what percent of non-low income students meet or exceed standards on the PSAE?

Earlier I posted some data on Proviso Township High Schools (District 209).

Proviso ranked 26th of 27 districts in suburban Cook County in the percent of students who meet or exceed standards on the Prairie State Achievement Exam. And District 209 would have to make substantial improvement--go from 22.5% passing to 33.9% to tie #25 Thornton, which is 4.3% behind #24 Thornton Fractional.

District 209 looks pretty bad.

But the story is actually worse than it first appears.

Let's assume that all low income students fail to meet standards. What percent of non-low income students meet or exceed standards? How do districts rank?

1	Evanston	108%
2	Rich	98%
3	Argo	95%
4	New Trier	94%
5	Thornton	92%
6	Elmwood Park	90%
7	Maine	87%
8	Northfield	86%
9	Oak Park & River Forest	85%
10	Township HSD 211	83%
11	Niles	82%
12	Lyons	82%
13	Township HSD 214	80%
14	Riverside-Brookfield	79%
15	Bloom	77%
16	Oak Lawn	77%
17	Lemont	77%
18	Con HSD 230	76%
19	Evergreen Park	75%
20	Thornton Fractional	75%
21	Bremen	73%
22	Homewood Flossmoor	72%
23	Reavis	69%
24	CHSD 218	63%
25	Leyden	62%
26	Ridgewood	59%
27	Proviso	34%

If one assumes every low income student fails the PSAE, only 34% District 209 students who are not low income meet or exceed standards. The next lowest district is 59%.

This is appalling. The district is severely dysfunctional. Remember, District 209 spends $25,360 per student which ranks the district seventh in spending of the 27 districts.

I'm curious where District 209 would rank among Chicago Public Schools using the methodology of considering what percent of non-low income students pass.

Could it be that District 209 operates the three least effective schools in the state, while spending money in excess of Riverside-Brookfield, Lyons Township and Homewood-Flossmoor?

How does Proviso compare to other school districts? The numbers

Here's some data comparing Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) to public high school districts serving other parts of suburban Cook County.

The first list ranks districts by the percentage of students who meet or exceed standards on the Prairie State Achievement Exam.

1	New Trier	92
2	Northfield	78.6
3	Lyons	74.3
4	Lemont	73.6
5	Riverside-Brookfield	72.9
6	Oak Park & River Forest	70.2
7	Con HSD 230	69.3
8	Maine	68.5
9	Township HSD 214	68
10	Township HSD 211	66.5
11	Evanston	66.1
12	Elmwood Park	64.2
13	Niles	64
14	Homewood Flossmoor	61.6
15	Oak Lawn	60.6
16	Reavis	57.8
17	Evergreen Park	55.6
18	Bremen	54.1
19	Ridgewood	52.7
20	Leyden	49.7
21	Argo	45.6
22	CHSD 218	42.1
23	Rich	40.1
24	Thornton Fractional	38.2
25	Thornton	33.9
26	Proviso	22.5
27	Bloom	21.6

Proviso and Bloom perform poorly compared to other districts. There's a big gap between #25, Thornton, at 33.9% and #26, Proviso, at 22.5%. And there's a significant gap between #24, Thornton Fractional, at 38.2% and Thornton.

Maybe the reason Proviso scores so low is the high number of low income students. Here's that ranking.

1	New Trier	2
2	Lemont	4
3	Riverside-Brookfield	8
4	Northfield	9
5	Lyons	9
6	Con HSD 230	9
7	Ridgewood	11
8	Homewood Flossmoor	14
9	Township HSD 214	15
10	Reavis	16
11	Oak Park & River Forest	17
12	Leyden	20
13	Township HSD 211	20
14	Maine	21
15	Oak Lawn	21
16	Niles	22
17	Bremen	26
18	Evergreen Park	26
19	Elmwood Park	29
20	CHSD 218	33
21	Proviso	33
22	Evanston	39
23	Thornton Fractional	49
24	Argo	52
25	Rich	59
26	Thornton	63
27	Bloom	72

Proviso has low income students, but other districts have far more low income students. And the districts that have about the same level of "low income students" as Proviso (Elmwood Park, CHSD 218 and Evanston) all perform better on tests. Elmwood Park and Evanston far exceed the state average.

And then there's the issue of spending. Below the districts are ranked by how much they spend per student.

1	Niles	$31,819
2	Evanston	$30,852
3	New Trier	$28,887
4	Northfield	$28,423
5	Oak Park & River Forest	$26,625
6	Maine	$25,815
7	Proviso	$25,360
8	Township HSD 214	$25,257
9	Riverside-Brookfield	$24,624
10	Lemont	$24,449
11	Leyden	$23,671
12	Lyons	$22,889
13	Township HSD 211	$22,315
14	Rich	$21,889
15	Bremen	$21,761
16	Ridgewood	$21,450
17	Bloom	$21,421
18	CHSD 218	$21,317
19	Homewood Flossmoor	$21,100
20	Argo	$20,966
21	Thornton	$20,541
22	Evergreen Park	$20,074
23	Con HSD 230	$19,270
24	Oak Lawn	$18,308
25	Thornton Fractional	$19,011
26	Reavis	$17,965
27	Elmwood Park	$16,962

Proviso may be among the few school districts in the country that is among the top 15 in spending for its state and in the bottom five in test scores.

And remember, the trend over the last ten years is for test scores to be going down in Proviso.

I obtained the data from the Interactive Illinois Report Card provided by Northern Illinois University. Feel free to check the numbers yourself.

test scores at D209 suck, again. And they are trending downward.

Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) has a graph of the trend on test scores at the three Proviso Township High Schools. The Y-axis is the "Percentage of students meeting or exceeding benchmarks". From 2001 to 2009 scores trend downward. It's true at East. It's true at West. And it's true at PMSA.

What is appalling about District 209 is that it spends more per pupil than all but the most elite school districts and that it's test scores are either at the very bottom or in the bottom few for the entire region.

The district serves a Black and Latino population, but it's not like Proviso Township is the only community in Illinois serving Black and Latino students. And the households in Proviso are economically comfortable, if not affluent.

ask the D209 Financial Oversight Panel (FOP) what's wrong with Proviso Township High Schools

Tonight, Monday, September 28, 2009, at 7 PM the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Financial Oversight Panel (FOP) assigned to Proviso Township High Schools, District 209 (D209) will take questions from the public at Proviso Math and Science Academy (PMSA) at First Ave and Roosevelt. Enter from the parking lot north of the building.

I recommend asking the following questions:

Questions for District 209 Financial Oversight Panel

1. All school districts in Illinois are graded on a 4.0 scale for their financial health and compliance. Districts under 3.0 are considered troubled. The most recent scoring for District 209 is 0.0. Were there any other 0.0 districts in Illinois? What does it mean that the district scored 0.0?

2.With proper management should a school district be able to keep itself from the financial watch list? Or is it just part of the cycle that school districts have to raise taxes periodically and if they don't raise taxes a district will find itself on the watch list?

3.To what extent will a Financial Oversight Panel assigned by the Illinois State Board of Education explain to citizens that specific decisions caused the financial crisis in a school district? Is the role of the FOP to tell the citizens what specific malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance caused their school district to become financially “in extremis”? Or is the role of the FOP focused on telling a district and its citizens what will need to be cut if a tax increase is not implemented?

4.How does D209 rank in Illinois and suburban Cook County in terms of per student spending?

5.How does D209 rank in Illinois and suburban Cook County in terms of taxable real estate per student?

6.If D209 spends more than all but a few districts, what caused the district to land on the financial watch list?

7.Is D209 “underfunded”? If D209 has adequate resources, what caused the district to become a financial watchlist district? Besides the board of education, the superintendent and the assistant superintendent for business services, who else is responsible for D209 landing on the financial watchlist? What are the top three causes of D209 being on the financial watchlist?

8.In what areas is D209 spending particularly high? Does the district spend an unusual amount of money servicing debt? Is the faculty collective bargaining agreement particularly generous? Is non-faculty staff spending unusual either based on the number of staff or the compensation levels? Are costs associated with the three school buildings unusually high? Does the district spend an inordinate amount on legal bills and court settlements? Where should the district look to cut expenses?

9.Does the FOP have the expertise and authority to evaluate whether D209 legal bills and court settlements were legal, appropriate and good deals for the district?

10.D209 has a number of personal relationships that could reasonably be considered conflicts of interest. For example, a number of D209 employees (Ron Anderson, Tommie Miller and Althea Busby) serve on the board of education for District 88. The president of the D209 BOE (Emanuel “Chris” Welch) has billed hundreds of thousands of dollars as the attorney for District 88. Welch has also dated Nikita Johnson, the D209 assistant superintendent for business services for a couple years. Johnson is also the niece of D209 board member Robin Foreman. Is the FOP authorized to make judgments that the conflicts of interest at D209, either individually or as a group, contributed to the financial problems of D209?

11.D209 has experienced a high level of stability of governance of the BOE. Welch has been president for almost a decade. During this time D209 has experienced a high level of instability in the superintendent position. Is there a correlation between problem districts and stability or instability in the superintendent position or in the board of education?

District 209 BOE meeting, September 21, 2009

On Monday, September 21, the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education held its regular (monthly) meeting at Proviso East High School.

This was the first meeting I've attended in a significant period of time, and to me the meeting seemed different.

There were fewer people attending, but this may have been due to no parents or students being invited for the student and staff recognition portion of the meeting. Things seemed more sedate. No members of the community asked questions. The BOE has stopped hiring a cop to intimidate people who would criticize the BOE.

Board member Theresa Kelly made the comment to me after the meeting that between the district being financially strapped and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Financial Oversight Panel (FOP) there is less opportunity for the D209 BOE to engage in financial shenanigans.

In the past most board meetings had relatively low participation by board members. In the extreme, board president Emanuel “Chris” Welch would dutifully proceed through the agenda and Kelly would ask questions and the rest of the board members limited their participation to making motions to implement the agenda and voting.

At times the board seemed to be holding an actual conversation. Board member Kevin McDermott grilled Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Nikita Johnson on the monthly financial report. And then Board member Brian Cross also asked a question. When Kelly asked about the Alternate School Facility, she made a point and board member Robin Foreman supported her on the point.

Targeting Achievement through Governance (TAG)

Prior to the 7 PM board meeting, the school board held a committee of the whole presentation (minus board member Dan Adams who arrived fifteen minutes late to the regular meeting, missing the committee meeting entirely) by Steve Clark of the Illinois Association of School Boards. Clark was pitching a program called Targeting Achievement through Governance (TAG) (pdf) that would train D209 board members and work with the district to make the BOE more effective.

Clark made two claims that I noted. One, he claimed that at least one district that had done TAG had moved off the financial watch list before completing TAG.

Clark also claimed that an Iowa study correlated board effectiveness and school achievement. I'm curious how one measures the effectiveness of a BOE. Communities with their act together probably have effective school boards and effective schools. Proviso does not have its act together. And maybe the dysfunctional school results from the larger community being dysfunctional. Maybe District 209 can't be substantially improved without dealing with Proviso's issues.

Attendance

D209 claims to have increased the attendance rate to 88%. Credit was given the new busing program and generally making an effort to illicit better behavior in the hallways.

I have not checked with any independent sources if the discipline is better in the school.

Busing students seems to be a solid idea.

I did get annoyed at Welch's claim that, “We've all received phone calls [praising improved discipline at the schools].” There are two board members I seriously doubt get calls from any Proviso residents who aren't personally connected to them. My experience calling Foreman was that she said, “Don't call me at this number” and hung up without giving me another number to call her at. In years of watching D209 board meetings, I have yet to see any evidence Adams cares a whit about the students, taxpayers, staff or anything else.

Computer Science II

D209 has cut the computer science curriculum drastically as part of budget cuts. If I understood the situation correctly, Proviso East and Proviso West have cut all computer science classes and PMSA cut computer science II, leaving the magnet school with just one computer science class.

During her presentation to the BOE, McDermott asked Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction Cheryl Pruitt if there was plans to restore computer science II. Pruitt responded, “Yes,” and there was a long pause. After it became clear that was all the response Pruitt intended to give McDermott asked what those plans were. Pruitt responded that when the budget increased computer science II will be restored.

The exchange made Pruitt look unprofessional. And Pruitt is clueless if she thinks Proviso taxpayers are going to open their wallets for a tax increase. The school district spends plenty of money and delivers horrid results. That's reality. Taxpayers who are pinched because of the tight economy aren't going to vote D209 more money.

What to do with the leftover $1.2 million for PMSA?

McDermott grilled Assistant Superintendent Johnson on $1.2 million leftover from the construction of PMSA. After some ugly attempts to deflect the issue, the district's attorney Michael DeBartolo and board president Welch threw Johnson lifelines.

Johnson was briefing the district's monthly cash flow situation when McDermott asked about transfering the $1.2 million from the construction fund to operations and maintenance. McDermott pointed out this was not allowed.

(The transfer was suspended by the FOP pending review. I surmise McDermott learned that the move was illegal at that point.)

DeBartolo informed McDermott he had made a legal ruling that excess money could be moved this way. (I surmise he reasoned the money shouldn't just sit there.)

McDermott raised the issue that using the money for something other than the construction of PMSA required D209 to provide a tax abatement to Proviso taxpayers.

Johnson explained that the abatement would be in the future (two years) and that moving the money would allow it to be used now.

McDermott told Johnson that if she was recommending the BOE move money in a way that violated Illinois law that she should have explained the ramifications of her recommendation.

Johnson said she didn't discuss the tax abatement with the BOE because it “doesn't affect the current year.”

Johnson was clearly foundering at this point. DeBartolo threw the first lifeline. DeBartolo explained that currently school districts can only increase taxes at the rate of inflation. In the future they will be able to increase taxes at 5%. So, D209 can provide an abatement in the future, but it won't hurt the district because the district will be able to raise taxes sufficiently to cover the abatement. To me it sounded like DeBartolo was advocating the district ignore the law requiring the abatement, but I'm not an attorney.

DeBartolo also mentioned that he recommended completing the audit of the PMSA construction so D209 can certify the project really is complete.

At this point McDermott asked about the audit. Johnson said there was a draft audit from 1 ½ year ago. It was incomplete and that she doesn't intend to circulate it until it's complete. To me Johnson sounded like she was hiding something. D209 has changed accounting firms. This would account for the audit being incomplete, but not Johnson's reluctance to share the incomplete audit with the board.

Welch then threw Johnson her next lifeline. Welch noted that the board had already acted to move the money to the operations and maintenance fund. The FOP tabled the issue, so it was out of the purview of the BOE.

Welch's reasoning sounded persuasive at the time. But it's flawed. Johnson asked the BOE to do something illegal so she would have an extra $1.2 million to make her budget work. The BOE voted to move the money, but did so without full information. The BOE has the power to undo the illegal decision.

I would recommend that at the next board meeting the BOE take whatever action is necessary to bring D209 into compliance with Illinois law on this matter. I would further recommend that the BOE have a conversation with Superintendent Nettie Collins-Hart about Johnson. Senior staff recommending the BOE violate the law and withholding the fact that the recommended action violates the law is a bad thing. In fact, I imagine many organizations would fire a staff member for doing this.

Did Johnson make the recommendation because she doesn't know the law? Did Johnson and Collins-Hart conspire to dupe the BOE? Or was Johnson's illegal recommendation unauthorized?

Cross then asked how long D209 can go without issuing tax anticipation warrants? Apparently the Cook County Treasurer is behind on paying local taxing bodies. Johnson responded D209 has money to operate through late November, early December.

Employees terminated

Kelly asked if any of the employees terminated were asked to resign or were fired. The superintendent replied they weren't. (By tradition D209 BOE votes to approve employees that have quit. This has always seemed odd to me because the BOE has no power to “disapprove”.)


[More to be added later]

RIP Tom Dix

The meeting started with the acknowledgment that PMSA instructor Thomas Dix recently died. He was the faculty rep for the robotics team.

Yarbrough excludes media from D209 candidate forum

On Tuesday, February 24, 2009, Proviso Township Democratic Organization (PTDO), the political organization of Karen Yarbrough, who is both a state representative and the Democratic Committeeman for Proviso Township, invited me by email to attend the Saturday meeting at 10:00 AM on February 28, 2009.

The invitation listed four candidates for the board of education, Proviso Township High Schools (District 209): E. Chris Welch, Reatha Sue Henry, Dan Adams and Brian Cross. These four are all incumbents and all part of one slate. (See more of the invite below.)

Welch ran against Yarbrough for state representative in 2006. The defining ideology of Yarbrough's political organization seemed to be opposition to former Proviso Democratic Committeeman Eugene Moore and hatred of Welch, who has a knack for making enemies.

Friday, February 27, at 9:59 PM Yarbrough sent me a text, "no endorsements for schools and no media tomorrow." I responded within 10 minutes, "What's that mean for me?" Yarbrough did not respond.

On Saturday, February 28, I arrived about 10 minutes early for the 10 AM meeting. I entered behind Rory Hoskins, a Forest Park commissioner and president of PTDO, and helped myself to a doughnut.

When Yarbrough arrived she didn't greet me, but referred to her text from the night before.

I asked, "Are you asking me to leave?"

Yarbrough responded, "I told you not to come."

Along the way she mentioned Josh Adams, editor of the Forest Park Review also requested to attend the meeting. Yarbrough allying with Welch shakes up the political factions in local politics.

Text of PTDO invitation sent to me:

PROVISO TOWNSHIP DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION
REMINDER
from President Rory Hoskins

Proviso Township Democratic Organization's Saturday Meeting
DATE: Saturday, February 28th, 2009

TIME: 10:00 AM

LOCATION: 2301 W. Roosevelt Road

Broadview, IL 60155

Phone: 708-344-7062

Agenda Items:

* Meet District 209 Incumbent Candidates

E. Chris Welch

Reatha Sue Henry

Dan Adams

Brian Cross


PTDO Mission Statement
The Proviso Township Democratic Org., in coordination with the state and national Democratic Party, is committed to the principles of honest, open and progressive government and to increasing voter participation in the electoral process. PTDO is open to all persons, regardless of their race, age, gender, creed, religion, sexual orientation or economic status. [emphasis added]

Message from Karen:

It's been a busy time for all of us however we must do our due diligence in making selections for endorsement. The next few meetings will be spent hearing from candidates who's name will appear on the April 7th election. In the case of local elections, those who are members of the organization will be able to present their candidacy to the group.

Please note that all of these elections are
NON-PARTISAN. (meaning neither Democrat or Republican)


See you there!


PS: Only paid up dues members will be eligible to vote.


Karen A. Yarbrough
Commiteeman

partial list of Proviso candidates for local elections

West Suburban Journal has a list of candidates for local elections including District 209 (but not other school districts), Proviso Township and the villages of Bellwood, Broadview, Maywood and Melrose Park.

It's time for Welch and co. to own their failure

Between 1:30 and 1:40 into this video there's a quote from Senator President-elect Barack Obama, "George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for. It's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America."

After eight years of George W. Bush being President of the United States, the voters got sick of lies and failures and voted for change.

Emanuel "Chris" Welch has been on the District 209 board of education for eight years, most of the time as president of the board. Will the voters of Proviso decide after eight years it's time for change?

Chris Welch and his allies have a lot to answer for. It's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change Proviso.

There's a website inspired by Obama's words, Own Your Failure. What failures should Welch own?

BTW, the Forest Park Review has an editorial criticizing District 209.

Obama and McCain debate education

The New York Times has posted a transcript of last night's debate between the major party presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Because the Commission On Presidential Debates is controlled by the Democratic and Republican Parties the following candidates who have qualified for the ballot in Illinois were excluded: Charles Baldwin (Constitution), Bob Barr (Libertarian), Cynthia McKinney (Green) and Ralph Nader (independent).

Having a ringside seat to one of the most screwed-up school districts in the country, I thought I'd comment on the portion of the presidential debates that had to do with education.

I categorize District 209 (Proviso Township High Schools) has one of the most screwed-up in the country for a couple reasons. Test scores are abyssmal. Last ranking I heard was 90th of 90 districts in northeast Illinois.

But, getting lousy test scores is even more shameful in D209's case because it's not serving students that exclusively come from impoverished families or immigrant families. In the aggregate the families the students come from are not poorly educated. Proviso doesn't have the highest level of students walk through the door, but it's a long way from the lowest too. District 209 takes students who should be doing at least so-so and turns them into low test score machines.

Obama said a couple things that made sense in his initial response. Getting better results is going to require we invest money. People who claim there are money-for-nothing solutions are usually fudging or outright lying. Obama also emphasized getting children on-track early, “early childhood education”.

Then Obama talked about higher pay for teachers, especially in math and sciences. I don't agree that raising pay by itself will improve the situation. I would reduce barriers to people with math and science skills getting into education. Also, the quality of life for teachers is an issue.

I read somewhere, perhaps The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, that to get good teachers to work at challenging schools it helped to bring a cohort of good teachers together and also bring in good administrators at the same time.

It's hard to convince people who have the math and science skills that they should go into teaching if they are going to be supervised by people who are mediocre and worse managers.

What management training do education administrators receive? The career path seems to be that they get certified as teachers and then get an additional degree and shazam! the people are now managers.

So, if schools want to retain teachers who are talented enough to get other forms of employment the schools need to treat teachers better in the workplace.

Obama scolding parents rubbed me the wrong way.

But there's one last ingredient that I just want to mention, and that's parents. We can't do it just in the schools. Parents are going to have to show more responsibility. They've got to turn off the TV set, put away the video games, and, finally, start instilling that thirst for knowledge that our students need.

It's not that there's not some truth there, but it's not a prescription to do anything useful. Does Obama want to create a program to prepare parents to do something? Does he want to issue a checklist of things parents should be doing? Or does he judge want to encroach on Joe Lieberman's turf of being the national scold.

McCain started off completely full of shit.

There's no doubt that we have achieved equal access to schools in America after a long and difficult and terrible struggle.

But what is the advantage in a low income area of sending a child to a failed school and that being your only choice?

Which is it, Senator? Have we achieved “equal access to schools” or do we have large swaths of the country with “failed schools”? If we have families who are forced to use “failed schools”, how is this equal? Or are all schools failing equally?

Both McCain and Obama seemed to buy into the notion that there are people who good teachers and bad teachers and that the bad teachers should be identified early and transitioned to something else.

Here's what I suspect is a more accurate model.

Most teachers start as middling teachers. They haven't become skilled yet, but they bring the energy of a newbie. All of them get at least a little better; some get significantly better. Eventually, almost all of them become less effective than they were at their peak. This is called "burn-out".

The problem is partially the salary structure. By the time teachers lose effectiveness they have enough seniority that it's very difficult for them to transition to something else and get paid as much money. The teachers feel they have to stay for the retirement benefits.

The problem isn't teachers who were bad from the beginning, but teachers who have significantly declined in effectiveness.

Neither Obama nor McCain seemed to understand the problem of ineffective teachers.

McCain touted the idea of rewarding good teachers. How would this work at District 209? Would the teachers with the best students (PMSA) get most of the rewards? Aren't they already getting the easiest students to educate? Let's say someone did come up with a formula that took into account where the students were at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. There were no questions about fairness. (This assumption is completely unrealistic, but ignore that.)

How does rewarding good teachers fix a dysfunctional and corrupt school board? How does it fix incompetent administrators? How does it get better prepared students to start at the district? How does it get families to be a more constructive part of the process?

McCain's idea about rewarding good teachers won't accomplish much in the real world except to cause teachers to spend time and energy criticizing the formula for determining who is a good teacher.

No Child Left Behind. Two of the most useful insights I've gotten on NCLB have been at the local level.

Randy Tinder, the former superintendent of District 91 (Forest Park elementary schools) said that NCLB is a rigged evaluation system that will label every public school in the United States a “failing school” in a few years.

I will add to Tinder's thought process (and perhaps he already thought of this, but declined to say it publicly), that the Republican Party wants to cut money going to public schools and send it to private schools, especially religious schools. Labelling public schools as “failing” is part of a strategy to shift public money from public schools to private schools.

Barbara Cole is a local voice that defends NCLB. Cole reasons that by testing and including categories and subcategories that there's no way for schools to overlook when they are providing lousy education to minority groups and special needs students.

Obama criticized NCLB as an unfunded mandate. McCain wanted to renew it, but was reluctant to spend more.

McCain and Obama differed on vouchers. Rachel Cooper discusses the definitions of "vouchers" and "charter schools". Ryan Grim (CBS/The Politico) sorta criticizes Obama on the details of the DC schools. And Steve Benen (Washington Monthly) rips McCain's explanation of the DC program and cites research that says vouchers are ineffective.

Here are the links I found for the minor party candidates' education policies.

Charles Baldwin (Constitution) wants to disband the Department of Education.


Bob Barr (Libertarian) wants to privatize education and speaks favorably of homeschooling.

Cynthia McKinney (Green) calls education a right and decries the disparities in U.S. education.

Ralph Nader (independent) begins his statement about education by say,

Education is primarily the responsibility of state and local governments. The federal government has a critical supporting role to play in ensuring that all children -- irrespective of the income of their parents, or their race -- are provided with rich learning environments, equal educational opportunities, and upgraded and repaired school buildings.

Nader sees the two greatest threats to education as being commercialism and vouchers.

what's needed to fix U.S. public schools?

First, Kill All the School Boards (The Atlantic, Matt Miller) makes the case that local control is bad for schools.

While it's easy to cherry-pick data to make this case, Chicago Public Schools are much less locally controlled than suburban districts and CPS hasn't produced great results. Although, CPS is kinda an odd case to include in the debate because the district has a hybrid system of strong central control combined with elected Local School Councils that can exert some influence.

Back to Miller's article.

But let’s look at what local control gives us today, in the “flat” world in which our students will have to compete.

The United States spends more than nearly every other nation on schools, but out of 29 developed countries in a 2003 assessment, we ranked 24th in math and in problem-solving, 18th in science, and 15th in reading. Half of all black and Latino students in the U.S. don’t graduate on time (or ever) from high school. As of 2005, about 70 percent of eighth-graders were not proficient in reading. By the end of eighth grade, what passes for a math curriculum in America is two years behind that of other countries.

In Bowling For Columbine Michael Moore analyzed violence in the United States by comparing it to Canada, especially levels of violence and rates of firearm ownership. As I understood the film, Moore at least suggested that U.S. attitudes and traditions of violence were influenced by the history of racism and bigotry (against Native Americans, Blacks, certain religious groups, immigrants and descendants of non-European immigrants).

So, it seems possible that local control is not the only uniquely American attribute contributing to our public schools being different and inferior to other countries' public school systems.

Many reformers across the political spectrum agree that local control has become a disaster for our schools. But the case against it is almost never articulated. Public officials are loath to take on powerful school-board associations and teachers’ unions; foundations and advocacy groups, who must work with the boards and unions, also pull their punches. For these reasons, as well as our natural preference for having things done nearby, support for local control still lingers, largely unexamined, among the public.

Would District 88 (Bellwood and Stone Park elementary schools) be better off if bureaucrats appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich controlled the district? (FYI D88 just fired its fourth superintendent in four years. Three of the four were not allowed to even complete the academic year.)

Would District 209 (Proviso Township High Schools) be better off if state bureaucrats controlled the school district? Let me rephrase that, would students and taxpayers get better educations with more efficiency in spending if the State of Illinois was calling the shots?

I would give a relatively high probability to things improving if the state controlled these two districts.

But how would Oak Park do? Would Oak Park and River Forest High Schools (District 200) improve? Would District 97 (Oak Park elementary schools) improve?

Which community has more clout: Oak Park or Proviso? Oak Park has succeeded in preventing I-290 from being widened to four lanes causing traffic to bottleneck.

Back to Miller's article. He lists two problems facing local school districts and then writes:

Incompetent school boards and union dominance. “In the first place, God made idiots,” Mark Twain once wrote. “This was for practice. Then He made School Boards.” Things don’t appear to have improved much since Twain’s time. “The job has become more difficult, more complicated, and more political, and as a result, it’s driven out many of the good candidates,” Vander Ark says. “So while teachers’ unions have become more sophisticated and have smarter people who are better-equipped and -prepared at the table, the quality of school-board members, particularly in urban areas, has decreased.” Board members routinely spend their time on minor matters, from mid-level personnel decisions to bus routes. “The tradition goes back to the rural era, where the school board hired the schoolmarm and oversaw the repair of the roof, looked into the stove in the room, and deliberated on every detail of operating the schools,” says Michael Kirst, an emeritus professor of education at Stanford University. “A lot of big-city school boards still do these kinds of things.” Because of Progressive-era reforms meant to get school boards out of “politics,” most urban school districts are independent, beyond the reach of mayors and city councils. Usually elected in off-year races that few people vote in or even notice, school boards are, in effect, accountable to no one.

Thoughts? Reactions?

Miller also lists the inequalities in education funding as being interrelated with local control of education. I have shown in the case of Proviso Township High Schools that lack of resources is not the problem. Per student Proviso spends less that Oak Park-River Forest, but a comparable about to Lyons Township and Riverside-Brookfield. The following local high school districts spend less and get better test scores: Elmwood Park, Leyden, Morton and York.

The beginning of Miller's conclusion poses a good question.

I asked Marc Tucker, the head of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce (a 2006 bipartisan panel that called for an overhaul of the education system), how he convinces people that local control is hobbling our schools. He said he asks a simple question: If we have the second-most-expensive K–12 system of all those measured by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, but consistently perform between the middle and the bottom of the pack, shouldn’t we examine the systems of countries that spend less and get better results? “I then point out that the system of local control that we have is almost unique,” Tucker says. “One then has to defend a practice that is uncharacteristic of the countries with the best performance.

Miller comes down on the side of federalizing public education. To respond with a cheap shot, do you want the guys who decided to invade Iraq (and can't get us out) to decide how to fix Proviso Township High Schools?

I found Kevin Drum's entry (Washington Monthly) more persuasive than Miller's article in The Atlantic Monthly.

[Emily Bazelon's article about school integration in [the] New York Times Magazine is] basically a review of many decades of research showing that the most important way to improve school performance is to eliminate high concentrations of poverty: other things equal, it turns out that academic achievement for all races shows dramatic gains when the proportion of low-income students in a school falls below 50% or, even better, 40%. This finding, says UCLA education professor Gary Orfield, is "one of the most consistent findings in research on education."

Drum notes that many districts don't have the ability to dilute students from families in poverty with students from more affluent families.

But to bring it back to Miller's way of questioning the status quo, what do other countries with high levels of poverty do to deliver education?

Was the DelGaldo Group beneficiaries of statements about Sterk on Proviso Insider?

Forest Park Review (Josh Adams):

In an expanding war of words being waged online and in court, District 209 school board President Chris Welch won a temporary restraining order against a Forest Park man, forcing him to remove allegedly slanderous material from an Internet site.

The judge's July 16 ruling was handed down just two days after Welch filed a lawsuit against Carl Nyberg, claiming that he is the victim of libelous statements posted on Nyberg's blog. Welch, who is being sued by the school district's former attorneys for slander, filed the paperwork with the Cook County Circuit Court.

If you haven't seen the Forest Park Review coverage of Welch's lawsuit against me, follow the link.

I thought it was odd that Michael DeBartolo, the District 209 lawyer from the DelGaldo Group, makes the claim that District 209 is paying for part of Welch's defense in the Odelson & Sterk v. Proviso Insider case and implies that the district isn't paying for the counter suit. This claim seems non-sensical to me. Also, note DeBartolo picks his words carefully.

As a point of clarification, DeBartolo said the $22,400 paid by the district does not cover any of Welch's expenses for the counterclaim filed by the school board president in January. The money expressly pays for Welch's defense in the Odelson and Sterk case.

What I think DeBartolo is saying here is that Welch hasn't submitted his bills for the counterclaim lawsuit. Those are yet to come.

If the logic behind paying Welch's legal bills is that the case is intertwined with his duties as a school board member--a bullshit claim, but let's pretend for a little bit--then the one part of the suit that touches on Welch being a school board member is the countersuit, about Welch getting fired from Roche & Associates because he stopped giving taxpayer money to James Roche's buddies, Odelson & Sterk.

The part of the lawsuit DeBartolo says taxpayers should pay for revolves around Proviso Insider making statements about Mark Sterk and Melrose Park police officers. How is the responsibility of District 209 taxpayers that Welch and Emily Robinson wrote probably slanderous statements about Mark Sterk on a blog? Welch had his identity concealed. What part of the case involves District 209?

One conflict-of-interest that might not be immediately apparent is the role of the DelGaldo Group. The claim Proviso Insider (Welch and Robinson) made was that Sterk was coaching Melrose Park police officers to lie to the federal grand jury that subsequently indicted seven, including the chief of police and deputy chief.

Someone familiar with Village of Melrose Park politics speculated if any law firm was involved in coaching these cops it was the DelGaldo Group. The firm is very close with Melrose Park village president Ron Serpico. If the feds indicted Vito Scavo, the chief of police, he would be tempted to give them a bigger fish to reduce his sentence. (I'm a bit of a contrarian on the issue of who is the big fish in Melrose Park. Scavo was chief of police before Serpico was village president. I think Scavo has his scams going and ran the patronage in the police department and he agreed to bring in Serpico as his flunky. The counter argument is that Ralph "Babe" Serpico, Ronnie's dad, was a big fish when Scavo was just a kid.)

We don't know if any lawyers were involved in coaching those police officers to lie. But it seems a potential conflict of interest that a lawyer from the DelGaldo Group is deciding whether Welch was acting in the scope of his D209 duties while anonymously spreading gossip, if not lies, on his blog.

July board meeting D209

Last night the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education held its monthly (regular) meeting at Proviso West High School.

The agenda proposed cutting a number of support staff positions. Only one person was terminated when the superintendent withdrew the proposal.

Two attorneys (Myron Mackoff and __ Travis) who are representing Emanual "Chris" Welch in two civil matters (Odelson & Sterk v. Proviso Insider and Welch v. Nyberg) attended the board meeting and made the case in executive session that Welch being sued for defamation (O&S v. PI) was sufficiently intertwined with his duties as a member of the board of education that District 209 should pay his legal bills. Board member Theresa Kelly registered a concern to me that this presentation was not on the agenda distributed in advance.

In open session Welch floated the idea that since he didn't bill the district for defending himself against past ARDC complaints that this somehow makes it alright to bill the district for his legal defense in the case of O&S v. PI.

Kelly questioned hiring a PR firm for $8,000 for one month as a temporary measure until a contract can be written.

The Proviso West cafeteria was quite hot, maybe 10-20 degrees hotter than the outside temperature. The board went into closed session (another location, presumably cooler) for close to three hours. One woman fainted while the board was in executive session and the paramedics were called.

Both Chuck Fieldman, of the Pioneer Press, and Josh Adams, of Forest Park Review, left before the board reconvened in open session. Before Fieldman left he suggested that the meetings be scheduled so that the July and August board meetings are at Proviso East and PMSA. At those locations the meetings are in rooms with air conditioning.

When I relayed this suggestion to Proviso West Principal Alexis Wallace she responded that she wanted to have people see how hot Proviso West is without air conditioning. Although, it seemed like most of the building was fine there's something that causes the heat to be higher in the cafeteria.

I raised the issue of paying deans hourly money on top of a salary with Wallace. She explained that since the deans were on 10-month contracts they got paid hourly for participating in the student registration process. I said that this made no sense. If registering students is part of their duties every year then it should be part of their contract. Wallace argued the deans were undercompensated because they didn't get certain perks and schools like Oak Park and River Forest High School pay more ($24,000 per year more). Wallace also used the argument that it's been that way since she arrived in the district over 20 years ago. Wallace's sister is one of the deans.

Board member Reatha "Sue" Henry is normally a reliable vote for the board majority, although she usually votes against terminations. When the minority had three votes Henry sometimes saved a person getting fired. Last night Henry abstained from the termination vote and the hiring of the public relations firm.

tonight's meeting of the D209 BOE

The Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education will hold a meeting tonight, 7 PM, at Proviso West High School, 4701 Harrison, Hillside, Illinois. This is the outline of the agenda with links to pdf files including the details.

What do you see in the agenda that is noteworthy?

D209 paid his legal bills, what's to stop Welch from having district pay to settle case against him?

Question for District 209 Superintendent Nettie Collins-Hart and the Proviso Township High Schools board of education: if District 209 paid the legal bills for Emanuel "Chris" Welch in the case of Odelson, Sterk and Odelson & Sterk vs. Proviso Insider (Welch and Emily Robinson), what's to keep Welch from buying-off Odelson & Sterk with a big settlement and sticking it to the D209 taxpayers?

Should we have confidence that the D209 board members will protect us from wasting taxpayer money this way?

Has anyone explained to Collins-Hart how the board paid a $500,000 judgment against Melrose Park Village President Ron Serpico with taxpayer money?

Who will stop the inappropriate diversion of taxes paid for education to bailing Welch out for his own bad behavior? The Cook County State's Attorney?

analysis of Welch's counter suit

Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) covered Emanuel "Chris" Welch's counter suit against Burt Odelson and Mark Sterk.

Background:

• Welch was president of the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education.
• Odelson & Sterk is a politically connected law firm. At this point O&S's most important patron is Cook County Board President Todd Stroger.
• The D209 board of education hired Odelson & Sterk.
• Odelson & Sterk made campaign contributions to Welch.
• The D209 board of education terminated Odelson & Sterk (and hired another politically connected firm Giglio & Del Galdo, now known as the Del Galdo Group).
• Proviso Insider wrote a blog post accusing Odelson & Sterk of criminal activity in the federal probe of the Melrose Park Police Department. (Proviso Insider defamed many other people, including, me (Carl Nyberg)).
• The identity of Proviso Insider was technically unknown, but based on the subject matter and perspective it was widely assumed Proviso Insider was either Welch or people working on his behalf.
• To identify Proviso Insider, the plaintiff in Sterk vs. Proviso Insider had to subpoena computer records that showed the computers used to post to Proviso Insider were at Sanchez & Daniels, Welch's employer. Sanchez & Daniels further provided that the addresses corresponded to computers at the work stations of Welch and Emily Robinson.
• Welch has now filed a counter suit claiming his former employer, James Roche, fired Welch for objecting to over billing by Odelson & Sterk.

In the original post on Proviso Insider (now removed) Welch included details of Odelson saying the over billing was going to campaign contributions.

I'm pretty sure the biggest recipient of Odelson & Sterk contributions in Proviso Township were elections where Welch was running (school board or state rep) or elections where school board candidates loyal to Welch were running.

The fact that Welch was the recipient of Odelson & Sterk campaign contributions for years, makes me highly skeptical that Welch didn't know the bills were being padded earlier. If the system worked for years with Welch being perfectly ignorant (an incredible premise in the first place) what happened that caused Welch to see the system for what it was?

Also, Welch is alleging Odelson & Sterk defrauded District 209. Has Welch filed criminal charges against Odelson & Sterk? Why not?

Has Welch initiated a District 209 suit to recover the money Odelson & Sterk billed illegitimately?

If Odelson & Sterk acted unethically in its conduct with District 209, an attorney who was aware of this unethical conduct was obligated to report this conduct to the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois. Welch is an attorney. Why didn't he file an ARDC complaint against Odelson & Sterk?

And when did Welch learn he had been sacked from Roche for firing Odelson & Sterk? Why did he wait until now to file this suit?

Here is some speculation on my part.

1. [This paragraph was removed as a result of Judge Martin Agran granting a temporary restraining order ICO Emanuel C. Welch v. Proviso Probe and Carl Nyberg (2008) on July 16, 2008.]
2. Welch is feeling the heat of the Sterk v. Proviso Insider suit. Welch knows the facts and the law are on Sterk's side. And the only way Welch can avoid the consequences of losing the case is to delay the resolution of the case or to convince Odelson & Sterk they have too much to lose pursuing the case.
3. In the deleted post on Proviso Insider there were anonymous that included further dirt on Odelson & Sterk. One of the posts provided details about a mistress of one of the parties involved. I think Welch was clearly saying, "I will make this painful for you [Odelson & Sterk] even if I lose."
4. The counter suit also allows Welch to make a weak claim, but a claim nonetheless that Sterk v. Proviso Insider does peripherally touch on his duties as president of the D209 board of education. This is an important fact to create since Welch and three of his allies have already voted over $22,400 of tax payer money to pay Welch's legal bills (delaying legal consequences is expensive work, y'know?) in the Sterk v. Proviso Insider case.

Welch gets D209 to pay his legal bills

On Monday the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education approved paying over $22,000 in legal bills to the law firm representing board president Emanuel "Chris" Welch. Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) has the details.

There are seven members of the board of education. There are six votes in the block controlled by Welch and Eugene Moore. There is one member of the opposition: Theresa Kelly.

I know that a number of "Whites" who follow D209 matters are suspicious of Kelly. They argue that she's just like the political hacks running the district; the difference is that she's not on their team.

Kelly deserves credit for being on the board of education and raising issues. If Kelly didn't get elected in 2007, the Welch-Moore block could conceivably have a 7-0 majority.

Being in a 6-1 minority is a lonely place. And Kelly could have just given up. Instead she keeps reading the information presented to board members and she keeps asking questions.

Illinois law prohibits school board members from being compensated for their service. Also, they are supposed to spend the taxpayer's money educating students, not paying their personal legal bills.

While Welch's behavior was almost assuredly illegal, let's not overlook the board members who voted with Welch. Are they clueless?

Also, the Forest Park Review article shows what a toady Libka is.

Superintendent Robert Libka said he did not question Welch's attempt to pass the expense on to taxpayers, but said after the meeting that Kelly's argument against paying the bill merits a second look. According to Libka and Kelly, Welch informed board members several weeks prior that he intended to seek reimbursement. With Kelly offering the only objections, Libka said he did not see a reason to disturb the apparent harmony on the matter.


"It seemed appropriate at the time," Libka said of reimbursing Welch's legal bills. "I probably have more questions now, but I still feel the same."

Go read the FPR article for further details.

Libka simultaneously claims paying Welch's legal bills seems appropriate because it was somehow related to his duties as a board member and that Libka didn't know the details of the case.

Here's a quick recap.

Welch was blogging anonymously as Proviso Insider.

Proviso Insider accused attorney Mark Sterk, of Odelson and Sterk, a firm that had respresented D209 in the past, of counseling Melrose Park police officers to obstruct justice.

Sterk filed a defamation suit against Proviso Insider. See this Proviso Probe entry for a starting point.

Libka's explanation for paying the personal legal bills of a school board member shows that the man is ignorant of the law and just a go-between. When Libka is speaking on issues of import he's a wind-up toy given words by the board president.

Welch gets sensitive over questions posed to asst supt/girlfriend

On February 25 at Proviso Math and Science Academy the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education held its regular meeting. The meeting included discussions of various items like standardized tests, attendance and graduation details. Also, Board president Emanuel “Chris” Welch treated former board president Theresa Kelly rudely. And the unpleasantness escalated when Kelly asked questions about Assistant Superintendent Nikita Johnson.

The first tiff between Kelly and Welch in open session was over approving the January minutes. Kelly thought there were enough abstentions to keep the minutes from being approved. Welch rudely told her that she didn't know Roberts Rules of Order. Since the incident happened first thing after executive session it is possible the bad blood was carry over from the closed session.

Welch really lost his cool when Kelly raised the issue of whether Assistant Superintendent Nikita Johnson was going to be working at District 99 (Cicero Elementary Schools) next year. Johnson confirmed that she had interviewed for the position. She issued a non-denial, saying that she hadn't signed a contract with District 99. Johnson said, “I have not been offered the position... I have not received an offer.... I'm employed at this district. I work hard every day.”

Johnson was on the agenda as “Authorize Asst. Superintendentto begin FY09 Budget process”. Kelly claimed this was properly the purview of the superintendent. Welch responded that the board could delegate it to someone else under Illinois law.

A fairly widely discussed rumor holds that Welch and Johnson have been dating since at least summer, 2006, shortly after Johnson was hired.

Johnson explained with she was a highly sought after “young professional” and claimed to be frequently recruited for positions. This may be true. But if she was so highly recruited, why isn't she taking a position at a school district without financial and political connections to her boyfriend? Welch is primarily connected to Cicero through District 209's law firm, the DelGaldo Group.

Welch got quite angry with Kelly over asking whether Johnson would actually be implementing the budget she'd be writing. I was taking notes, not videotaping, so below is a partial transcript of Welch's response to Kelly's questions.

“All you do is grandstand and do things that are inappropriate.... Shame on Mrs. Kelly.... [Johnson] is qualified.... You're questioning her professionalism. Why don't you become a professional?” At one point Welch called Kelly “ignorant.”

After the meeting I exchanged some friendly words with Welch. He asked if I thought Kelly's questions should have been raised. I responded that it was fair to ask if the person writing the budget would be around to implement the budget. Welch said it should have been raised in closed session. I sorta shrugged. After thinking about it, I'm pretty sure Kelly raised the issue in the right place.

From one perspective it's kinda a personnel issue. But it's definitely a budget issue. The district is already stretching Illinois law to delegate the budget away from the superintendent and to an assistant. This unusual practice is compounded by the irregularities that the board is delegating the budget to the board president's girlfriend (who happens to be the neice of board member Robin Foreman) and that Johnson's leaving before the budget is implemented. These are both issues that raise concerns about if the budget will be legitimate, or just some gobbledygook to appease the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). Because of ongoing poor management District 209 has to provide its budget to the ISBE.

So, holding a discussion of the budget in executive session (closed session) would violate the Open Meetings Act. While Welch and Johnson may have preferred not to discuss Johnson leaving to work at a smaller elementary school district in open session, it seems to me Illinois law prohibits discussing it as a budget issue in closed session.

Chicago Daily Observer covers Proviso

Bill Dwyer (Chicago Daily Observer) muses about Proviso Township High Schools and board president Emanuel "Chris" Welch.

Proviso BOE meeting for December

On Monday, December 17, Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) held the regular meeting of the board of education at Proviso East High School. Board member Brian Cross was absent, as was his boss, Eugene Moore.

What happened that was noteworthy?

Board member Robert Cox and Superintendent Robert Libka talked about accountability. Cox expressed that the board would be working for the betterment of the district; Libka said he wanted the community to “look to proof of strategies and achievement” in the electronic newsletter.

Below you can read the follow-up questions on improving the district and accountability.

The meeting agenda included some terminations. Board president Emanuel “Chris” Welch said that the board would take action that would make it unnecessary to eliminate any jobs. How this was accomplished was not explained.

Board member Theresa Kelly was not happy with how the board meeting was conducted. She got a different agenda than the rest of the board members. Kelly is the lone opposition board member. People including the district's attorney became impatient as Kelly complained in closed session. Eventually, the district's attorney realized the problem and apologized for the misunderstandings.

When the board returned to open session board president Welch had everything as part of the consent agenda. I did not hear him call for items to be pulled from the consent agenda. After the vote on the consent agenda Kelly asked for items that she wanted pulled and discussed separately. Welch refused to call items separately, which is somewhat out of character. Normally, he's a reasonably flexible with board members. He let's the opposition ask questions. This time Welch offered to let Kelly switch her vote on the consent agenda, but he wouldn't open any individual issues for discussion.

Kelly probably should have realized that it was an omnibus consent agenda, but I don't think Welch ever clearly asked for items to be pulled from the consent agenda.

Kelly wanted to raised the issue about employees, especially support staff employees, who had already been terminated. Kelly thought it would be fair to undo the terminations already conducted since the terminations on the December agenda were being canceled.

(Normally board member Reatha “Sue” Henry, Eugene Moore's cousin and chief of staff, is willing to vote against the majority to prevent terminations. However, Henry's daughter, Shavonne Henry, is a secretary who was spared termination even though secretaries of equal or greater seniority were let go or forced to retire.)

Proviso West Dean Dylester Palm, sister of Principal Alexis Wallace, has retained a law firm to contest the furlough she was forced to accept.

Below are the questions I posed to Libka and the board of education in an email.

Last night both board member Robert Cox and Superintendent Robert Libka expressed intent to make District 209 better and a desire for the community to hold the district accountable.

By what measures does the board and administration want to be judged? I am particularly interested in learning your ways of measuring student performance and financial health of the district.

Also, some of the metrics only happen once a year, like standardized tests and the budget. Based on what information should taxpayers judge the academic and financial performance of the district quarter-to-quarter and month-to-month?

D209 bullies support staff union; union leadership ducks fighting for its members

I only covered one aspect of Monday's meeting of the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education.

I didn't cover the lay-offs that are being discussed for the support staff union. There are about 200 D209 employees part of this union.

The unions members voted against accepting furloughs to protect jobs, so management came back and announced it will be cutting 26-30 positions.

The furlough plan called for union members accepting a 3.8% cut in salary with not cuts in benefits. But the staff reduction plan calls for cutting the work force by 13-15%. And cutting entire employees means cutting the expenses of health benefits too.

It seems like management is engaged in some amount of intimidation--take the salary cuts or else--and probably going to use the cuts to punish enemies and reward allies.

According the one member of the union, the union rep is saying the union won't fight management because the steward, Ida Chester, supports management's position.

Of course, people are saying Ida Chester has been bought off by management. But Ida Chester isn't really the issue.

When a union member pays union dues s/he is paying the salaries of the union president and the unions reps. The union members have a contract with their union. The union is obligated to fight for the members and enforce the collective bargaining agreement.

For the union to blame the shop steward is lame. Picture a traditional manufacturing union. If employee X doesn't get along with his/her shop steward, it's not like s/he's forfeited the protections of the collective bargaining agreement. Filing a grievance may go more smoothly if X has a good relationship with the steward, but X doesn't lose the right to file a grievance because s/he doesn't get along with the steward.

Here's what a friend in unions once told me. If you really want to get the attention of the president of your union, inform her/him that you plan to run against her/him in the next election.

And, if a D209 employee did run against the president of the various locals, s/he'd have a pretty strong case that the union wasn't making a serious effort to fight for the members at D209.