Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Paula Caliendo's Comments to District 300 Board Continued
As elected officials, here to represent parents, taxpayers and most importantly, our students, you have let us all down.
As people like Jack Roeser, Larry Snow, John Ryan and Jim Peschke spoke to the exaggerated numbers presented by this administration, I ask, did you once consider that there might be some merit to their claim that your administration was pushing numbers that were not legitimate?
Did it occur to you to do your own investigation and speak with perhaps Dr. Kasarda who prepared the districts previous demography study?
Is there a reason that administration chose to hire Ehlers, a “Charter Member of the National Association of Independent Public FINANCE ADVISORS” rather than a true demographer.
Were you aware that Ehlers does not have a demographer on staff?
Mr. Chorba, seems to apologize for the Community Building Committee's recommendations, yet I find the fault truly lies with administration's poor decision to use Ehler's numbers.
District community committees are only as good as the information that D300 administration provides and often the information given is lacking transparency.
Now that transparency has come up I'd like to point out that it is a word that this administration often abuses and yet doesn’t seem to understand the true definition.
The current method of contacting the District 300 Board of Education members is not necessarily the best method for the constituents. I’ve been told by Allison Smith, Communications Supervisor, that a new system is coming within this week.
And while a new technology may make great strides in assuring that all the members receive any e-mails, with any attachments, I think it just as important that a Board Member respond to such correspondence simply to acknowledge receipt. Frankly, it is a common courtesy and if there isn’t any protocol established among this current board to accomplish this, perhaps you can come up with a solution.
Otherwise, when a parent or taxpayer sends an e-mail, and this board is not courteous enough to reply with a simple, “thanks for you input”, that parent or taxpayer cannot be sure that the correspondence was received. Furthermore, he or she might come to the conclusion that this administration is tampering with the e-mail, perhaps impeding or censoring what the board receives.
As people like Jack Roeser, Larry Snow, John Ryan and Jim Peschke spoke to the exaggerated numbers presented by this administration, I ask, did you once consider that there might be some merit to their claim that your administration was pushing numbers that were not legitimate?
Did it occur to you to do your own investigation and speak with perhaps Dr. Kasarda who prepared the districts previous demography study?
Is there a reason that administration chose to hire Ehlers, a “Charter Member of the National Association of Independent Public FINANCE ADVISORS” rather than a true demographer.
Were you aware that Ehlers does not have a demographer on staff?
Mr. Chorba, seems to apologize for the Community Building Committee's recommendations, yet I find the fault truly lies with administration's poor decision to use Ehler's numbers.
District community committees are only as good as the information that D300 administration provides and often the information given is lacking transparency.
Now that transparency has come up I'd like to point out that it is a word that this administration often abuses and yet doesn’t seem to understand the true definition.
The current method of contacting the District 300 Board of Education members is not necessarily the best method for the constituents. I’ve been told by Allison Smith, Communications Supervisor, that a new system is coming within this week.
And while a new technology may make great strides in assuring that all the members receive any e-mails, with any attachments, I think it just as important that a Board Member respond to such correspondence simply to acknowledge receipt. Frankly, it is a common courtesy and if there isn’t any protocol established among this current board to accomplish this, perhaps you can come up with a solution.
Otherwise, when a parent or taxpayer sends an e-mail, and this board is not courteous enough to reply with a simple, “thanks for you input”, that parent or taxpayer cannot be sure that the correspondence was received. Furthermore, he or she might come to the conclusion that this administration is tampering with the e-mail, perhaps impeding or censoring what the board receives.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 12:21 PM
