the blanks and continue this conversation.

[in no particular order at all]

Climate

• Achievement expectations are low
• Behavior expectations are low
• Does not support a lot of learning
• Teachers should dig into the backgrounds of their students
• Don’t compare students to each other
• Turn org chart upside down
• It is time to truly focus on kids, not adults (and not merely give lip service)
• More diversity
• High Mobility correlates to low Performance; schools of choice correlates with high mobility at some schools

Transportation

• Privatize the transportation department
• The money spent on

The Public Candidate Forum video is now available for download

http://www.cb-pta.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/board_meetings/2012-04-16-special-board-meeting-candidates.mp4

 

The streaming option is currently broken – I recommend you “right-click” and “save as” or “download”. If you know what I am doing wrong, please let me know.

Reminder: Open Forum tonight, 7-9pm, Champaign Library Room 222

Just a last minute reminder, come out of if you want to join us for an open forum on Education (both Champaign and Urbana are welcome). We will be setting up in room 222 of the Champaign Public Library. I believe the room is reserved for “Education Reform Forum”. It is going to be interactive and maybe even fun!

New Board Member: Ileana Saveley

Congrats to Ileana Saveley!!

re: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/education/2012-04-16/champaign-school-board-chooses-ileana-saveley.html,  http://www.champaignschools.org/news/news_view.php?action=view&news_type=press_release&id_news=350

As Pattsi and others have said, this was a win/win situation for me. I am glad to have been stretched by this experience – the many hours of practicing in front of a camera really paid off. I have heard some very wise constructive crticisms which have also helped me.

But over and above all else, I met new people who have a passion for the school district. That was huge in and of itself. I have already emailed all the candidates and spoken to many of them personally about continuing the excellent conversations we were having (“around the table”, as it were). In Laurie Bonnett’s closing statement, she challenged each of us to stay involved/active with Unit 4. In my email to the group, I reiterated that challenge. I would hate to loose the energy and excitement we shared together and I really want to roll it forward.

After taking advantage of getting to know the lady to my right (Ileana), I was really glad that she was chosen as the next Board Member. I honestly think she is an excellent choice and am very happy for her.

So, an account of the Public Candidate Forum. It was run very much like a “normal” Regular Board meeting with a small, special agenda (and no executive session at 5:30). Comments were accepted from CFT, CEFT, the Council and the Public. One gentleman (Marcel Miller, I think) asked why the decision would be made in closed session and urged the Board to think outside the box and focus on minorities. I believe the Board did exactly that.

Then we