Cal Skinner has a great piece on his Blog about Allison Smith. Allison Smith was a Northwest Herald reporter who is now the District 300 public relations person. Ms. Smith has been biased towards the education establishment and referenda throughout her reporting career at the Northwest Herald. When reading future reports in our local newspapers supporting referenda keep this story in the back of your mind. How many other reporters when supporting referenda our vying for the lucrative position as a public relations person in our government schools? Ms. Smith has gained financially from her pushing of the passing of the referenda. We ask the residents of District 300 is this how you expected your tax increase to be spent when you voted yes for these referenda?
Here is the introduction to Cal Skinner's post on his BLOG.
8/29/6 - At last night’s school board meeting, Superintendent Ken Arndt welcomed Northwest Herald reporter Allison Smith as the new communications director for District 300.
Smith covered School District 300 for the Northwest Herald during the past referendum and gave the tax hikers fits.
She will be paid $60,707, which has to be a substantial increase from her Northwest Herald salary, where she worked about three years. She starts her new job Sept. 5th.
She must be getting at least a 50% pay hike. And, that’s assuming that the Northwest Herald pays a lot better than I think they do.
Maybe she doubled or almost doubled her salary (as would be the case if she were earning $30,000 before).
There was a good political reason for District 300’s hiring of Allison Smith.
To view the rest of Cal Skinner's piece click here.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Allison Smith. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Allison Smith. Sort by date Show all posts
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
New hire goal to make D300 accountable
The following article appeared in the Courier News Newspaper
My husband and I have been fighting for education spending reform for almost four years. Over this time I learned to read newspaper articles and quotes within newspapers with more skepticism. I have learned that there is probably a lot more behind the story. A half hour conversation with reporters has more often than not been boiled down to one or two lines. The reporters usually choose to report on my minor points instead of my major concerns or points. I have come to know why so many others just do not want to talk to reporters.
Some points that I made to Miss Hovanec that were not reported were the following.
Government monopolies such as schools do not need public relations persons as it is not a matter of choice for parents and students as to where they send their children unless they are wealthy. School's primary goal is to educate students. If schools were educating students properly and spending tax dollars wisely there would be no need for public relations persons for schools. What more proof does someone need that Allison Smith was biased toward District 300 than that they hired Allison Smith as their publication relations person.
In the article below Ms. Smith said "Superintendent Arndt said he chose me because he wants me to play devil's advocate with the district, " If Mr. Arndt were truly looking for someone to play devil's advocate he should have hired a vocal critique and not someone who wrote fluff pieces like "Monkey business afoot in D-300 " which appeared in the August 11, 2006 edition of the Northwest Herald. This was a fluff piece that was better suited for the Sneed column in the Chicago Sun Times.
New hire goal to make D300 accountable
By Jeanne Hovanec
STAFF WRITER
CARPENTERSVILLE — Two shootings were reported in the village Monday and the first instance prompted a 40-minute lock-down at three local schools.
It was a heck of a first day for Community Unit School District 300's new communications specialist, Allison Smith.
Smith says crises and shootings are nothing new to her. The former education reporter for the Northwest Herald worked on the police beat when she started her profession at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a year and a half after graduating from journalism school at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
"It was a great first day because everyone was safe," Smith said. "Being on the police beat made me a better listener and more compassionate. You have to be good under pressure."
But the pressure continues for the Texas native who is housing pages of future projects on her desk and whose name is no stranger to local blogging sites.
Pushing communications
Although she has finished only one week of work, and only a four-day week at that, Smith has projects in the works to elevate District 300's ability to communicate both internally and externally.
She already has began working with District 300's webmaster to give its Web site an overhaul both aesthetically and in the information provided. She hopes to be able to post press releases online to keep the public up to date with District 300 matters.
In addition, Smith plans to start polls on the Web site to help gage the public's opinion of the district. One example of a possible topic of a poll question would be if people feel the district is living up to its promises about a $185 million bond referendum that voters passed in March.
"I don't feel like I have a huge mountain to climb," Smith said. "I have a trust to maintain. Right now the status between the district and the public is positive and I have two tools to maintain that: making the district accountable for its promises and being honest."
Has critics, supporters
But that might be difficult for Smith who already is being scrutinized for her attention to District 300 while she worked as an education reporter for the Northwest Herald. Cathy Peschke, spokeswoman for Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes, criticized Smith for the way she covered the referendum last year for the newspaper. Peschke says Smith "bent over backwards to defend the school district" and labeled Peschke's group as an anti-referendum group when the group had told her it was a taxpayer advocacy group. She says the mislabel, "clearly showed she was biased toward our view."
Smith is not shocked by the attention and says she would be disappointed if people did not voice their complaints.
"I have never shied away from alternate viewpoints of the district," Smith said. "At the time, opponents of D300 cheered and thanked me for the research. I encourage them to recall my efforts and know that I will keep questioning D300."
Cal Skinner, who contributes on the Web site, McHenry County Blog, agrees with Smith that figures used during the referendum campaign were correct and found her stories helpful when blogging.
"I found one of her articles prior to the campaign very revealing," he said. "I am delighted with how she covered it."
And in the end, it is those researching and critical thinking skills that contributed to her getting hired for the position in the first place, Smith says.
"Superintendent Arndt said he chose me because he wants me to play devil's advocate with the district," she said. "If I didn't know that coming in here, I would have been destined to fail. I want to keep D300 accountable."
09/10/06
My husband and I have been fighting for education spending reform for almost four years. Over this time I learned to read newspaper articles and quotes within newspapers with more skepticism. I have learned that there is probably a lot more behind the story. A half hour conversation with reporters has more often than not been boiled down to one or two lines. The reporters usually choose to report on my minor points instead of my major concerns or points. I have come to know why so many others just do not want to talk to reporters.
Some points that I made to Miss Hovanec that were not reported were the following.
Government monopolies such as schools do not need public relations persons as it is not a matter of choice for parents and students as to where they send their children unless they are wealthy. School's primary goal is to educate students. If schools were educating students properly and spending tax dollars wisely there would be no need for public relations persons for schools. What more proof does someone need that Allison Smith was biased toward District 300 than that they hired Allison Smith as their publication relations person.
In the article below Ms. Smith said "Superintendent Arndt said he chose me because he wants me to play devil's advocate with the district, " If Mr. Arndt were truly looking for someone to play devil's advocate he should have hired a vocal critique and not someone who wrote fluff pieces like "Monkey business afoot in D-300 " which appeared in the August 11, 2006 edition of the Northwest Herald. This was a fluff piece that was better suited for the Sneed column in the Chicago Sun Times.
New hire goal to make D300 accountable
By Jeanne Hovanec
STAFF WRITER
CARPENTERSVILLE — Two shootings were reported in the village Monday and the first instance prompted a 40-minute lock-down at three local schools.
It was a heck of a first day for Community Unit School District 300's new communications specialist, Allison Smith.
Smith says crises and shootings are nothing new to her. The former education reporter for the Northwest Herald worked on the police beat when she started her profession at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a year and a half after graduating from journalism school at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
"It was a great first day because everyone was safe," Smith said. "Being on the police beat made me a better listener and more compassionate. You have to be good under pressure."
But the pressure continues for the Texas native who is housing pages of future projects on her desk and whose name is no stranger to local blogging sites.
Pushing communications
Although she has finished only one week of work, and only a four-day week at that, Smith has projects in the works to elevate District 300's ability to communicate both internally and externally.
She already has began working with District 300's webmaster to give its Web site an overhaul both aesthetically and in the information provided. She hopes to be able to post press releases online to keep the public up to date with District 300 matters.
In addition, Smith plans to start polls on the Web site to help gage the public's opinion of the district. One example of a possible topic of a poll question would be if people feel the district is living up to its promises about a $185 million bond referendum that voters passed in March.
"I don't feel like I have a huge mountain to climb," Smith said. "I have a trust to maintain. Right now the status between the district and the public is positive and I have two tools to maintain that: making the district accountable for its promises and being honest."
Has critics, supporters
But that might be difficult for Smith who already is being scrutinized for her attention to District 300 while she worked as an education reporter for the Northwest Herald. Cathy Peschke, spokeswoman for Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes, criticized Smith for the way she covered the referendum last year for the newspaper. Peschke says Smith "bent over backwards to defend the school district" and labeled Peschke's group as an anti-referendum group when the group had told her it was a taxpayer advocacy group. She says the mislabel, "clearly showed she was biased toward our view."
Smith is not shocked by the attention and says she would be disappointed if people did not voice their complaints.
"I have never shied away from alternate viewpoints of the district," Smith said. "At the time, opponents of D300 cheered and thanked me for the research. I encourage them to recall my efforts and know that I will keep questioning D300."
Cal Skinner, who contributes on the Web site, McHenry County Blog, agrees with Smith that figures used during the referendum campaign were correct and found her stories helpful when blogging.
"I found one of her articles prior to the campaign very revealing," he said. "I am delighted with how she covered it."
And in the end, it is those researching and critical thinking skills that contributed to her getting hired for the position in the first place, Smith says.
"Superintendent Arndt said he chose me because he wants me to play devil's advocate with the district," she said. "If I didn't know that coming in here, I would have been destined to fail. I want to keep D300 accountable."
09/10/06
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Why one parent is voting No on the D-300 referenda.
The District 300 referendum is a passionate issue with emotions running high on both sides. Although, my views will support a “no” vote, my interest in getting involved is to simply provide transparency and clarity. The decision of how to vote is, of course, yours to make. State Senator (and Lt. Governor Candidate) Steven Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) said recently at a campaign forum in Huntley that today’s school districts “…are seemingly run for the benefit of the adults working within it.” What I have found thus far seems to support his view.
My concerns with this referendum are twofold:
1) In my view, District 300 has not provided what I consider a quality education for my children and has not demonstrated fiscal self-discipline. Simply throwing more money at a problem doesn’t solve it.
2) I suspect there is more to the Advance300 organization than what they would like you to believe.
My research into Advance300 (formerly Schools for Now Dist. # 300 Committee) began in mid-January after I visited their website. I was impressed by its construction and concluded immediately that it was professionally produced (i.e. expensive). I emailed them and asked very specific questions:
1) Would you provide me a list of your leadership and members?
2) How are you funded?
3) Who created and paid for the website?
I received a response from Nancy Zettler (who serves on District 300’s Community Finance Committee), who identified herself as co-chair with Douglas Sibery. Her response was evasive at best, stating that… “Advance 300 is a growing coalition of several hundred parents, grandparents, students, business owners, community leaders and other community members dedicated to providing our children the excellent education they deserve and ensuring the health and strength of our communities… We are funded by donations. The website was put together by a hard-working, dedicated group of Advance 300 volunteers who have worked very hard for several hundred man-hours researching dozens of sources of information for accuracy, truthfulness and relevance.” My impression was that is their standard response to all inquiries which was likely created with professional assistance.
Ms. Zettler’s comment stating the website was created by volunteers is not truthful. According to their Schedule B document filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections on January 31, $7,000.00 was paid to M&R Strategic Services of Washington, DC for “web site services” on December 19, 2005. In M&R’s website, their self-description is, “For over 15 years, M+R has been helping groups we believe in (notice the phrase, “we believe in”) accomplish their policy and organizational goals... we provide integrated strategy, field organizing, communications, lobbying, direct mail, web production, online advocacy and fundraising services.” A review of their client list reveals the groups they “believe in” point toward a far left political philosophy naming clients such as The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, International Planned Parenthood/Western Hemisphere, The Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Community Center of New York and People for the American Way.
As instructed on M&R’s website, I also requested a list of their “electoral” clients from Ms. Debra Rosen, Senior Consultant. As of February 2nd, I have received no response from her. Incidentally, Advance300’s Schedule B also reveals $6,750.00 was paid to Campaign Solutions of Algonquin for “referendum consulting”. Campaign Solutions has a P.O. Box for an address and has no phone number listed in the Internet Yellow Pages. Last time I checked, volunteers are not paid for their services, and I wonder who owns that company.
District 300 cannot legally financially support Advance300 directly, even though it appears they have hired (with taxpayer funds?) St. Louis based public relations firm Unicom.ARC. As of February 1, a request from Unicom to confirm this has been unanswered.
On January 20, Northwest Herald Reporter Allison Smith published an article on a meeting she attended with District 300 Superintendent Ken Arndt, “about” 25 builders and real estate agents, as well as village officials from Algonquin, West Dundee and Hampshire to raise $153,000 (the minimum amount needed to fund a successful referendum according to Unicom.ARC). As Allison points out in her article, “The campaign money, administered by the Advance 300 citizens group, will pay for an office, mailings, T-shirts, yard signs, TV and radio ads, and possibly even billboards.” Cal Skinner’s blog site, McHenry County Blog (mchenrycountyblog.com), has recently detailed the extent of the pro-referendum contributions that have rolled in (and who they are from). Keep scrolling down until you find them (there are several posts on this topic) or if you prefer, I can send you copies. Check back there often.
Another topic worthy of discussion is District 300’s handling of its finances. Besides the issue of having $38 million available in its working fund to cover the $27 million deficit in the education fund (which the District claims it cannot use because its in a trust and is needed to ease cash flow problems between property tax receipts), were you aware that in 2003, the District had to repay the U.S. Dept. of Education $607,908.06 for violating the terms of a grant that was provided to support the effort to serve limited English proficient students? According to the Federal Register, the funds "...had been used for improper or unsupported expenditures for personnel, fringe benefits, travel, supplies, training and other items."
I personally spoke with the contact person from the D.O.E. for this matter, who verified this information as correct. I have a copy of the Federal Register document as well and was informed by the D.O.E. contact person that District 300 has a copy of the settlement agreement. Also, because of current loopholes in property tax law, we must take the District at their word that the 55 cents/$100 they are asking for the education fund will only be used for the current tax year. State Rep. Michael Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) has introduced legislation in Springfield to close these loopholes. However, even if passed, it will not be in place in time for our referendum.
Although Advance300 portrays itself as a local grassroots organization, it is clear what we have here is a well calculated, well financed and covert public relations effort on the part of District 300 to win this referendum. The deplorable tactic of using our children as pawns to accomplish their desire is nothing short of extortion. I personally don’t believe for a minute that all extracurricular activities will be cut if the referendum fails. The amount of money spent on athletics and music amounts to approximately 1% of the budget and I assure you, no elected school board official who is interested in retaining their office would ever be re-elected if that happened and the public outcry for Superintendent Arndt’s resignation would be immediate. Also, don’t believe the myth that our home values will decline if the referendum fails. Simply ask yourself how much your home has risen in value over the past several years since the last referendum was voted down?
Although my views on this referendum are unmistakable, I hope you can see that my opinion is based upon objective, verified information — not less than truthful rhetoric designed to play on your fears and emotions. Please pass this along to others who are interested, regardless of what their present opinion may be. Besides the McHenry County Blog, I encourage you to visit the web sites of The Family Taxpayer’s Network (thechampion.org) and Citizen’s For Fair and Reasonable Taxes (http://user.mc.net/~igloo/craft.htm). Please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to keep you informed.
Sincerely,
John Ryan
Committeeman
Precinct 62
Algonquin Township
My concerns with this referendum are twofold:
1) In my view, District 300 has not provided what I consider a quality education for my children and has not demonstrated fiscal self-discipline. Simply throwing more money at a problem doesn’t solve it.
2) I suspect there is more to the Advance300 organization than what they would like you to believe.
My research into Advance300 (formerly Schools for Now Dist. # 300 Committee) began in mid-January after I visited their website. I was impressed by its construction and concluded immediately that it was professionally produced (i.e. expensive). I emailed them and asked very specific questions:
1) Would you provide me a list of your leadership and members?
2) How are you funded?
3) Who created and paid for the website?
I received a response from Nancy Zettler (who serves on District 300’s Community Finance Committee), who identified herself as co-chair with Douglas Sibery. Her response was evasive at best, stating that… “Advance 300 is a growing coalition of several hundred parents, grandparents, students, business owners, community leaders and other community members dedicated to providing our children the excellent education they deserve and ensuring the health and strength of our communities… We are funded by donations. The website was put together by a hard-working, dedicated group of Advance 300 volunteers who have worked very hard for several hundred man-hours researching dozens of sources of information for accuracy, truthfulness and relevance.” My impression was that is their standard response to all inquiries which was likely created with professional assistance.
Ms. Zettler’s comment stating the website was created by volunteers is not truthful. According to their Schedule B document filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections on January 31, $7,000.00 was paid to M&R Strategic Services of Washington, DC for “web site services” on December 19, 2005. In M&R’s website, their self-description is, “For over 15 years, M+R has been helping groups we believe in (notice the phrase, “we believe in”) accomplish their policy and organizational goals... we provide integrated strategy, field organizing, communications, lobbying, direct mail, web production, online advocacy and fundraising services.” A review of their client list reveals the groups they “believe in” point toward a far left political philosophy naming clients such as The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, International Planned Parenthood/Western Hemisphere, The Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Community Center of New York and People for the American Way.
As instructed on M&R’s website, I also requested a list of their “electoral” clients from Ms. Debra Rosen, Senior Consultant. As of February 2nd, I have received no response from her. Incidentally, Advance300’s Schedule B also reveals $6,750.00 was paid to Campaign Solutions of Algonquin for “referendum consulting”. Campaign Solutions has a P.O. Box for an address and has no phone number listed in the Internet Yellow Pages. Last time I checked, volunteers are not paid for their services, and I wonder who owns that company.
District 300 cannot legally financially support Advance300 directly, even though it appears they have hired (with taxpayer funds?) St. Louis based public relations firm Unicom.ARC. As of February 1, a request from Unicom to confirm this has been unanswered.
On January 20, Northwest Herald Reporter Allison Smith published an article on a meeting she attended with District 300 Superintendent Ken Arndt, “about” 25 builders and real estate agents, as well as village officials from Algonquin, West Dundee and Hampshire to raise $153,000 (the minimum amount needed to fund a successful referendum according to Unicom.ARC). As Allison points out in her article, “The campaign money, administered by the Advance 300 citizens group, will pay for an office, mailings, T-shirts, yard signs, TV and radio ads, and possibly even billboards.” Cal Skinner’s blog site, McHenry County Blog (mchenrycountyblog.com), has recently detailed the extent of the pro-referendum contributions that have rolled in (and who they are from). Keep scrolling down until you find them (there are several posts on this topic) or if you prefer, I can send you copies. Check back there often.
Another topic worthy of discussion is District 300’s handling of its finances. Besides the issue of having $38 million available in its working fund to cover the $27 million deficit in the education fund (which the District claims it cannot use because its in a trust and is needed to ease cash flow problems between property tax receipts), were you aware that in 2003, the District had to repay the U.S. Dept. of Education $607,908.06 for violating the terms of a grant that was provided to support the effort to serve limited English proficient students? According to the Federal Register, the funds "...had been used for improper or unsupported expenditures for personnel, fringe benefits, travel, supplies, training and other items."
I personally spoke with the contact person from the D.O.E. for this matter, who verified this information as correct. I have a copy of the Federal Register document as well and was informed by the D.O.E. contact person that District 300 has a copy of the settlement agreement. Also, because of current loopholes in property tax law, we must take the District at their word that the 55 cents/$100 they are asking for the education fund will only be used for the current tax year. State Rep. Michael Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) has introduced legislation in Springfield to close these loopholes. However, even if passed, it will not be in place in time for our referendum.
Although Advance300 portrays itself as a local grassroots organization, it is clear what we have here is a well calculated, well financed and covert public relations effort on the part of District 300 to win this referendum. The deplorable tactic of using our children as pawns to accomplish their desire is nothing short of extortion. I personally don’t believe for a minute that all extracurricular activities will be cut if the referendum fails. The amount of money spent on athletics and music amounts to approximately 1% of the budget and I assure you, no elected school board official who is interested in retaining their office would ever be re-elected if that happened and the public outcry for Superintendent Arndt’s resignation would be immediate. Also, don’t believe the myth that our home values will decline if the referendum fails. Simply ask yourself how much your home has risen in value over the past several years since the last referendum was voted down?
Although my views on this referendum are unmistakable, I hope you can see that my opinion is based upon objective, verified information — not less than truthful rhetoric designed to play on your fears and emotions. Please pass this along to others who are interested, regardless of what their present opinion may be. Besides the McHenry County Blog, I encourage you to visit the web sites of The Family Taxpayer’s Network (thechampion.org) and Citizen’s For Fair and Reasonable Taxes (http://user.mc.net/~igloo/craft.htm). Please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to keep you informed.
Sincerely,
John Ryan
Committeeman
Precinct 62
Algonquin Township
Friday, August 11, 2006
Monkey business afoot in D-300 - Monkey Business afoot at the Northwest Herald
The following piece appeared in the Northwest Herald. Allison Smith's bias continues to be all too apparent in her reporting. What a deal D - 300 has a public relations person working for the local paper without having to pay her one dime. Equally disgusting is that D - 300 and Crates think that depriving hard earned dollars from D -300 residents based on half-truths, shoddy accounting and extremely poor projections to pass the referenda is something to joke about.
Monkey business afoot in D-300
[published on Fri, Aug 11, 2006]
CARPENTERSVILLE – The first monkey memento appeared in Cheryl Crates' office a month after the School District 300 referendums passed this spring.
Someone had nailed above her computer a framed pair of drawings of Curious George, who poured dark liquid into a funnel, then keeled over as if dead. Below the drawings was a playful message typed by a prankster.
The picture was the first of several monkey items to appear unexpectedly in her Carpentersville office. The insiders' joke had grown legs – long, hairy ones.
To view the rest of this piece of useless reporting go to the Northwest Herald.
To view exceptional reporting by a journalist on education issues visit Scott Reeder's website with his series that appeared in the Small Newspaper Group newspapers.
Monkey business afoot in D-300
[published on Fri, Aug 11, 2006]
CARPENTERSVILLE – The first monkey memento appeared in Cheryl Crates' office a month after the School District 300 referendums passed this spring.
Someone had nailed above her computer a framed pair of drawings of Curious George, who poured dark liquid into a funnel, then keeled over as if dead. Below the drawings was a playful message typed by a prankster.
The picture was the first of several monkey items to appear unexpectedly in her Carpentersville office. The insiders' joke had grown legs – long, hairy ones.
To view the rest of this piece of useless reporting go to the Northwest Herald.
To view exceptional reporting by a journalist on education issues visit Scott Reeder's website with his series that appeared in the Small Newspaper Group newspapers.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Parents at Neubert decry class sizes in District 300
The below article appeared in the Northwest Herald. We told the voters of District 300 they were lying to the voters and many did not listen. We told you this was for the teachers and the administrators and not the kids. Again, yes voters did not listen. We unlike you are not surprised. Maybe if the teachers were teaching a full day of classes instead of having 1 - 4 free periods including lunch free, class sizes could be smaller. Darlene Warner states that teacher quality does matter and they have fine teachers. Yet another worthless statement. Tenure prevents schools from getting rid of poor teachers. Each year a school can not go out and hire the best and the brightest because of tenure. Also the legislation that unions have lobbied for limits public schools from hiring the best possible teachers for students. Good teachers would not have used their students as political pawns last spring and pressured them into pressuring their parents into supporting this money pit of a referendum.
Parents at Neubert decry class sizes in District 300
[published on Mon, Aug 7, 2006]
ALGONQUIN – When Karen Kucharski voted for the District 300 tax-rate increase this spring, she thought her elementary-school daughter would be guaranteed smaller classes – or at least no bigger than those from last year.
Kucharski was frustrated to learn that Neubert Elementary School will have one fewer section of first grade this fall.
Her daughter Victoria's class could be as big as 29 students, which is as many as four students more than Neubert's first-grade classes last year.
"I'm being raked over the coals in taxes, and yet it's not even helping class sizes," she said.
Fellow Algonquin mom Maritza Witte, whose daughter, Sarah, also will begin first grade at Neubert this fall, shared the concern.
"I love the teachers, but I'm pretty disappointed," Witte said. "I wouldn't vote for another referendum. I feel somewhat misled."
But John Light, District 300 human resources director, said the district had kept its pledge.
He said that 97 new teachers had been hired this summer with referendum proceeds, which was five more teachers than expected.
"The commitment we made was to keep class sizes at [defined] levels in return for voter support," he said. "But the growth was even more than anyone expected. The class sizes got to the trigger point for adding even more sections."
Several classes have been added at many schools, including two in Neubert's upper grades. The result is an average class size at each school that is down to the average of the 2002-03 school year, Light said.
Part of the misunderstanding might be that some parents thought that the average class size the district promised from the tax increase would be the cap, or maximum number of students per class.
According to the Community Finance Committee report, which the school board followed in seeking the tax increase this spring, "The staffing ratio is an average that is constant; the class size may vary widely." The report was posted before the referendum and remains online at www.d300.org.
Officials said the district had fielded "very few" calls from parents upset about class sizes as they registered their children for fall classes. But for those families, there's just one class that matters.
"I only care about the numbers that affect me and my child," Kucharski said. "I feel that first grade is one of the most important years of your education."
Darlene Warner, Neubert principal, said she cut one first-grade section this year to match the number of kindergarten classes last year.
"It's very noteworthy to remember that class size is one variable in the success of a child," she said. "The quality of teachers is important, and we have great teachers."
Cheryl Crates, finance chief, said the district closely followed the Community Finance Committee's year of intensive research on class sizes. The panel advised a cap of 28 students for kindergarten, 30 in first and second grades, and 32 in third to fifth grades, she said.
Principals contact district headquarters daily to monitor classes that are nearing the caps. Crates said District 300 was trying to begin this fall with no more than 29 students in first- through fifth-grade classes, allowing a bit of room for growth during the year.
To view the rest of the article go to Northwest Herald.
By ALLISON L. SMITH
asmith@nwherald.com
Parents at Neubert decry class sizes in District 300
[published on Mon, Aug 7, 2006]
ALGONQUIN – When Karen Kucharski voted for the District 300 tax-rate increase this spring, she thought her elementary-school daughter would be guaranteed smaller classes – or at least no bigger than those from last year.
Kucharski was frustrated to learn that Neubert Elementary School will have one fewer section of first grade this fall.
Her daughter Victoria's class could be as big as 29 students, which is as many as four students more than Neubert's first-grade classes last year.
"I'm being raked over the coals in taxes, and yet it's not even helping class sizes," she said.
Fellow Algonquin mom Maritza Witte, whose daughter, Sarah, also will begin first grade at Neubert this fall, shared the concern.
"I love the teachers, but I'm pretty disappointed," Witte said. "I wouldn't vote for another referendum. I feel somewhat misled."
But John Light, District 300 human resources director, said the district had kept its pledge.
He said that 97 new teachers had been hired this summer with referendum proceeds, which was five more teachers than expected.
"The commitment we made was to keep class sizes at [defined] levels in return for voter support," he said. "But the growth was even more than anyone expected. The class sizes got to the trigger point for adding even more sections."
Several classes have been added at many schools, including two in Neubert's upper grades. The result is an average class size at each school that is down to the average of the 2002-03 school year, Light said.
Part of the misunderstanding might be that some parents thought that the average class size the district promised from the tax increase would be the cap, or maximum number of students per class.
According to the Community Finance Committee report, which the school board followed in seeking the tax increase this spring, "The staffing ratio is an average that is constant; the class size may vary widely." The report was posted before the referendum and remains online at www.d300.org.
Officials said the district had fielded "very few" calls from parents upset about class sizes as they registered their children for fall classes. But for those families, there's just one class that matters.
"I only care about the numbers that affect me and my child," Kucharski said. "I feel that first grade is one of the most important years of your education."
Darlene Warner, Neubert principal, said she cut one first-grade section this year to match the number of kindergarten classes last year.
"It's very noteworthy to remember that class size is one variable in the success of a child," she said. "The quality of teachers is important, and we have great teachers."
Cheryl Crates, finance chief, said the district closely followed the Community Finance Committee's year of intensive research on class sizes. The panel advised a cap of 28 students for kindergarten, 30 in first and second grades, and 32 in third to fifth grades, she said.
Principals contact district headquarters daily to monitor classes that are nearing the caps. Crates said District 300 was trying to begin this fall with no more than 29 students in first- through fifth-grade classes, allowing a bit of room for growth during the year.
To view the rest of the article go to Northwest Herald.
By ALLISON L. SMITH
asmith@nwherald.com
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