Gangs In Round Lake — An Open Letter To Parents

Unless you haven’t looked around our community much lately then the activity of gangs in Round Lake should be of no surprise to you. While there are a number of possible explanations they all really don’t matter at the end of the day. Gangs have been and will continue to be in Round Lake, this is nothing new. What is new are the methods and the nature of their activity. They don’t just spray paint a wall anymore, they post their exploits on MySpace and You Tube including videos of murders and drive-by shootings. They don’t just settle for walls in out of the way places anymore either, they tag (vandalize with their gang symbols) the hallways of our schools or break in and completely trash a school. Finally, if you thought that they just wanted to recruit high school boys or middle school boys you are sadly mistaken, they’re recruiting our elementary students and girls now as well.

I’m not posting this to create some sort of panic or mass hysteria — our local police departments and the staff at our schools are hard at work doing all they can to keep the gangs out. What needs to happen is the people of this community, especially the parents need to wake up and recognize this problem. What’s different now is parents rationalizing or even making excuses for their child’s gang activity — “they’re just drawings”, “it’s just a list of phone numbers”, or “just because he draws it doesn’t mean he’s in that gang” are common phrases I’ve heard from parents when confronted with the truth, the absolute reality, that their child is involved with a gang.

As a school board member it’s time for me to tell to you what my job is and this is solely my opinion, it’s how I’ve conducted myself since I was first elected and it’s how I will continue to represent this community as long as I serve. I owe no duty to any individual student in Round Lake Area Schools, I owe a collective duty to the more than 6,000 students we serve.

I owe them a safe learning environment and any time I have a vote in keeping that environment safe that is what I am going to vote for. The school is no substitute for parents. The school is not there to straighten out these kids and get them out of the gang. The school is not there to tolerate behavior related to gang activity. The school is there to educate.

We do all that we can — our staff members, the police, government and non-profit community groups are all there to try to help parents where we can. We’re more than happy to help and steer you in the right direction to get help with your child. However, if you continue to live in a state of denial about your child, if you continue to make excuse after excuse for them, if you continue to tolerate their activity and somehow try to explain it or legitimize it there is going to be very little that we can do. So I’m telling you now that the resources are there to help you but the first step is to accept and recognize that your child has a problem. Don’t make excuses for it and don’t fault yourself for it because even kids in good homes can fall in with the wrong crowd and become involved with gangs. You should fault yourself though if you do not stand up, recognize it and draw the line with your child that it won’t be accepted because that is the line I have drawn with them.

For the most part I don’t believe in “zero tolerance” but one area where I do believe in it is gang activity. If your child “represents” (wears clothing identified with gangs, draws pictures affiliated with gangs, vandalizes school property with gang graffiti) in our buildings that is gang activity, that is not allowed under our code of conduct and your child is subject to discipline up to and including a two-year expulsion from school. If your child comes before me and there is conclusive evidence of this I can tell you right now I will be voting to expel your child for two years from school, the maximum penalty we can impose by law. If your child comes before me on the school board they will have had many chances to change their behavior unless the act they committed is severe.

Some people may cry that I’m only driving that child to the gang and I say to you nothing could be further from the truth. That child was driven there long before I became involved. My duty, my obligation, is to the more than 6,000 students in our district who are there to get an education in a safe environment. I will not jeopardize that, I will not shirk my duty to provide that safe environment because I’m concerned about what will happen to any individual student who has obviously already made a choice about what he/she is coming to school for.

Below are some links to information related to gang awareness. Use the resources the community is providing and if you’re still confused, still don’t know where to turn I suggest you call the police at 847-270-9111 and they will put you in touch with people who can help.

Round Lake Area Parents Guide To Gangs
Round Lake Area Parents Guide To Gangs (Spanish)
“Gangs Or Us” – Parent Resources Page
Lake County Circuit Court – Gang Awareness
Lake County Circuit Court – Gang Alert
City of Aurora – Gang Awareness
San Antonio (TX) Police Department – Gang Awareness Handbook

Round Lake Area Schools – Technology Committee

Last Thursday an ad-hoc Techology Committee was formed by the board and I was appointed chair. The purpose of this committee is to take a look at our current situation in technology, potential solutions and if the proposed solution from Net56 fits our needs.

I have started a series of pages that are a repository for the information I have collected on this topic called RLAS Technology Review (if you noticed the top banner). Stop on over and check it out.

I have been using a service from Google for one of my online businesses for a while now called Google Apps. Google has announced Google Apps for Education which is completely free and gives schools the opportunity to have Google handle their email, scheduling, word processing, spreadsheets and other productivity tools. That’s right, for free. There’s an interesting testimonial from the IT director at Arizona State University you’ll find below.

Daily Herald – Round Lake district hires new school chief

Daily Herald – Round Lake district hires new school chief (PDF)
Daily Herald (Live Story)

By Jason King
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Friday, March 09, 2007

The Round Lake-area school district has chosen a new leader.

The board of education and school finance authority on Thursday approved the hiring of Ben Martindale to replace departed Chief Executive Officer Dennis Stonewall.

Martindale, who is the outgoing superintendent of Gurnee Elementary District 56, told both boards he looks forward to the challenges the district presents.

“I’m really excited about doing this, it’s a different chapter in my life,” he said. “I was here last week and was very impressed with the people I’ve met. We’re taking this school district to a place I think it very much deserves to be.”

We are at a very unique time in the history of Round Lake Area Schools — we just reached a multi-year deal with our teachers, our Magee project is moving along and ready to get started, we obtained financial recognition status and preliminary results indicate great increases in student achievement. Now we have a new leader, one with a proven track record of results and great experience in areas we continue to have difficulty with — building and facilities management, finances and special education. Most importantly, he is a superintendent and that’s the type of leadership the district earnestly needs at the top right now.

First, I have to thank the School Finance Authority (SFA) for allowing the Board of Education to participate in the selection process, in fact, our voices were heard equally. They didn’t have to do that, but they did.

Our relationship with the SFA has improved by leaps and bounds in just a few months and much of that is due to the leadership of Doug Parks, our current SFA chairman. Under his leadership the SFA and BOE have had the opportunity to work more closely. In fact, this process of hiring a new CEO has allowed me to get to know members of the SFA much better than I ever did. We spoke with one voice in naming Ben Martindale our new superintendent but that was by mutual agreement and trust me, we had some brilliant candidates and this was a very difficult decision. In the end though Dr. Martindale looked to be the best fit for what the district needs right now: he has a long history in Lake County; he spent many years at SEDOL and is well-versed in Special Education; he faced many unique challenges with buildings and changing student enrollment in Gurnee Elementary 56. In my opinion, he’s definitely the right man for the job.

The bleeding in the district caused by the near catastrophic financial meltdown has been stopped — now is the time to focus on student achievement while maintaining our fiscal discipline. I look forward to working with Dr. Martindale to achieve those goals and start delivering the world-class education that we promise the kids of Round Lake.

Daily Herald | Round Lake Schools, Teachers Reach Deal

Daily Herald

To follow up on my earlier post.

Round Lake schools, teachers reach deal
BY JASON KING
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, March 06, 2007

The Round Lake-area school district and its teachers union reached a tentative contract agreement Monday night after a lengthy 11-hour day of negotiations.Jerri Ryan, attorney for the school district, said details of the agreement would not be released until the contract is ratified.

“This is pending approval by the rank and file and approval by both boards,” Ryan said.

The district and the association have been meeting since April – 14 times in all – to hammer out a new, multi-year contract. Since November, both sides have met nine times with the help of a federal mediator.

District 116 educates around 6,400 students in eight schools. The contract will cover 565 certified teachers and non-certified staff, including support and custodial workers.

The sticking point, according to both sides, is salaries. The district has been proposing a five-year contract while the association wants a three-year deal.

• For support staff and non-certified employees, the district is proposing raises between 5 and 6.5 percent annually. The union wants raises from 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent annually.

• For teachers and certified staff, the district is proposing a 5 percent to 6 percent annual increase over the term of the contract. The union is seeking 6.75 percent to 7 percent annually.

Teachers have been working since last June without a contract and union members, in February, voted overwhelmingly to strike if a deal wasn’t reached soon, while 99 percent of the members said they would not cross picket lines.

An eight-week strike rocked the district in 1994. The last contract between both sides was reached in 2003, but not without the assistance of a mediator. A strike vote at that time had virtually the same outcome as the February vote.

The new deal will have to be ratified by union members and approved by both the board of education and the state finance authority, which oversees the district. Ryan did not know when the three sides would cast their respective votes on the contract.

Tentative Contract for Round Lake Area Schools

From the district’s negotiations update page:

Tonight, after an extensive daylong session of negotiations conducted under the guidance of a federal mediator, Round Lake Area School District 116 and the Education Association of Round Lake (the Association), the bargaining unit that represents the District’s 565 certified teachers and non-certified staff members, reached a tentative agreement on the terms of a new contract. The terms of the new agreement will not be disclosed, pending ratification by the full membership of the Association and the District Board of Education and School Finance Authority.

I want to thank the fine folks on both sides who put in many many hours to get this done. This agreement should let us get our focus back to improving the district, increasing student achievement and ensuring that students in Round Lake get a world-class education. As indicated, this deal needs to be approved by all sides before terms are disclosed, then I will be happy to share them.