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.

Two veterans, one newcomer file for Round Lake School Board

Filings for Round Lake Area Schools Board of Education closed yesterday. I’m getting some conflicting information on filings, as soon as I clarify I will announce more. However, we did put out a press release last week after filing but I didn’t see any press anywhere. Apparently the “controversial” W. Guy Finley isn’t so controversial anymore!

Two veterans, one newcomer file for Round Lake School Board

ROUND LAKE, IL — January 29, 2007 — Two veteran Round Lake school board members and one newcomer filed nomination petitions for three of the six seats on the ballot for the April 17 election today. Six of the seven school board seats are up for election.

“We haven’t decided if we’re going to put together a slate of candidates to collectively campaign,” W. Guy Finley, one of those filing, said. “Tammie, Nanci and I support each other’s candidacies and even if the election isn’t contested we plan on doing some campaigning to inform the public,” Finley, a veteran board member, was referring to Tammie Hanna, a newcomer, and Nanci Radford, another veteran board member who also filed on Monday.

“Let’s just say I learned a lot from Clean Slate and I’m very comfortable with the folks I’m running with this time,” Finley said referring to his previous slate of candidates that won by large margins in 2001. “I’ve served with Nanci on the board and she brings an incredible amount of skills to the job that are very valuable and I’ve met extensively with Tammie and think she will bring some fresh new ideas and a voice for those in the district who don’t have, or have had, kids in our schools.”

“We each bring our own special skill set to the board of education. With a well rounded board, working together with administration, students, families, community members and businesses towards the common vision to provide the very best education possible, while remaining fiscally responsible,” Radford said. “Round Lake School District 116 can look forward to a bright and promising future for all of our youth.”

Radford is a long-time Round Lake Beach resident and was appointed to the board, then ran for election in 2003. She is an active member of the Round Lake Area BEST (Bringing Everyone’s Strengths Together) Coalition, CHARACTER COUNTS!, and the Lake County After School Coalition. Radford also works in the Round Lake community as the Coordinator of Youth and Family Strengthening Services for Nicasa.

Hanna, a Round Lake Beach resident, is a National Account Manager for Pactiv Corporation in Lake Forest. She is active in the Round Lake Area Exchange Club and serves as a mentor with Omni Youth Services based in Buffalo Grove. Hanna and Radford have both been active with the Shop With A Cop program.

Finley was previously elected in 2001 and rose to board vice-president before he resigned when his family moved to Lindenhurst in 2003. He was appointed to the board in January of last year after having returned to his boyhood home of Round Lake and is the district’s current representative on the Governing Board for SEDOL (Special Education District of Lake County). He was a soccer referee, regional and area board member with the American Youth Soccer Organization in Round Lake for 12 years and was a founding member of Round Lake CUBE (Citizens United for Better Education). He is a 1990 graduate of Round Lake High School and works for American Family Insurance as a Senior Field Claims Representative.

“We’ll see who else files, there may be others we wish to campaign with or support, we haven’t decided as of yet,” Finley said. “We’ve stopped the financial bleeding in the district. Now, it’s time to improve on academics while maintaining financial discipline and regain local control, which the School Finance Authority is supportive of — we need to show them we’re ready.”

The Good News — Round Lake Area Schools “Financial Recognition”

The good news from last night’s board meeting and a subject of a prior blog post was Round Lake Area Schools being awarded “Financial Recognition” by the Illinois State Board of Education for Financial Profile Designation. This is a huge announcement, capping a comeback of a 2.6 score and “Financial Watch” status in 2002 to a 3.6 score and “Financial Recognition” in 2006.

You can read more about the Financial Profile System in this pamphlet (PDF). This is great news for the district and a sign we are truly stabilized in finances. There’s still plenty of work to do though.

Huge Milestone in Round Lake Area Schools Recovery

I don’t have much time to write fully about this now as the IASB Annual Conference starts today and I have a lot of work to plow through but I had to get this up.

At last night’s board meeting our CFO Walter Korpan announced that we have our Financial Scorecard results and they received a rating of Recognition which is the highest rating given to school districts for financial health. The last two years we’ve been at Review which is the second highest but I can’t tell you how thrilled I am by this achievement. As soon as the scorecards are posted I’ll have a link and comment on this great news some more.

Yes, Dennis Miller Did Come To Waukegan

Thursday I got home from work and grabbed The News Sun and brought it inside for a read. I note on the front page that Dennis Miller is coming to the Genesee Theater. “Awesome,” I think to myself, “he must be coming in a few weeks.” Then I read, no, he’s coming tomorrow. Now that’s publicity. Probably my favorite comic in the whole world, I even valet parked cars at the debut of his first syndicated show in 1992 while at college, and I have no clue he’s coming to Waukegan of all places. Advice to the folks at the The Genesee Theater (SMG World), take a good look at your marketing strategy because I don’t think it’s working very well.

Anyway, I go to a place who’s marketing strategy is working very well, TicketsNow (based right in Crystal Lake I might add) and see if they have some tickets. Sure enough they do and not only that but they have front row at $45 a piece which is less than face value. “Must be a scam,” I say and I call them up. Well, it turns out the broker who owns those tickets is in Arizona and unless he sells them and gets them to FedEx in an hour or so of my call he’s going to be out of luck. So yes, that’s the price, $45. I buy them immediately.

So I call my good friend and collaborator Heather and she agrees it sounds like a good time and will go with me. We got there pretty early and this was my first time at the Genesee ever and I haven’t been in that area of Waukegan in many years since I performed with Fairfield Roadkill at the late Café Kismet. Oh, and word to the Kismet owner who still owns Horsefeathers down there, that business might actually work now with the Genesee there! That area of Waukegan has really turned around, I must say.

Anyway we were some of the first to arrive so we got some $5 beers and sat and talked for a while as a large crowd of almost entirely white folks works their way in (aside from my friend Heather I saw one other black person). It got me to thinking about how racially entrenched we seem to be in entertainment. After all, I was coming to see Dennis Miller a guy who’s been on SNL and MNF and I thought would attract a wide swath of backgrounds with his highbrow humor (MNF had set up a portion of their website where a academic would explain some of Dennis’ often obscure references.) but it was clear to me his fan base, at least those who heard about this show, were decidedly white middle and upper class. I think you have to have a certain amount of intellectual acumen to “get” Dennis but that’s not something that knows race or class so I guess I was a little disappointed more folks if diverse backgrounds didn’t like my favorite comic. Of course I could be reading too much into this.

We go to take our seats and we present our tickets to the first usher and she says “Oh wow, I don’t even know where these are,” and she shows us to an usher closer to the front. She takes us all the way to the front row which is in the “pit” section of about three rows of regular padded chairs. She points to the row and says “they’re down a bit I think”. We work our way closer to the center and find seats 102 and 104 and we should have figured it out but those seats are dead center and the mic stand is about five feet directly in front of us. “Oh my god, you the man with these tickets,” Heather says as she sits down. We look around some but its hard to see the theater because we are so far in front but the restoration looks beautiful and the place is lovely.

We talk to some of our neighbors and I brag about how I paid less than face for my tickets. We find out some of the folks around us had won their tickets on Jonathan Brandmeier’s show on WLUP-FM. “Well that could explain the abundance of middle-aged white people,” I think to myself. I never have cared for “Johnny B.” that much to be honest, I think his show has just become way too slick and scripted over the years, almost the antithesis of Howard Stern. Sure, Howard scripts but there’s was always a good amount of improv I always thought when I was a regular listener. To be honest I abandoned morning several years ago for my iPod.

The show starts about on time with an opening act that I had no idea of. Apparently Brandmeier had a contest for someone to warm up for Dennis and this skinny kid with a high pitched voice I only remember as “Buds”, his last name, takes the stage. His material was pretty dang good, actually I was amazed someone who won a radio contest did so well to be honest. He went for about 15 minutes and he handled it very well for something that probably would have made most amateurs nervous as hell.

Dennis takes the stage about 10 minutes later in a white shirt (no tie), black suit, and a pair of gym shoes that I swear are Nike slip-on types. He wears his glasses for the whole set now and has a scribbled outline of his set on the bar stool. He’s shorter than I’m expecting and when you sit that close you see someone as human, a guy you would see in the bar next to you, not larger than life like he is on TV.

He starts the set out with some new material the first joke about being to the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC and saying “despite the misleading name, no, it’s not empty.” The crowd gets it immediately and he gets a big laugh and he would have many throughout the night. Clearly most of the people there were well educated fans as he got great applause throughout the night using a lot of material that the average person (i.e. Leno’s “man on the street”) who would have no clue whatsoever what he was talking about.

A lot of the material is stuff that Dennis has been using over the past couple of years and that disappoints me a bit. Some of his jokes from his bit on airline travel, global warming, etc. It was good material and many laughed but I had heard some of it before in his 2003 HBO special I believe let alone his 2005 one. But, with a recently canceled TV show and the different dates he’s doing he will need some time to work on some new stuff.

The best part of the show, by far, was his encore. In fact he totally killed me and I’m pretty sure he was looking right at me when he delivered his line that made me laugh and cracked himself up as well. He starts to leave after his first set and gets about 3/4 off the stage and then turns back around and says “see, I guarantee my encore by not leaving!” It totally killed me. In his encore he starts by saying he talked to Bill Maher about what he does in his stand-up now and he states that Maher told him he takes questions which Dennis proceeded to do.

Dennis took a few questions then the first being about MNF I think and he told several very funny “behind the scenes” stories. Then someone asked about SNL and he told a few more including a very touching but funny story about Phil Hartman’s funeral and walking Times Square with William Shatner.

Next someone asked about going back to HBO and he said “no man, let’s face it, I’m probably done there.” He took a posture that seemed very serious and sincere and went on to talk about his views on the war aren’t very popular and that is likely going to cost him work. Then he talked about the president some more and about politics. He ended by talking about how acrimonious things have gotten and while you may not agree with someone we’re all Americans and we should be sticking together and working out differences instead of picking each other apart. I’m pretty sure I led the crowd with my applause on that one as he left the stage.

A brilliant and funny guy I enjoyed myself thoroughly and he is certainly a detour from the standard stand-up fare of sex, drugs and everyday life.

Who Gets The Credit (and Blame) In Round Lake?

On Friday the Daily Herald ran an article covering the resignation of Dennis Stonewall as CEO of the Round Lake Area Schools. Jason King, the writer, went on to subtly give credit to Mr. Stonewall accurately pointing out “Under his direction and that of his chief financial officer, Walter Korpan, the duo has dramatically improved the district’s finances.” While this may be accurate, in that the rewards of the turnaround came during his tenure, it would be incorrect to start or stop there with who deserves the credit.

To figure this out we have to do a little time trip and that most appropriately begins when the state came in with the Financial Oversight Panel (FOP), the predecessor to the School Finance Authority (SFA). This is where we get to our first people who get credit.

First off, in my mind, is Eric Anderson from Harris Bank. Just prior to the state coming in Mr. Anderson and Harris had stepped up to be the district’s main finance broker. Whenever a bond, tax anticipation warrant, or other financial instrument needs to be executed the Board has to find buyers and that is what Mr. Anderson does. This was not a fun job to have when he got here and, in fact, he made it clear to the Board at the time that he was not going to be able to find a buyer for many more tax anticipation warrants as the district was in the unheard of position of procuring them on taxes it wouldn’t receive for another two years. From many I have talked to it was Mr. Anderson’s emphatic plea to the Board that finally forced them to request the State Board of Education (ISBE) put a FOP in place in Round Lake.

Shortly after that the panel was appointed and my second recipient of credit was appointed the chair, Marc Spivak. Mr. Spivak, an attorney with Topper & Weiss in Chicago and a former school board president, brought the calm, analytical demeanor needed to succeed in this position because in the district, things are coming unhinged. Bill Thompson and Joe Monahan two retired school business managers brought the in-depth knowledge and skill to assess where things were at and get Round Lake going in the right direction.

The FOP brought in several consultants, the first being Lutaf Dhanidina. Mr. Dhanidina had served as director of financial planning for the Chicago Public School and was most recently Chief Financial Officer for Evanston/Skokie District 65. Mr. Dhanidina or “Lutaf” as we would all call him because of his difficult to pronounce last name, began an in depth analysis of the district’s financial status and something that hadn’t been done for some time, projections for its future status. It was these projections, and how dire they looked, that led ISBE to get legislation to put a Finance Authority in Round Lake and eventually cause the FOP to request such an authority. It wasn’t the only thing that caused that though.

The Board fought with the FOP tooth and nail. Immediately after my election in April 2001 I began direct communications with Mr. Spivak in an attempt to get the Board to work cooperatively with the FOP and not against them. After I was seated, aside from the lambasting I would get from my fellow members, closed sessions were full of disdain for the FOP and representatives from ISBE. I remember them being referred to as “egg heads”, “bean counters” and “smarmy”. This Board was suffering from what is commonly referred to as “bunkering” — perceiving threats from all sides and then engaging in paranoid behavior that everyone is out to get them. The truth of the matter was, they were here to get it straightened out and had they cooperated, the SFA might never have come to pass.

This leads us to some blame. No individual board member or board officer is responsible for what happened in Round Lake, it was a collective failure. Nor is it the fault of Dr. Mary Davis our former superintendent because at the end of the day the Board sets the agenda and that agenda was faulty for a number of years going back to when Dr. Clif Houghton was forced to retire. The subsequent Boards would follow a philosophy of having an educational program no matter what the cost to the district. This is the faulty reasoning of many many board members and not just those in Round Lake. A board member is not there to do it “for the kids”, the board member should do what is right for the kids within the restraints of the community’s wishes. If the Board has inadequate funding it goes to referendum, if the community believes the funding it is needed it provides it (as the people of Round Lake have done many times) or it does not. It’s then up to the Board to act with this mandate from the people, not to mandate to the people what they will pay for.

Additionally the district did not have a clean handoff from our prior Business Manager to the one in place when I came to the Board. She was quite clearly totally overwhelmed by the scope of the position. I believe she did the best she could but the task was beyond her and the support system wasn’t there for her either. The district needed a strong business manager who would be able to take on this task and then put the support system in place himself. That person turned out to be Walter Korpan.

When Mr. Korpan was hired I caused a big stink about how it was done. He was picked, the Board President had agreed to the pick and the Board was to rubber stamp his appointment. I was concerned a more thorough search wasn’t done. After interviewing Mr. Korpan though I became convinced, and I told him so at the meeting, that I was pleased with the selection and would vote for it despite my misgivings on how it was done.

Mr. Korpan has done the yeoman’s effort in getting this district turned around but he would be the first to tell you he had a lot of help. However, one cannot deny the fact that two things started things going down the right path — insistence on a balanced budget from the FOP and Walter Korpan overhauling the districts business practices. For years our auditors Eder, Casella & Co. had warned of poor business practices, they just weren’t followed. In fact, the district illegally transferred funds several times. Mr. Korpan immediately made sweeping changes including overhauling the district’s method of taking attendance which recouped the loss of state funding (since all state funding is based on Average Daily Attendance (ADA) within the district). We couldn’t even properly tell the state how many kids we had in class!! He started there and went on to running a lunch program that broke even instead of losing money, creditors who held intercepts on our tax money had proper balances set aside to disable the intercepts, and many other significant changes.

The results are plain to see. In FY2001 the district ran a deficit of $1.05 mil, with $23.4 3mil in state funding and $17.68 mil in local funding according to ILEARN. Some of this deficit is actually incorrect since the district had money expended for construction projects that were previously bonded (i.e. in FY2000 the district got money for a project not done and paid for until FY2001 so a deficit will be shown). But this is where local funding numbers started to step up, in FY2002 state funding was $21.81 mil (49%) and local funding was $19.87 mil (45%), up two million from the prior year. In FY2003 state funding was $20.77 mil (47%) and local was $21.18 mil, up another million and change.

However, in FY2004 the first “benefit” of the SFA went into effect. As part of the legislation that created the Round Lake SFA, known as the Downstate Finance Authority Act, the district got to “reset” its tax cap for one year. That is, the district was no longer bound by the tax caps imposed on every other district (except Chicago) in Illinois which limits the amount of taxes they can levy. In other words, a district has authority from taxpayers to levy a certain amount in taxes and can increase that amount from year to year based on rises in cost of living, etc. Most district in Illinois can’t raise it to that cost of living because of tax caps, Round Lake could in FY2004. So, in FY2004 state funding was $24.47 mil (46%) and local funding was $26.57 mil (50%). For the first time in years the district got more from its taxpayers than it did from the state. In FY2001 the number was 41% and had been for a number of years, it moved up 9% in three years and with static state funding, that has been a major reason for the turnaround in the district.

For FY2005 that number has dipped a bit. But the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) of the district continues to grow. EAV is the value of taxable property in the district, EAV per pupil is a key figure in discriminating poorer districts from affluent ones. In FY2001 the EAV per pupil was $55,925 and ranked 281st in the state. In FY2005 it is now $69,776 and 257th in the state. This rise has accounted for the nearly $7 mil per year the district has available and, together with sound financial policies, this is why the district is getting turned around and future projections continue to look good. So, my #1 serving of credit for the turnaround in Round Lake? The Round Lake taxpayers who endured their tax caps protection being lifted and continue to live under the threat of mandated taxes without referendum — taxation without representation by an appointed SFA.

So, does Mr. Stonewall deserve some credit? Absolutely. Does the Board, that has continued to wrangle with him, this author being one of the lead antagonists, still have concerns? You betcha. I’m concerned with our administrative turnover. I’m concerned with use of authority (such as with the use of Magee I covered earlier) without consultation with either the Board or the SFA. I’m concerned with our three-headed administrative structure that can result in miscommunication or lack of communication. I’m concerned about administrative costs. I’m concerned that we had a referendum pass yet the only sizable construction work that got done this summer was the administrative building parking lot.

Frankly, I was dismayed when Mr. Stonewall told us point blank that he was going to abide by our decision to fund the mobile classrooms project with fund balances and then went to the SFA with his plan to have them issue bonds anyway. Fortunately the SFA unanimously voted that down. Finally, I’m concerned that we don’t truly have a superintendent.

Why is that important? There are things a chief executive in a school district has to do that are not merely business. I applaud good business sense in all decisions and I frequently question our administration on how we spend money. However, there are some real truths to school districts. First off, no, we do not have “customers”. The “customer” in schools is the taxpayer, not the parents. There are thousands of people in our district — seniors, young people without children, those who send their children to private schools, to name a few — who do not use our services but pay for them. This is a huge fundamental fact that cannot be taken for granted or denied. I am all for better customer service for those who do use our services but our responsibility, our accountability, is to the taxpayer and not to the parents alone. I think the vast number of those taxpayers understand how important a good public school is to our community’s well-being and success. We need to educate them on that though so they understand what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and that we’re being responsible with their hard earned money, money that for everyone is the largest single item on our property tax bill.

Additionally there are nuances of labor relations, state standards, community outreach, and other items that an experienced superintendent comes to grasp. And, finally, a good superintendent knows he/she serves at the pleasure of the Board but is not afraid to tell the Board when it’s doing something wrong. Had we a Board that more properly understood this oversight role and a Superintendent willing to stand up and insist on proper business practices and accounting then perhaps this entire issue of who gets the credit for Round Lake rebounding wouldn’t be necessary.

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