Elgin superintendent turns down raise, says go thou and do likewise:
Riverside Info » About Riverside
D 96 - Dollars and Sense...
(48 posts)-
Posted Wednesday Jul 22, 2009 16:56 #
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2 interesting points in the Daily Herald article. Torres turned down a raise that would have paid him $228,000 to run a school district with 41,000 students. Torres also stated that the refusal to accept the administrative raises still does not solve the revenue problems that the school district is facing.
Posted Wednesday Jul 22, 2009 17:05 # -
Dear all, Just for reference, this is what the Board turned down in June.
Giles McCarthy hosts tonight's meeting as chairman of the building committee. I salute anyone who seeks to assist. Best, crPROPOSAL
for the District 96 Board of EducationHauser School Hardscape / Landscape
Alternative PreparationBy a Citizen’s Committee, comprised of
Terri Lynne Culloden
Nancy Hopkins / Hauser School PTA
Kim Jacobs / Frederick Law Olmsted Society of Riverside
James Louthen
Aberdeen Ozga
Chris Robling11 June 2009
1. Background
The recent District 96 proposed hardscape / landscape plan was rejected by the Riverside Village Board of Trustees in April.
This committee, comprised of a member of the village landscape advisory commission, a member of the Hauser PTA, the president of the Fredrick Law Olmsted Society of Riverside (FLOS), a noted landscape architect and designer, a member of the village preservation commission, and a former village preservation commission member with a background in capital planning and programming, came together in recognition of that fact to offer its services to the District 96 Board of education. Please note that the two commission members are acting solely in their personal capacities and not as representatives of their respective official bodies.
This was announced at the Board’s April meeting in the public comment period and discussed in numerous subsequent emails and phone calls with Board members and the district’s Superintendent. We have been provided with copies of plans and updates regarding Board organization and committee structures.
2. Proposed activity
The Citizen’s committee proposes to assist the Board’s Building committee by designing and executing a process the product of which will be recommended alternatives for the Building committees’ consideration.
With formal recognition from the Building committee – or the board itself – we will undertake a program to provide the Building committee with preliminary concepts in October / November 2009, and recommended designs in November / December 2009.
Each recommended design will reflect our best estimate of a plan that meets the Board and Building committee’s stated requirements, that is appropriate and economical, that will garner the public support of groups, such as FLOS and the Hauser PTA, and that will be acceptable to the Village of Riverside in its process of review and approval.
3. Workplan
We will work as an extension of the Building committee, reporting regularly, and inviting all Board members to our meetings.
We will keep records of our discussions and decisions and issue a narrative report in addition to our recommended alternatives.
We will represent ourselves as “voluntarily assisting” the Building committee in accordance with its recognition of our activity.
We will use a Google group to reduce clerical and support needs.
We will welcome community involvement through noticed public input meetings and activities.
We will involve Hauser’s students in a charette in September and make the planning process as educational as possible for them.
4. Timetable
We seek authorization of the committee, or the Board as a whole, to get underway as rapidly as possible. Even in light of the limited requirement, every week is precious and all steps that can be taken before the resumption of school in late August must be taken.
We understand that this project is slated for construction next summer, roughly one year from now. The following timetable is oriented to achieving that goal and represents our best estimate of milestones and when they will be completed.
June, 2009: Commissioned and underway
July: Organized and soliciting input
August: Completion of written list of design concerns
September: Kids and staff charette -- we will make this fun and educational
October: Conceptual development
October: Public presentation of preliminary concepts, comments solicited
November: Recommended concepts with preferred alternative
presented to Building committee
December: Committee makes its selection / Board ratifies selectionJanuary, 2010: Board architect returns drawings for Board-selected plan
February/
March: Village of Riverside approval process
April/
May: Board’s 60-day bid and selection process
June: Work commences.5. Next step
The committee requests a vote of the Building committee – or the Board – authorizing us to proceed in accordance with this description. Thank you for considering this offer of citizen involvement.
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Posted Wednesday Jul 22, 2009 18:13 # -
I went to the meeting and proposed (and gave a sketch) of the creation of a simple back playground drive-thru drop off for kids so that the traffic from the North and east sides of town would not have to go onto Woodside, and thus relieve the traffic congestion that is now the main reason, it seems, for the sidewalk widening. All they need are two "In" and "Out" signs and some cones to restrict this traffic to a small area of the playground. If they sent a flyer/diagram home with the kids the first week and asked parents to use that are for drop off it should help considerably. My view is the "circles" are too large, they must work around the existing trees (2) and they should not widn the sidewalk in any way, shape or form.
Posted Wednesday Jul 22, 2009 23:00 # -
Don, it wasn't until late last night that I remembered what the Hauser plan was. So what is the status here?
It wasn't the Elgin superintendent's aim to get rid of the deficit. It was a dignified gesture acknowledging hard times, by someone who actually has a proper sense of shame. It is funny to imagine either of our school districts asking for more money in the foreseeable future.
Posted Thursday Jul 23, 2009 08:47 # -
I left while they were still discussing it. If they won't first try the back of school playground AM drop off and pickup then it means they are either locked into this scheme and believe that concrete equates to good design. As presented it is - like the VC - out of scale for the area size they have to work with. Sidewalk width will have nothing to do with traffic - zero - and it is auto traffic not the width of the sidewalk that is their problem. Don't kids ever walk to school, or ride their bikes, anymore? Don't they go out with their friends and play on the way home? This whole thing will look terrible and yet they keep spouting buzzwords like "Jens Jenson" and "eliminate go-paths" and the like. It's starting to be your worst nightmare - and yet no one went to the meeting... how odd.
Posted Thursday Jul 23, 2009 10:55 # -
Don,
The amount of kids that walk or ride their bikes to school has dropped since you (or I) were that age. I think this is mostly due to the fact that an awful lot of families have 2 working parents, and its often easier for them to drop the kids off on their way to the train or the road. WIth that said, having lived in other school districts and looked at other communities while house searching, my take is that Riverside kids are still more likely to walk or ride than their peers in other communities.
I also think that one of the reasons that there is a low turnout at these meetings is because paretns of school-aged kids tend to have school-aged kid-type responsibilities in the evening. This was certainly the case for me, and I know I'm not alone. I suspect that the next meeting of the full board, however, will have quite a large turn-out.
Posted Thursday Jul 23, 2009 12:41 # -
Well I'm sure that for whatever reason the parents will continue to drop off and pick up their kids. And the police will not vigorously enforc the sings that say no parking, standing, stopping, etc. So, unless some alternative is offered this problem will not go away. That is why I sketched out for them an alternative drop off on the back playground adjacent to Akenside. They could pull in the closed driveway, drop their progeny on the playground, and go out the east drive and never have to get involved with the traffic on Woodside - which incidentally is not all school related. This way cars from the North and northeast quadrants would be out of that mess - same for pickup. This is a solution they could try for about $500. - not thousands in pouring a wider sidewalk which will do nothing to alleviate traffic, which is the cause of their concern. We'll see if they give it a try.
The "artists's misconception" for what they want to do in front was abysmal - so we'll probably build it. You don't increase green space by pouring concrete.
Posted Thursday Jul 23, 2009 12:49 # -
The back playground at Central/Hauser has always (at least to me) seemed like a huge wasted space. It hasn't changed since I was there--same crummy field, same massive expanse of concrete. I understand that some of the space is needed for parking for teachers and for school events, but I really think there could be more done with it. I agree with you that for now, exploring its use as a student drop off zone would be a good idea.
Posted Thursday Jul 23, 2009 13:04 # -
According to www.thechampion.org/pension.asp, an IL Public School employee that retires at 55 years of age with 34 years of service (don’t know the stats for the D96 Superintendent) and who makes $313,000 in his last year of employment, $300,000 in the 2nd last year, $289,000 in the 3rd last year, and $278,000 in the 4th last year (those are the numbers of the new D96 superintendent contract), will garner a $221,000 pension during his first 6 years of retirement. He will receive an 18% annual increase in his 7th year, and a 3% annual increase every year thereafter. The cumulative pension total over the 29.6 years life expectancy based on his retirement at 55 is $10.3million (ten-million-three-hundred-thousand).
Somebody please tell me that I am wrong.
Posted Thursday Jul 23, 2009 15:42 #
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