Great RB Story from Saturday, everyone:
Fast action by RB’s Todd Fridrych and Heather Mathis saved a conference swim meet for hundreds of west suburban kids on Saturday, July 24. With three hours notice Todd and Heather led kids and parents to pull off a huge meet that was swamped by the heavy rains. They were literally swim meet lifesavers, bringing great credit and attention to the high school and our community. Thank you, Todd and Heather.
Time for a change
The good news is there will be an election in April. That means people will decide to run, knock on doors, listen to voters and build their platforms. Most important, it means voters will decide the future course of Riverside Brookfield High School.
Given the $2.2 million red-ink budget just passed by the four Board members whose terms are ending, it will be easy for new faces to contrast themselves with the Board majority.
This majority has a record of ups and downs:
UPs
Larry Herbst recruited David Bonnette one day.
Jim Marciniak led the hiring of Pam Bylsma.
Larry Herbst welcomed public input from the Citizens Committee, from a Green Committee, from the FLRSPC committee, and from other groups along the way.
Jim Marciniak made personnel changes that were overdue, hugely significant and abundantly justified.
DOWNs
The majority:
Gave employee benefits to non-employees without a Board vote
Wasted $700,000 of our money on something called the "Paw and Cyberdog", without so much as a curricular plan
Ignored its own nepotism policy to the benefit of one of its own members, then voted to change the policy to allow the situation it had ignored, and then refused to publish the revised policy (as of a few days ago)
Allowed our former superintendent to hold his position and draw his salary illegally
Learned that under its supervision and responsibility our former superintendent was one of half-a-dozen employees prowling around the building without proper certificates, each one of whom was in their respective position -- and drawing salary from our taxes -- illegally
Conducted an illegal meeting in May 2009 at which it voted to destroy official recordings of dozens of their closed meetings, with scant public disclosure of what happened at those meetings
Voted down an independent investigation of how RB welcomed a bonded-out indictee for possession of drugs with intent distribute, who made a significant drug sale in his North Riverside basement to a confidential Chicago Police Department drug squad informant, whose home was found to have a panoply of drug distribution scales, bagging machines, etc., who it further turns out has multiple arrests involving drugs, alcohol and judgment errors -- inside RB as a volunteer wresting coach -- only to bury their own "investigation" and hope no one would remember the access they had given this individual to our kids
Approved a contract with the teachers union, accounting for between 60 and 80 percent of operating expenses, depending who you ask, that THEY KNEW THEY COULD NOT AFFORD [not to be picky, but the Teachers union had just endorsed two of them for re-election]. This is the leak in our bow that's making our finances imitate the Titanic on an April night long ago... blub.
Goofed up an investigation of our rangy former superintendent so that he could make a false exculpatory denial, be investigated on our dime, be found to have lied to them, us and the RB Landmark newspaper, and then... stick us with the bill for investigating his lying. [I know that sounds crazy, especially if you just moved to town, but they blithely made us pay for discovering his lie. What's with that?]
And then -- they kept him on the payroll, even after they learned he had no certificate. Who even thinks this way? And why are they in charge of our kids' education?
Tossed 1800 signatures of district residents who demanded a referendum on a school board payday loan to cover the deficit created by their idiotic contract. The $5 million they thus acquired has become the biggest shell in their fiscal shell game ever since.
And more, and more, and more...
Yes, it has been a rough patch. Despite all of these, and the many more failures we will surely discuss between now and April, our teachers, many of whom are absolutely first-rate, have found ways to educate our kids, to their everlasting credit. Good things happen every day at RB...
but not enough of them.
I hope that from LaGrange Park, Brookfield, North Riverside, Broadview, the sliver of Lyons and Riverside candidates will rise up who have academic qualification, professional distinction, helpful experience, a record of civic involvement, and a giant appetite for cleaning up a fiscal mess to empower the teachers and our faithful administrators. Let's get the community behind them. No district deserves what Larry Herbst, MariAnn Leibrandt, Sue Kleinmeyer and Jim Marciniak have done -- in toto. This district deserves a Board that is dedicated in everything it does to creating and sustaining the finest Illinois public high school of its size.
[By the way, I am happy to debate any one or all four of them any time, not that anyone cares or would come, but I make the offer to emphasize I speak in my own voice and will gladly stand up for my assertions.]
It takes candidates. And it takes candidates who repudiate the mismanagement of the Herbst Era. Institutionally, the RB Board has never acknowledged any of these massive failures. David Bonnette, to his everlasting credit, has been frantically mopping up over there for 16 months, after a six-year utter abdication of leadership that was aided and abetted by the Herbst Board. Dr. Bonnette deals with the reality they created, they specialize in make-believe.
This means that politically a decision made by the voters -- us -- never again to allow another period like what we have been through.
The first representative act of an officeholder is circulating petitions. They are now available at the district office. Signatures are due in December.
Are you up for a challenge? Do you want to make positive change stick? This is an extraordinary chance to make a good high school great, or a great high school spectacular. It will not be easy. The Titanic sunk. But no reward will ever equal your sense of a job exceedingly well done for others.
If you can, please consider it. There are many who stand ready to help. They know -- it is time for a change.
Is this your opening statement to your new campaign for School Board, Mr. Robling.
"mrs bulldog power":
a) Can you read? It is a call for others to run. Sheesh.
b) Can you write? A question ends with a question mark.
c) Can you stand up? I post in my name, and am happy to speak in public and debate. You hide behind a phony name to ask a question.
d) Of what are you so afraid? I wrote this to appeal to all possible candidates, if I know them or not. You seem to be hyped over one person running (as it happens, me). What is the big deal? Are you recruiting folks? If so, good for you. If not, why not? 'Is this your opening statement to your new campaign for School Board, Mrs. Bulldog Power?'
Wow - chill...... why so defensive? (there i used a question mark)
I was just asking a question as it appears to me you are throwing your name out there since you mentioned you'd debate the four board members. simple question - just deserved a simple answer. but thanks.
Sheesh dude, lighten up on the Bulldog babe. A loose cannon with perfect grammar still shoots crooked. Or is it crookedly?
Great News for RB Voters
dear all,
happy to say filing has finished and seven of us have stood up:
tom powers from brookfield, a d95 bd member and architect
riverside's tim walsh, noted swimming dad and atty
laura hruska of brookfield, former d208 member and medical association test person
dr. john keen of brookfield, radiologist
gary gryczan,(pronouncer: grish-an), riverside u of c mba
north riverside's lou surprenant, zoning appeal board memmber and frequent coach
north riverside's lenora giurini, insurance executive
#1) thank you to all of the candidates. running is a special thrill, serving is a big commitment. thank you for putting yourslves before the voters
#2) thank you to all who considered running. there were many, and for the active consideration of such a demanding civic role, all of you deserve recognition -- even if anonymous -- and appreciation.
#3) as a community we now begin a campaign in which there will be no losers -- there is lots to talk about, the issues are pretty well defined, and everyone should get involved and chatting.
#4) we need as many candidate forums and discussions as can be scheduled -- they will prompt a wider and deeper community discussion about RBHS, its present and its future.
#5) if you belong to any kind of group in town, please invite all the candidates and give them platform -- choose a date a few weeks away so everybody can show up and give folks an opportunity to give opening remarks and take questions from the floor. it's pretty easy, and fun, and it will help all of us -- voters to hear what the candidates think and the candidates to work out their positions on the issues.
#6) one hopes that president marciniak will direct superintendent bonnette to put RBTV on the campaign, using that RB taxpayer-funded communications medium to... communicate with taxpayers about RB. it is time for early, frequent and ongoing conversations, get 'em on, get 'em talking and invite 'em back to do it again. ask local journalists such as sun-times managing editor andrew herrmann and famous sports columnist and RB dad rick morrisey to lead the conversations fairly and make sure everyone has their say.
#7) (getting students involved in a producing such a series of conversations is great training for them in civic participation and journalism, by the way. in recent years the station has labored mightily to have one tiny joint appearance, usually aired on the last friday night before the election in a programming insult to the voters. more conversations = more programs, and thus more kids involved.)
#8) the programs should immediately be placed on the school website, for those many taxpaying residents who can't watch or tivo the broadcasts.
#9) etc etc etc -- as a community we are now challeneged to find inclusive and supportive ways of hearing from the candidates, informing them of our views and making our choices. i wrote a piece for the landmark eight weeks ago that said everyone has to make their own mind up about the referendum, but voting for board members is a duty we must perform. to do so, we need to get to know them. to do that, we have to give them the exposure we can.
let's make this a fun campaign for everyone and great election for RBHS.
I'll start off the questioning of the candidates. It is a YES or NO question. If you cannot answer this question directly, you should not be running for the board. No need for a candidate forum to answer this question.
Do you support and will you vote for the RB Tax Increase Referendum? YES or NO
Mr. Powers YES or NO
Mr. Walsh YES or NO
Ms. Hruska YES or NO
Dr. Keen YES or NO
Mr. Gryczan YES or NO
Mr. Suprenant YES or NO
Ms. Giurini YES or NO
Here is a note by me that's part of the discussion at another site:
Friends, our entree to this is the Board.
We have seven candidates. Each has something to commend him / her. Get to know your candidates. Be prepared to vote your choices on election day.
Come fair or come foul, the four of them will stand in our shoes.
All of our problems -- and our successes -- come from the Board. It is easy to personify an issue and say, 'If X were not at the school, then all would be better' or 'since X is at the school, all is grand.'
It is also naive.
The school is highly complex. It requires leadership first. If that does not come from the Board, then our role -- and voice -- as taxpayers is silenced.
The Board must orient the superintendent, the principal, the administration and the certified staff to our values, or we have only ourselves to blame.
It next must create a reporting structure in which it knows, on an ongoing basis, that its will, and not some sub-goal pursuit of a second-level staffer, is being done. To be charitable in our view of the recent past, this is where the Herbst majority went far wrong. But that's being really charitable.
Regardless, the Board represents us in all matters of school policy and operation. It accounts to us, and we select its leadership.
Because of this, the timing of this search is unfortunate. A majority of the board has announced its departure.
One may reasonably expect the four short-timers to defer to the ongoing members who will serve with the new hire.
Perhaps Board President Marciniak should order counsel to brief the possibility of a non-disclosure agreement for the seven candidates so that they may take a limited advisory role in the selection, because four of them will serve with the selectee.
Of course, the decision must remain in the hands of the Board alone, per statute.
From the applicant side, it will be foolish to take the job if you are not a consensus candidate of all seven current board members.
Finally, a) this is only the beginning of our expression of thanks to Dr. David Bonnette for keeping the place together after the internal collapse under his predecessor... to be continued.
b) Finally, people still post here w/o disclosing either their names or their personal / spousal / family interest in the referendum. It's a campaign-oriented troll-like scam that brings an even heavier discounting of their rhetoric than its craven one-sidedness would otherwise.
That is the real other side.
Best, c
Building better educated citizens... we have a way to go. Democracy ain't easy.
A friend sent me this. Maybe he was trying to tell me something?
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