Fields gets paid undisclosed amount to resign and take blame

At the Monday, August 27, special meeting of the board the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education approved the resignation of stan fields as superintendent. The resignation is part of an agreement with the board of education. The district will pay Fields an undisclosed amount. Fields took responsibility for losing the confidence of the board of education by not communicating with board members.

Bill Kirchner and Barbara Cole spoke in favor of keeping Fields.

I,Carl Nyberg, spoke against paying Fields money for resigning.

The board deliberated in closed session for slightly over an hour.

According to board member Theresa Kelly, board member Dan Adams voted by phone during the closed session. As I understand the Open Meetings Act it is contrary to Illinois law to take votes in closed session.

In open session five board members voted to accept the resignation package negotiated with Fields. Kelly voted “present” and Adams was not present.

Kelly spoke against paying Fields because of the ongoing investigations of the district and allegations from the Stark King report. In closed session interim superintendent Robert Libka assured Kelly that he and the lawyers from Giglio & Del Galdo would investigate the allegations. Kelly said she was sending the Stark King report to the Regional Superintendent of Education, Charles Flowers, and the Cook County State's Attorney. This triggered an angry reaction by Welch and Michael A. DeBartolo. Libka also expressed unhappiness with Kelly's decision.

See Proviso Herald (Chuck Fieldman) (who was present at the meeting) and Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) (who was covering a Village of Forest Park meeting) for other coverage, including details of Fields statement.

board meeting, what will be Fields' fate?

Monday, August 27, at 7 PM the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education will hold a meeting on the fate of Stan Fields, PhD, the superintendent who is on leave pending a termination hearing.

From the agenda:

9. Approval of Superintendent Resignation Agreement
10. Approval of Superintendent Termination Charges and Hearing Date

Why would Fields resign instead of suing the district to buy out his contract? If Fields has two years left (I think that's right) and he's making $180,000 per year (which is worth more with benefits) why would he "resign" instead of going to court for the money?

When a homeless guy sues the Forest Park Police Department for police brutality, sometimes he'll take a small settlement sooner rather than later. So perhaps Fields is having money trouble. But I doubt it.

My understanding is that the Stark King report is over forty pages detailing money inappropriately spent while Fields was superintendent.

My report contains information regarding bonuses that I believe were unauthorized and improperly paid to two employees of the district.

I'm going to engage in some speculation. What if the two employees who received unauthorized bonuses were Fields and business manager Nikita Johnson?

Who else could pull the strings to get themselves inappropriate bonuses? And if some more junior employee did game the system for an inappropriate bonus, wouldn't Fields and Johnson have the power to correct the situation once it was identified by Paul Stark King, director of accounting?

I don't know what agreement to resign Fields offered, but I could see a win-win agreement between the board of education and Fields that said the board wouldn't prosecute Fields for pilfering funds and Fields agreed to keep his mouth shut on certain issues.

Keep in mind this is just speculation. I haven't talked to anyone on the board or anyone else who has inside information on Fields' resignation.

But if I were a board member at a school district considering hiring Fields, I'd want to read the Stark King report before I offered him a job.

D209 board meeting: Fields pushed back, director of accounting pushes back

On Monday, August 20, the Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education (BOE) held its regular meeting at Proviso Math & Science Academy (PMSA). The meeting started at 7 PM and went past 11 PM. It was punctuated by an hour of closed session, mostly spent deliberating the fate of Stan Fields, the superintendent on administrative leave pending a termination hearing.

The meeting was well attended by 100-110. Normal meetings attract 35-45, I estimate. An ad hoc committee of dissatisfied parents, alumni and taxpayers I call "the grumblers" accounted for much of the above normal attendance.

The BOE decided to hold another special meeting on Monday, August 27 at PMSA at 7 PM.

(This will be the fourth special board meeting since July 2. The first was to remove Charles Flowers from the BOE. The second was to appoint Brian Cross to the BOE. The third was to place Fields on administrative leave pending a termination hearing. And the fourth special meeting will be dedicated to developing charges Fields will have an opportunity to answer in in administrative hearing.)

Paul Stark King, the director of accounting, was on the agenda to be transfered back to classroom teaching. He gave a report to members of the BOE and delivered a statement during public comment that I considered quite damning.

Although I certainly feel that my transfer is retaliatory because of the questions I asked in the report I just handed you, I want to assure you that the purpose of my report is to benefit the district as this Board considers the extension and promotion of one of the individuals that is subject of my report.

My report contains information regarding bonuses that I believe were unauthorized and improperly paid to two employees of the district.

My report contains information regarding a salary that I believe was overpaid and not properly adjusted when discovered. This salary was unauthorized and improperly paid.

My report contains information regarding payments of cash in lieu of vacation days that I believe were unauthorized and improperly paid to two employees of the district.

These total to an excess of $60,000.

King Solomon wrote regarding retaliation:

In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,
And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are at peace.
For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is "there hope"

I ask the Board to consider carefully both my removal as Director of Accountng and the promotion of one of the individuals who was behind all the things in my report.

Of the 60-70 hours a week I worked for this Board without 30% of my staff while getting chastised for a failure to meet deadlines (and with all deadlines met since May I might add) I again quote King Solomon:

Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labors.
When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for.
And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirits shall say withing themselves, This was he, whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach:
We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honor.

Members of the Board, if it is your wish to confirm my transfer into the classroom, then it is with great honor that I continue to teach the young people of Proviso

There's more to blog about last night's meeting, but I need to take a break.

meeting of citizens critical of District 209

Last night an ad hoc group met to discuss their dissatisfaction with the district and particularly the board of education of Proviso Township High Schools District 209. The meeting happened at the Forest Park Public Library and was initiated by Bill Kirchner of the advisory and foundation committees assembled by dismissed superintendent Stan Fields.

I expected more people to attend. Maybe as many as 40-45 people attended some portion of the meeting. A few people observed that the meeting included people who were aligned with either Chris Welch or Eugene Moore as recently as the April, 2007 elections.

The other thing I learned at the meeting is that Fields is an exceedingly charismatic figure for some people. There's a small group of people who think he's great and bringing him back would be great for the district. Kirchner and some other members of the advisory committee and foundation committees fall into this category.

Kevin McDermott, who ran in the April, 2007, election on a slate backed by Democratic Committeeman Karen Yarbrough, seemed to be able to convince people that to build a coalition the group needs to focus on the commonalities of the members and not on what divides them. And as McDermott explained, Fields is a divisive figure. Many if not a strong majority of the people dissatisfied with District 209 were also dissatisfied with Fields.

District 209 board member Bob Cox spoke at the beginning of the meeting. A number of other public figures were present, including Barbara Cole, Daryl (didn't get the last name), Lula Greenhow, Larry & Linda Howard, Della Patterson, Ami Relf, Marty Tellalian, Carl Williams and Gary Woll. Rich Vitton was in and out of the meeting. James Graham appeared very briefly. And both Chuck Fieldman (Proviso Herald) and Josh Adams (Forest Park Review) attended. (Apologies to anyone I missed, I'm working from memory.)

I don't think the group has any chance of accomplishing anything if the anti-Welch, anti-Moore people spend their energy trying to detect and purge pro-Welch, pro-Moore people. If people show up to meetings and are helping the cause—or at least not hurting the cause—that should be enough. It's not like applying pressure to the board of education is some secret project.

However, whether she's actively trying to be obnoxious and disruptive or whether she can't help herself, Lula Greenhow, needs to be counseled that she needs to behave at the meetings. And if she can't or won't modify her behavior she should be excluded. Greenhow got into squabbles with multiple people. She talked all the time, including when other people had the floor. She offered nothing constructive and basically argued that the group should let the board do what it wants because it was elected by the people. She made statements that caused Kirchner to give a long explanation of the Open Meetings Act. I can't divine her intentions, but Greenhow acted like she was on a mission to make the meeting less effective. Since Greenhow's daughter works under Grady Rivers, a Moore politician, at Proviso Township it seems possible that she was deliberately trying to disrupt the meeting. On the other hand, Greenhow was a counter-demonstrator at the anti-pimp demonstration in Maywood. So she does have a history of eccentric contrariness.

Sharon Daley suggested the group use All Proviso Network to communicate. The software allows individuals to initiate discussions, be anonymous (or not) and engage in private communications. I'm not sure about setting up group communications. IIRC Kirchner said he was going to create a listserve on Yahoo Groups. (BTW, Google Groups may be slightly superior.)

After the meeting Daley expressed the sentiment that the challenge of organizing for reform in District 209 seems daunting because of the number of communities and the size of the project. She asked for an example of another high school district with so many feeder communities.

Relf said that she doubted the parents group from Proviso West would continue to be active with this group. I can understand why they would feel frustrated. The vision and purpose of the group didn't gel as smoothly as some would have liked. But I think it will get better over time.

The pro-Fields people are still feeling hurt about the board's action to begin termination of Fields. And some of them still believe there is a window of opportunity to overturn the decision.

The people who were critical of the district and board of education before Fields was put on leave get a little impatient with the pro-Fields people.

For example, everyone seemed to agree the district is doing as little as possible to fulfill the requirements of the Open Meetings Act with its minimalist agendas. The people who have been following the district from before the 2006-07 academic year know that the minimalist agendas were implemented by Fields. Somehow Fields' personal charisma keeps his supporters from assigning responsibility to Fields for the bad and questionable decisions that happened while he was superintendent.

There seemed to be consensus that we should all try to bring more people to the August 20 board meeting.

You can also read the Proviso Insider's take on the meeting.

District 209 cans Stan Fields, hires Robert Libka

At tonight’s special board meeting the District 209 (Proviso Township High Schools) board of education voted to place Superintendent Stan Fields on paid administrative leave pending a termination hearing.

Former CEO Robert Libka was offered a 60-day contract as the interim superintendent.

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Four board members voted affirmatively for these moves: Brian Cross, Robin Foreman, Reatha “Sue” Henry and Emanuel Chris Welch. Dan Adams was absent. Robert Cox voted against both moves. Theresa Kelly voted “present” on the issue of removing Fields and opposed hiring Libka.

The meeting had to pause when the move to hire Libka was announced. The audience was laughing loudly enough to disrupt the meeting.

The board took some other actions.

The contract with Glenn Gerard to consult on the Proviso foundation was terminated. And the group that had been working with Gerard was disbanded. As I understood the meeting the foundation will still be created, but it will be done in-house. Gerard was brought to the district by Fields.

The student codes of conduct were approved 6-0.

Kelly raised the issue of Fields being paid a bonus. When she asked the rest of the board if Fields had been paid a bonus no one would respond. Also, after the meeting Kelly reminded people that board member Charles Flowers had pushed for a review of Fields’ performance while he was on the board. Kelly made it sound like Welch resisted the performance review.

Also, the police liaison agreement with the Village of Hillside was approved “as discussed in closed session”. Board president Emanuel Chris Welch who makes money billing school districts for legal work used this language twice. This discussion should have happened in open session. When I questioned the lawyer from Giglio & Del Galdo about why this was handled in closed session he said it was a personnel matter.

The Open Meetings Act provides for discussing personnel matters in closed session because of the issues about privacy and candidly discussing performance. Renewing a contract with a police department doesn’t fall in this category. If one applied the Giglio & Del Galdo analysis any contract where the services were ultimately provided by people would be a personnel matter to be discussed in closed session. Construction would be discussed in closed session because personnel would be used by the contractor to do the construction.

I also think canning the superintendent was a violation of the Open Meetings Act. I think removing a superintendent needs to be specifically publicized in the agenda. The heading of “Personnel Matters” seems too vague.

Feel free to discuss the back story in the comments.

[UPDATE Tuesday, 8:56 AM: Getting lots of traffic this morning.

[What do you think of Fields getting canned? Bringing back Libka? How should the community react? What should other public officials do to make District 209 a properly functioning school district?]

[UPDATE2: Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) has a good summary. The board members for terminating Fields declined to give reasons. But the attorney told Adams it wasn't because of the federal subpoenas. There's more to the article. Good read it.]

[UPDATE3: Chuck Fieldman seemed to think the earliest Proviso Herald would cover the story is Wednesday, eight days from now. But he was wrong. See Proviso Herald (Chuck Fieldman)

Cox said he had been advised to "not comment on the logic of the Board's decision to remove Fields as superintendent." He added that he wants his "no vote" to speak for his view of whether Fields should have been placed on leave, pending a termination hearing.

[Bob, Bob, Bob, feel free to consider the possibility that the people giving you advice are giving advice designed to serve their interests, not you, the board, the taxpayers or the students.]

[UPDATE4: I talked to Cox this morning (August 6) and he voted against putting Fields on administrative leave and for hiring Libka.]

relationship between grades and test scores

Proviso Herald (Chuck Fieldman) writes that Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) Superintendent Stan Fields suspects grades are being inflated.

Fields reasons that 1/3 of Proviso students failed at least one class during the spring. But only 20-25 percent meet or exceed state standards.

What's Fields solution? Buy computer software.

"The Pearson Benchmark software provides valid, reliable assessments that are aligned with the state learning standards and (Prairie State Achievement Exam/ACT) objectives, and organized by courses identified with our graduation and classification policies," Fields wrote in a July District 209 newsletter.

The plan, he continued, is to deliver instruction subject only to the valid, reliable assessments maintained with the Benchmark software. Doing this, he stated, restricts the variables impacting student proficiency.

This article raises a number of questions.

1. To what extent are Proviso schools using grades to reflect disciplinary issues? Are teachers inflating grades for students who don't make trouble? Why are grades inflated?
2. Fields seems to want Proviso to teach to the tests. I suspect this will improve test scores a small amount. However, I doubt it will produce large gains over a sustained period of time. Who wants to be a teacher or a student in a school optimized around cracking the whip on test scores and worshiping the boys basketball teams? I doubt the schools that get the best test scores are most extreme examples of the back-to-basics movement.

It will be interesting to see if grades correspond to test scores. If 25 students in a class are ranked by test scores, will the rankings correspond to how the same students rank by their grades? If not, is this a failure of the grading system, or is it perfectly appropriate?

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ED, Fields appears on Viewpoints [D209]

Arnie Bryant had the superintendent of Proviso Township High Schools (District 209), Stan Fields, PhD, on "Viewpoints From the Other Side" today.

Fields gave his usual performance. Test scores suck. The district has been deficit spending for the last decade. He's cut the projected deficit $9 million. Proviso citizens shouldn't be satisfied. Fields implied he's a force for change.

I called the show and asked Fields what specifically he's cut to achieve the $9 million dollars in savings. He kept trying to get away with the answer, "If you read the budget on the web..."

Finally, I pinned him down. Fields claims he's achieved savings by cutting improperly let contracts. When I asked for examples he said he could recall any specifics names.

Here's what I suspect is happening. Fields $9 million savings exists because of accounting sleight of hand. The original budget overestimated expenses and underestimated revenue. By merely correcting the numbers Fields (and business manager Nikita Johnson) created the illusion of large savings when they really have achieved more modest savings.

I also asked about Fields letting the big contract with Technivista for the new website. Earlier Fields had extolled the benefits of requiring a bidding process for contracts. I asked Fields about the website contract. IIRC Fields claimed there was a bid process, but he quickly used the evasive answer of saying the process fully complied with the law.

If Fields did cut corners or outright break the law, do you think he'd say?

"Yeah, I broke the law on that one. My buddies the Schoeder brothers made a mint and they agreed to kickback part of the money to Welch's school board candidates."

Fields answers about the website increased my suspicion that the process wasn't on the up-and-up. One piece of speculation I've heard is that the district justified not bidding out the website work because it fell under the exception for "professional services". Lawyers and accountants can be hired without a bidding process.

Also, Fields question on the district hiring process was pretty much an admission that he engages in patronage hiring. He said he's inclined to hire people who are recommend to him by people he trusts. It might be a good follow-up question to ask who Fields trusts to recommend candidates for hiring.

I'm hoping to get a copy of the tape, so I can quote Fields verbatim.

LABOR, Stan Fields advocating privatizing services in Mundelein [D209]

SEIU 73 seems heavily invested in the political machine of Eugene Moore and Chris Welch. One particular staff member in particular seems to push members to work for Moore and Welch allied campaigns.

Tuesday night SEIU 73 held a meeting at the Maywood Public Library. The local told its members and supporters about which candidates it is supporting. Part of the way SEIU 73 pushed Welch-backed candidates is to raise the threat of privatization at Proviso Township High Schools if Charles Flowers becomes president of the board of education.

Superintendent Stan Fields is Welch's superintendent. What did Fields do at his previous district? He backed privatization.

Below I excerpted some of the minutes of meetings from Mundelein High School.

January 27, 2004

It was moved by Ms. Beutlich, seconded by Mr. Lieberman, that the Board of Education of Mundelein Consolidated High School District 120 contract with Sodexho School Services for the provision of custodial, maintenance and grounds services for a period of five years, with a full review at the one year point before continuation of services.

AYE: Ms. Beutlich, Mr. Lieberman Mr. Hannigan, Mr. Ortega, Mr. Hitzke, Ms. Schroeder, Ms. Kennedy.

NAY: None
ABSENT: None

May 24, 2005

SECURITY SERVICES
Mr. Specht stated he had spoke with the District’s attorney and been advised to change the language in the motion. The new language would allow us to accept the bid then negotiate with the union.

It was moved by Mr. Hitzke, seconded by Mr. Wirt, that the Board of Education of Mundelein Consolidated High School District 120 approve the Superintendent’s recommendation to identify Andy Frain Services as the lowest responsible bidder for security services in an amount estimated at $280,288.

Upon roll call, the following members voted:
AYE: Mr. Hitzke, Mr. Wirt, Ms. Kennedy
NAY: Mr. Munley
ABSTAIN: Mr. Ortega

The motion passed 4 – 1.

June 21, 2005

Kevin Bennett, IEA representative for MESA, asked the Board to consider the advantages of keeping current security employees rather than outsourcing.

SECURITY SERVICES CONTRACT
A discussion of the merits of keeping current security staff vs. outsourcing was held.

It was moved by Mr. Wirt, seconded by Mr. Specht, that the Board of Education of Mundelein Consolidated High School District 120 approve the Superintendent’s recommendation to accept the bid for security services from Andy Frain Services in an amount estimated at $280,288.

Upon roll call, the following members voted:
AYE: Mr. Wirt, Mr. Specht
NAY: Ms. Kennedy, Mr. Munley
ABSTAIN: Mr. Ortega
ABSENT: Mr. Hitzke

The motion failed 2-2.

May 23, 2006

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT – DISCUSSION
FY07 Tentative Budget
The FY07 tentative budget was discussed. It is hoped to have the FY07 budget finalized at the August Board meeting.

Security Bids
The Board discussed the pros and cons of outsourcing security. They requested a comparison table of security personnel including number of personnel, hours, and responsibilities. Discussion will continue at the June Board meeting.

June 15, 2006

1.Bids
Bid for Security Services
It was moved by Mr. Wirt, seconded by Mr. Hitzke, that the Board of Education of Mundelein Consolidated High School District 120 move to accept the May 10, 2006 bid of Andy Frain Services subject to prorating the first year for a start date of August 1, 2006, and subject to attorney approval of a written contract.

Upon roll call, the following members voted:
AYE: Mr. Wirt, Mr. Hitzke, Mr. Specht.
NAY: Ms. Havlik, Ms. Kennedy, Mr. Munley, Mr. Ortega

ED, Proviso Township High Schools to RIF 55 teachers [D209]

To cut $2.5-3 million dollars from the District 209 budget Proviso Township High Schools will RIF (reduction in force) 55 teachers. Proviso East will lose 22 and Proviso West will lose 33.

State law requires teachers be notified 45 days in advance of a date in May. The RIF notification has been used to justify moving the next board meeting from Monday, April 23 (after the election) to Monday, April 16 (the day before the election). A source said the list was prepared in advance of the March board meeting, but has been kept confidential.

Notifications can be done by certified mail. A source anticipates the RIF notices will be mailed Friday, April 13.

BTW, what do you think Fields and the Welch majority want to pass before the election?

A07, FPR endorses Bob Cox, Ralph Harris & Kevin McDermott [D209]

The Forest Park Review editorial ends with this paragraph.

Frankly, there isn't a single sitting board member in District 209 that would get our endorsement. There are several who have actively contributed to the financial and academic disaster that passes for a school system. Meanwhile, those who have been complacent in voting along party lines are no less guilty in their roles as enablers.

I encountered similar thinking when talking to a journalist from another newspaper.

These journalists who come to some of the District 209 board meetings see that members from the minority sometimes behave disrespectfully toward the majority and Superintendent Stan Fields.

These genteel journalists are offended that members of the board minority behave rudely.

It's easy to be polite in the majority. In the majority you put your items on the agenda. Staff largely backs your items (or they get fired). And you don't have to explain your position because you know you've got the majority of votes.

These genteel journalists seem to overlook the fact that showing up to meeting after meeting in the minority gets frustrating. The minority doesn't get their questions answered, and if Josh Adams attended the last board meeting, he'd know that Fields implemented a policy that members of the board minority have to file FOIA requests to get basic information.

Board members aren't getting paid. The minority is trying to shift the district's emphasis from crony politics to education. And they get frustrated and lose their tempers.

These journalists seem to be missing the big picture. If the minority behaves badly it should be seem in the context of the various provocations by both the majority and Superintendent Stan Fields. Remember, how Fields wouldn't respond to board member Kelly's emails? And remember how Fields ridiculed Kelly in his first board meeting as superintendent?

If voters follow the FPR endorsements then we'll be stuck with two more years with Chris Welch as president of the school board. Cox is a Welch supporter. And Welch only needs one ally elected to the three positions to form a majority with himself and Dan Adams and Reatha "Sue" Henry.

Does the Forest Park Review support two more years of Welch being president of the school board? Based on the endorsements, it appears the Forest Park Review does support Welch continuing as president of the school board.

ED, Proviso Township High Schools March meeting [D209]

REMEMBER: This is the fund raising drive for your community blog.

Monday (yesterday) the Proviso Township High Schools board of education held its regular meeting. See pths209.org for agenda. The meeting featured conflict, including a threat to have security remove me from the meeting. This was the last board meeting before the April elections.

However, the most significant policy adopted was a recommendation by superintendent Stan Fields to reduce the number of credits required to graduate while increasing the rigor of core courses.

One aspect of the proposal is to require students pass grade level classes to be promoted to the next grade level. Students would no longer get credit for remedial courses. To be promoted with their peers students would be responsible for doing remedial work before the beginning of the school year (summer) and then they would have to pass their grade level courses in the required subjects.

Another aspect of the proposal is to all but eliminate electives. Students would be required to take only one elective to graduate. Electives would be replaced by extracurricular activities and community service. As part of the push to encourage extracurricular participation Proviso Township High Schools would reduce academic eligibility requirements to the minimum allowed by state law. IIRC (If I recall correctly) Proviso’s current standards are a 2.0 GPA; Illinois allows extracurricular participation with a 1.0 GPA.

(Fields was a collegiate football player and was teammates with Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith.)

One criticism of Fields change to the graduation requirements is that it reduces the number of classes taught by reducing the credits required to graduate and lengthening class periods. This would allow Proviso High Schools to service the same number of students with fewer teachers. One criticism I have aired of Fields’ changes is that it is a cost-cutting measure disguised as an education policy.

Fields responded to this criticism by saying with the additional remedial classes--classes that wouldn’t count toward graduation--the plan would increase the total number of teachers required.

If people buy into the plan it should work to produce graduates who score better on standardized tests. I wouldn’t want to go to school in a district that eliminated electives. I wouldn’t want members of my family to go to a high school that eliminated electives. And I doubt Fields will send his children to an elective-less high school. But if students and teachers buy into Fields’ plan test scores should come up.

Here are some concerns:

1. Fields made significant changes to the educational program without engaging the community about what he was doing and why. He made the proposal at last month’s board meeting and he implemented it this month. It was passed in a 4-3 vote. I am not aware of any attempt by Fields to engage any stakeholders who weren’t guaranteed to agree with his proposals.
2. I doubt Fields has studied the ability of community organizations to supervise large numbers of students doing community service. I also doubt he analyzed how the schools will offer extracurricular programs to significantly more students. If he did examine these issues he didn’t brief the board of education.

More later....

Discuss and add your perspective in comments.

ED, Stan Fields scheduled to be on "Viewpoints" [D209]

Proviso Township High Schools superintendent Stan Fields, PhD, is scheduled to appear on "Viewpoints From the Other Side" on WJJG, 1530 AM, Saturday, March 17, 2-3 PM.

My understanding is that Fields will take questions from guests that call the show.

I drafted some questions that I hope get asked. I'm not satisfied with the list, so if you can improve the wording, please make suggestions. Also, feel free to suggest new questions and comment which questions you think are more important.

What's the best policy you've implemented at Proviso Township High Schools?

You advocate reducing the number of classes--all but eliminating electives--and concentrating on subjects covered by standardized tests. Would you choose to
attend school or send your children to high school in a district that implemented this policy?

Critics have said that eliminating electives is a cost-cutting policy disguised as an education policy. How many teachers could be cut if you succeed in reducing the number of classes?

When you were superintendent of Mundelein High School you implemented various cost-cutting policies and revenue enhancement policies. What services or
functions did you outsource or privatize? Did you recommend other services or functions be privatized only to have members of the board of education stop
you?

Is it true that board member Theresa Kelly sent you email requesting an issue be put on the agenda five times before you responded? And did you wait to respond until after the deadline for putting new action items on the agenda? And did you tell Kelly
that it was impossible to fulfill her request because the deadline had passed? Did you realize that Kelly's requested agenda item was not an action item? Were you deliberately working against the desires of board member Kelly? Or did you erroneously apply Illinois law by neglecting the difference between an action item and discussion?

During the superintendent's report of you first Proviso school board meeting (September, 2006) you opened the door to attacks on board members Charles
Flowers and Theresa Kelly. You gave board president Chris Welch a list of computer hardware that was "missing". Welch read one name from the list: Charles Flowers. Your list claimed Flowers had custody of a District 209 computer. Where was that computer? Did you ever apologize to Flowers?

During that meeting you accused board member Theresa Kelly of maintaining the funds for the Proviso East Wall of Fame in an illegal manner. Where does the bank
send the statements for that account? Have you changed how that fund is managed? Do you still think it is managed in an illegal manner?

You have alleged that board members have received cash advances for board travel but not reconciled the travel claims upon returning. What are the dates of these unrecognized travel claims? Which board members have unrecognized travel claims? What have you done to reconcile these travel claims? Have these board members traveled at District 209 expense since you became superintendent? Why didn't you require them to reconcile the past travel claims before allowing them to travel again? How much money do you expect to recover when these travel claims are reconciled?

You have referred to the "nonsense of the past" as if you are a break with past practices, even though Chris Welch remains president of the school board.
Specifically, what bad behavior was part of the "nonsense of the past"? What have you done to reduce or eliminate the "nonsense of the past"? Did your predecessor, Robert Libka, engage in the "nonsense of the past"? Why is he still on payroll?

The Daily Southtown has run a number of articles that insinuate that Kyle Hastings is a career ghost-payroll government worker. How many hours per week does Hastings spend at the PMSA building?

The issue of political patronage hiring is now openly acknowledged. In the past board member Theresa Kelly would ask if the political bosses had lobbied the superintendent or HR director on behalf of any applicants. If you assume that the superintendent and
HR director were answering questions truthfully then it seems likely that the politicians were working directly with department heads and staff members below
the superintendent to parcel the patronage. Would you be surprised if Chris Welch, Eugene Moore, Claude Porter, Ron Serpico, Dan Coglianese or their representatives were lobbying members of your staff to get "their people" jobs at District 209? Have you taken any action to stop or discourage this meddlingin hiring?

There are rumors that school board president Chris Welch and your business manager, Nikita Johnson, are dating. If this is true would it violate any laws or school district policies? Does it violate any of your policies? If it was true, would you fire Nikita Johnson?

How do you measure the level of violence at Proviso Township High Schools? What policies have you implemented to reduce violence against students and staff? Have your policies reduced violence?

These are some other subjects for which I haven't drafted specific questions:

• Open Meetings Act
• website
• EMM, unnecessary insurance payments to Eugene Moore
• why is Eugene Moore "in the loop" on district decision making
• nominating petitions

"Viewpoints From the Other Side" is a weekly radio program hosted by Arnie Bryant.

ED, school board meeting website, vision & tutoring [D209]

Monday, February 19, Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) held its monthly meeting of the board of education at Proviso Math and Science Academy.

Scott of Technivista briefed the board and audience on the new website for District 209. When the contract is completed there will be six new websites. I’ll write more on the website later. Feel free to post comments in this discussion.

Scott did tell me that Technivista was not planning on contributing in the school board elections. He did add the caveat that his brother is the owner of the business.

The biggest news Superintendent Stan Fields buried among a bunch of other information. Fields proposed reducing the graduation requirements from 22 to 18.5 credits. He framed it as reducing the electives so students would focus more on the courses that prepared them for standardized tests. After the meeting board member Charles Flowers observed that this is a cost cutting move being packaged as an educational strategy. By having fewer period District 209 will be reducing the total number of classes which will allow the same number of students to be taught by fewer teachers.

Fields also offered a new vision statement for District 209. Fields vision is for the district to be the best in Illinois. For perspective the district currently ranks 90th of 90 districts in the Chicago area in four major categories.

How many ways is Fields vision inappropriate? Let’s start with the obvious. Fields doesn’t define “best”. Best at sports? Which sports? Highest test scores? Most graduates going directly to four-year colleges? High graduation rates? The most money diverted to political bosses? Maybe Proviso Township High Schools are already the best and we just didn’t know the yardstick Fields was using….

Four years ago I ran for school board in Oak Park and River Forest (District 200). Here’s what I listed as my goal for the school in my political literature.

Graduates should say, “My OPRF experience prepared me for adulthood.” We should prepare students to be citizens that take ownership of their communities and take advantage of opportunities to lead fulfilling lives.

Do you see how the goals I had for OPRF are specific enough that they can be used to craft policies? Do you see how Stan Fields’ vision is so vague as to be meaningless for making policies or setting priorities?

Some of Fields suggestions I thought had merit.

Fields wants to push extra-curricular, co-curricular and community service. He expressed a goal of getting all students involved in some activity. This goal seems worth investment of resources.

I also liked the idea of switching to proficiency promotion. However, it’s easy to agree that all students should be required to become proficient before getting promoted. It will be harder to implement the policy.

The teachers that implement the letter of the policy will look like failures compared to teachers who fudge and promote students who aren’t really proficient. If you accept the analysis that a major problem for District 209 is students entering who haven’t attained proficiency in eighth grade what do you want freshman teachers to do? Work intensively with the students who are behind? How much is District 209 willing to reduce class sizes?

Proviso East Principal Milton Patch briefed the board on the results of a test designed by ACT to measure if the eighth graders were on track to succeed on college entrance exams. In all feeder schools the average scores were unsatisfactory in math and science. Four schools were satisfactory in English (is Komarek a District 209 feeder school?) and only Forest Park had a satisfactory average reading score.

Patch listed a couple of plans for students in the lowest quartile. Mandatory summer school is obvious. District 209 also plans to do gender segregated education for students in the lowest quartile. I understand the logic, but I’m curious how it will play out. If segregating by gender improves academic performance why limit it to the lowest quartile?

One of the action items on the agenda was for the board to approve money for tutoring. Board member Charles Flowers asked if the money had been spent and the board was approving expenditures after-the-fact. Fields deferred to a staff member who was in the audience. She assured Flowers that the money hadn’t been spent yet. Flowers explained that the students who were eligible for this tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act had been eligible since the beginning of the school year. The staff member explained this wasn’t a problem because the amount of money only covered 30-45 hours of tutoring and it was in the district’s best interest to have the students get the tutoring before the standardized tests in the Spring.

The staff members attitude pretty much showed the district’s attitude toward the students. Students are like pack animals who have value based on their ability to score well on tests. If I was a student and had 36 hours of tutoring over an academic year I’d probably take twelve hours at the beginning of each semester and six hours at the end of each semester. But due to bureaucratic considerations Proviso East students get their tutoring in one lump in the middle of second semester.

This is the sort of thing that’s annoying about District 209 generally. Fields and others find subtle ways to say the students and parents aren’t pulling their weight, but the superintendent and administrators don’t have the respect for the students and parents to allow them to use the school district as they see fit. Students eligible to tutoring get help when the district administrators get around to processing the paperwork, not when they want or need it.

Thomas Sloan, who I assume is related to Westchester political operative Don Sloan, was hired to be a night custodian at Proviso East for $38,481.04.

There was a debate about firing Marshonna Chambers from the business office in executive session. Chambers got blamed when a student stole some money from the business office. Her supervisors felt Chambers was negligently inattentive. Board members Flowers and Theresa Kelly were skeptical that Chambers was primarily at fault and thought it was at least partially a training and supervision problem. Board member Shirley Madlock was the board member most aggressively pushing to terminate Chambers. But Madlock backed-off somewhat when another board member asked if Madlock’s sister, Tamara Robinson, who works in the business office also, would benefit if Chambers were fired. In open session no board member even made a motion to terminate Chambers.

ETHICS, Stan Fields stoops to new levels of dishonesty in dealing with Theresa Kelly [D209]

Proviso Township High Schools Superintendent Stanley Fields, PhD, has been completely unprofessional and disrespectful toward board member Theresa Kelly.

Kelly emailed Fields requesting issues connected to the Proviso East "Wall of Fame" be addressed at the upcoming meeting of the board of education.

The text of Kelly's February 2, 2007 email to Fields included:

I am requesting a statement be made at the February 2007 board of education meeting to clarify the financial state of the Proviso East Alumni Wall of Fame...

Since Fields didn't respond to Kelly she emailed him again on February 7. Then she emailed him again on February 12. Since Fields didn't respond Kelly emailed again on February 14. She emailed again, today, February 16. Finally Fields responded.

BOE agenda is finalized 12pm Wednesday preceding the mtg

Apparently Fields doesn't want to deal with the issues raised by Kelly and is trying to bully her off the agenda.

Fields neglected to respond to Kelly's clear and repeated request to put something on the agenda. Fields ignored Kelly until after the deadline to have agenda items proposed and then tries to make it sound like Kelly didn't request the item be placed on the agenda by the deadline.

Is there anyone who wouldn't consider Fields' conduct disrespectful from Kelly's perspective?

Is Fields disrespectful to Kelly because she's not part of the board president's majority?

Fields is not as disrespectful toward board members Charles Flowers, EdD, and Gary Marine.

Let's cut to the essence of it: does Fields treat Kelly disrespectfully because she's a Black senior citizen without an advanced degree?

Fields may not want to deal with the Proviso East "Wall of Fame". It's ancillary to the district's mission. But let's review why the "Wall of Fame" is a big deal. Remember Fields' first board meeting.

Next Fields started asking about the fund associated with the Proviso East “Wall of Fame”. It was an opportunity for board president Chris Welch to make allegations against Kelly. Welch alleged she was refusing to account for the funds. He alleged the money was improperly spent. He alleged the project inappropriately intruded on students’ schedules. And Welch got Fields to say that what she was doing was illegal. According to Welch and Fields the law requires the fund be administered by the board of education because the organization has “Proviso East” in its name. Kelly accused Welch of lying. Welch attacked Kelly by loudly and repeatedly saying, “Mrs. Kelly, show us the money!”

The "Wall of Fame" is an issue because Fields and Welch used it to attack Kelly and accuse of doing something inappropriate and illegal with the money.

These allegations didn't hold water, but Fields and Welch made them.

So, if Fields thinks the board of education has time to use the "Wall of Fame" as a club for criticizing Kelly then it seems reasonable that Kelly should be able to get it on the agenda too. Of course as a board member Kelly should be able to put anything reasonable on the agenda. And Fields should have the decency to respond to her emails and act on her requests in a timely manner.

[UPDATE: Proviso Insider presents Stan Fields side of the story. The entry includes a portion of the text of Kelly's email to Fields. So whoever Proviso Insider is, s/he is close enough to Fields that s/he gets copies of Fields' emails.

[Proviso Insider's final sentence sums up Fields attitude toward Kelly, Why does a woman with a high school diploma think she can tell a person with a Ph.D. how to run a school? Maybe Kelly got the idea from Illinois law? Is she not a legally elected member of the school board? Is Kelly somehow exceeding her authority by asking for something to be put on the agenda? And what difference does the disparity in education level between a board member and superintendent matter? Is Proviso Insider being petty?

[Proviso Insider is pretty fond of a certain politician who failed to graduate from high school. But Proviso Insider never makes an issue of the politicians education level. Why is Kelly's education level relevant? If she did have a doctorate would it make her important enough for Fields to respond to her emails?]

KLEPT, Stan Fields giving away taxpayer money to Welch political ally [D209]

Superintendent Stan Fields decided to buy ten tickets to the PLCCA Masquerade Ball held last Saturday for $2,500. PLCCA is the non-profit organization run by Rev. Claude Porter. Porter is a political ally of Eugene Moore, District 209 school board president Chris Welch and the Stroger family.

District 209 provided information about the ball in the packages provided to board members before the December meeting. Fields did not suggest District 209 buying tickets at the November meeting, the December meeting or the January meeting.

Since the January meeting Fields decided to contribute $2,500 to PLCCA and polled the board members individually. Apparently four of them said "yes" to the expenditures.

The day after PLCCA's Masquerade Ball Fields reportedly attended Porter's church. Fields invited Porter and members of Porter's church to attend the February meeting of the board of education. Fields promised to unveil his education plan. At least one member of the board minority is rankled that Fields is shopping his education plan with Porter before telling board members of its existence.

Further, minority board members have complained that Fields portrays himself as being a disciplined steward of taxpayers' money by portraying board members as wasting money for going to education conferences while Fields is just giving away money to political allies of board president Chris Welch.

[UPDATE: A board member now says that the board voted to approve the expenditure, but that Fields hid it within another expenditure. Is this legal?]

ED, What's been cut from Proviso Township High Schools [D209]

Forest Park Review (Josh Adams, right column):

School administrators continue to tighten the belt at District 209, and based on a report given to board members this month, a projected $14 million deficit has been cut in half.

If Stan Fields could take a break from socializing with Eugene Moore and respond to questions I pose to him--apparently he wants to be open to everyone in the community except for me--I'd ask him, what's been cut from the budget?

My suspicion is that most of the deficit cutting has been "on paper" only. Fields, Welch and Nikita Johnson used accounting games to inflate the deficit at the beginning of the year so they could cut the deficit on paper.

I've been to most of the meetings and the specific savings have been pretty minimal. Apparently District 209 had a storeroom full of paper. By using the paper it already had the district saved like $300,000 (I'm working from memory). And the district saved about $60,000 on a photocopier maintenance contract.

What are the other savings?

Did the district cut Bob Libka? That would have saved $150,000 or so, right?
Did the district cut the insurance commissions paid to Eugene Moore? That would have saved about $200,000.
Did the district cut the payments to Danielle Ashley Communications, the PR firm that will probably being doing "in kind" work for the school board president's candidates in the upcoming elections?

And on top of failing to cut the political sacred cows, Fields added a ridiculously expensive contract for a website. It's almost $200,000 (for six web sites) with a $24,000 per month service contract.

So, I'm skeptical. What expenses has Fields cut?