Restore Democracy: Get on the ballot for School Board member
If you are running for the Winnetka School Board, file by 4:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 5 with the Secretary to the Board of Education at the District office at 515 Hibbard Road, Winnetka, IL:
Your nominating petitions [notarized], Statement of Candidacy [notarized] and Receipt for filing a statement of economic interests.
To get on the ballot for other school districts, check for filing locations by calling your school district office.
**********************************************
Do it now, or forever hold your peace about your School Board paying your superintendent $357,000 to oversee 2070 students, wasteful spending, insufficient focus on academics, insufficient responsiveness by administrators and board members to parents and residents, improper use of confidential parental communications and no respect for democracy; abuse of taxpayers at board meetings; bad decisions for kids; District lawyers attending board meetings to monitor resident comments; having a school superintendent hire a principal who is the defendant in a wrongful death action without informing your board and then having your board say, “Who cares.”
*********************************************
Perhaps you are upset with the quality of your local school board’s decisions. If you are in Winnetka, perhaps you think Supt. Rebecca van der Bogert is a tad overpaid at $357,000 per year and you wonder what your board was thinking when they increased her salary at the equivalent of about 20K per year during the last decade.
Think about it, a 200K Supt. salary would seem to be enough to attract a top notch superintendent, freeing up about 150K for two additional teachers. Which do you think would be better for kids?
Again, if you are in Winnetka, maybe you think a facilities referendum for this April that will require the community to fork over an additional 85 million dollars to District 36 for its 2070, or so, students, is a bit extravagant. The 85 million dollar payback will be over the next twenty years to cover the cost of the bonds to finance the facilities construction and renovation.
Of course, this is on top of a thirty million dollar, and growing, annual budget for the District’s 2070 students.
The additional expenditure of 85 million dollars seems a bit much, especially when the number of students in the district during the last year increased by, at most, 8 students, or less than one half of one percent of the current enrollment. Indeed, a resident at the Winnetka Town meeting contended that the District reported to the State zero growth in students during the last year.
The sales job for the referendum by the establishment in Winnetka will, I am sure, be quite polished. Not necessarily all the facts, but polished, to be sure. That’s the Winnetka way.
However, at Tuesday night’s Winnetka school board meeting, board member Jeff Hoch seemed to worry a bit, when he muttered something about his concern as to how the need for this 85 million dollar referendum might be explained to the Village. After all, the focus of the discussion at the Board Meeting revolved, in large part, around the construction of three new indoor multi-use basketball courts, along with what seemed to be a perfunctory discussion of the extra space that would be added to two of the District’s five schools. 85 million dollars for some additional K-8 basketball courts? What is the Winnetka School Board thinking? Is that really the best thing the District can do for kids?
If there is some great academic need that will justify an 85 million dollar payback [principal and interest] to the bond purchasers, no board members spent a lot of time on it Tuesday night. Dr. Rebecca van der Bogert’s 357K contribution to the discussion was apparently to persuade the board that a $603 price point [the Board’s and William Blair & Company’s projected increase in taxes for the owner of a 1.2 million dollar home] was a tougher sale to taxpayers than a $520 price point.
The $520 price point is a bit misleading as it seems to reflect lower costs to current taxpayers at the expense of higher costs to future Winnetka taxpayers, apparently with the assumption that future homebuyers don’t factor the higher tax costs into their offer prices when they buy homes. Contrary to what the Winnetka School Board and its Supt. may believe, the housing market’s use of publicly available information, as is the case in other markets, is pretty efficient. Perhaps the District will pay for training in economics and modern finance theory for its Superintendent, board members and referendum financing consultants.
So, what to do if you are in Winnetka, or in any of a number of middle or upper income suburbs, e.g., Wilmette, Hinsdale, Libertyville, Barrington, Highland Park, Northbrook, Palatine, Wheaton, Elgin, Arlington Heights, Naperville, Flossmoor, that may suffer from decision making similar to the above from the a Village’s school board, or library, village or park board, for that matter.
The answer is to run for your school board, park board, etc. That is, get your name on the ballot for the relevant board for the April 17, 2007 village-wide election and then persuade the community that you will represent it better than your competitors in the election. Given the above discussion, that shouldn’t be a hard task.
But, you had best get moving.
The filing deadline is this coming Monday, Feb. 5, 5:00 pm. [4:30 pm, if you are filing for the School Board in Winnetka; after all, you wouldn’t expect your school district office to stay open until 5, would you?].
All the documents and information you need for filing are downloadable from www.elections.il.gov, or you can pick up the hard copy of the State of Illinois Candidate’s guide from the Illinois Board of Elections office in the Thompson building in the Loop on Friday.
This is not legal advice, but essentially, all you need to get on the ballot are the following documents:
--Nominating petitions with 50 signatures from individuals registered to vote in the district [technically it is 50 signatures or 10% of the voters, whichever is less, residing in the District; for most districts, the 50 signature number applies]. Since the Establishment may challenge some signatures, you will want to get 75, or so, signatures to be on the safe side, in case maybe a few people sign your petitions who are not currently registered to vote in the relevant District, write down a name different from their registered name, etc.
--The petition circulator should be sure to have the nominating petitions notarized and numbered-- and the circulator should comply with the requirements set out in pp. 14-18 of the Candidate’s Guide.
--You will need a notarized Statement of Candidacy, as discussed at p. 19 of the Candidate’s Guide.
You will need a receipt for filing a Statement of Economic Interests with the Cook County Clerk, if your village is in Cook, with the Lake County Clerk, if your village is in Lake, etc.
If you are running for the Winnetka School Board, file by 4:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 5 with the Secretary to the Board of Education at the District office at 515 Hibbard Road:
Your nominating petitions [notarized], Statement of Candidacy [notarized] and Receipt for filing a statement of economic interests.
For getting on the ballot for other school districts, check for filing locations by calling your school district office.
For other village board seats, check for filing information by reading the
State of Illinois Candidate’s Guide from the Illinois Board of Elections.
Boys and Girls, 50 signatures. How hard can that be? Stand out in front of your local grocery, coffee shop, banks-- or go door to door and get the registered voters in the District to sign. The residents don’t have to promise to vote for you; they are just putting you on the ballot, so the voters can have a choice, the patron saint of the voter.
Do it now, or forever hold your peace about your School Board paying your superintendent $357,000 to oversee 2070 students, wasteful spending, insufficient focus on academics, insufficient responsiveness by administrators and board members to parents and residents, improper use of confidential parental communications and no respect for democracy; abuse of taxpayers at board meetings; bad decisions for kids; District lawyers attending board meetings to monitor resident comments; having a school superintendent hire a principal who is the defendant in a wrongful death action without informing your board and then having your board say, “Who cares.”
The choice is yours. Run, Concerned parent and taxpayer, run.
******************************************************
Your nominating petitions [notarized], Statement of Candidacy [notarized] and Receipt for filing a statement of economic interests.
To get on the ballot for other school districts, check for filing locations by calling your school district office.
**********************************************
Do it now, or forever hold your peace about your School Board paying your superintendent $357,000 to oversee 2070 students, wasteful spending, insufficient focus on academics, insufficient responsiveness by administrators and board members to parents and residents, improper use of confidential parental communications and no respect for democracy; abuse of taxpayers at board meetings; bad decisions for kids; District lawyers attending board meetings to monitor resident comments; having a school superintendent hire a principal who is the defendant in a wrongful death action without informing your board and then having your board say, “Who cares.”
*********************************************
Perhaps you are upset with the quality of your local school board’s decisions. If you are in Winnetka, perhaps you think Supt. Rebecca van der Bogert is a tad overpaid at $357,000 per year and you wonder what your board was thinking when they increased her salary at the equivalent of about 20K per year during the last decade.
Think about it, a 200K Supt. salary would seem to be enough to attract a top notch superintendent, freeing up about 150K for two additional teachers. Which do you think would be better for kids?
Again, if you are in Winnetka, maybe you think a facilities referendum for this April that will require the community to fork over an additional 85 million dollars to District 36 for its 2070, or so, students, is a bit extravagant. The 85 million dollar payback will be over the next twenty years to cover the cost of the bonds to finance the facilities construction and renovation.
Of course, this is on top of a thirty million dollar, and growing, annual budget for the District’s 2070 students.
The additional expenditure of 85 million dollars seems a bit much, especially when the number of students in the district during the last year increased by, at most, 8 students, or less than one half of one percent of the current enrollment. Indeed, a resident at the Winnetka Town meeting contended that the District reported to the State zero growth in students during the last year.
The sales job for the referendum by the establishment in Winnetka will, I am sure, be quite polished. Not necessarily all the facts, but polished, to be sure. That’s the Winnetka way.
However, at Tuesday night’s Winnetka school board meeting, board member Jeff Hoch seemed to worry a bit, when he muttered something about his concern as to how the need for this 85 million dollar referendum might be explained to the Village. After all, the focus of the discussion at the Board Meeting revolved, in large part, around the construction of three new indoor multi-use basketball courts, along with what seemed to be a perfunctory discussion of the extra space that would be added to two of the District’s five schools. 85 million dollars for some additional K-8 basketball courts? What is the Winnetka School Board thinking? Is that really the best thing the District can do for kids?
If there is some great academic need that will justify an 85 million dollar payback [principal and interest] to the bond purchasers, no board members spent a lot of time on it Tuesday night. Dr. Rebecca van der Bogert’s 357K contribution to the discussion was apparently to persuade the board that a $603 price point [the Board’s and William Blair & Company’s projected increase in taxes for the owner of a 1.2 million dollar home] was a tougher sale to taxpayers than a $520 price point.
The $520 price point is a bit misleading as it seems to reflect lower costs to current taxpayers at the expense of higher costs to future Winnetka taxpayers, apparently with the assumption that future homebuyers don’t factor the higher tax costs into their offer prices when they buy homes. Contrary to what the Winnetka School Board and its Supt. may believe, the housing market’s use of publicly available information, as is the case in other markets, is pretty efficient. Perhaps the District will pay for training in economics and modern finance theory for its Superintendent, board members and referendum financing consultants.
So, what to do if you are in Winnetka, or in any of a number of middle or upper income suburbs, e.g., Wilmette, Hinsdale, Libertyville, Barrington, Highland Park, Northbrook, Palatine, Wheaton, Elgin, Arlington Heights, Naperville, Flossmoor, that may suffer from decision making similar to the above from the a Village’s school board, or library, village or park board, for that matter.
The answer is to run for your school board, park board, etc. That is, get your name on the ballot for the relevant board for the April 17, 2007 village-wide election and then persuade the community that you will represent it better than your competitors in the election. Given the above discussion, that shouldn’t be a hard task.
But, you had best get moving.
The filing deadline is this coming Monday, Feb. 5, 5:00 pm. [4:30 pm, if you are filing for the School Board in Winnetka; after all, you wouldn’t expect your school district office to stay open until 5, would you?].
All the documents and information you need for filing are downloadable from www.elections.il.gov, or you can pick up the hard copy of the State of Illinois Candidate’s guide from the Illinois Board of Elections office in the Thompson building in the Loop on Friday.
This is not legal advice, but essentially, all you need to get on the ballot are the following documents:
--Nominating petitions with 50 signatures from individuals registered to vote in the district [technically it is 50 signatures or 10% of the voters, whichever is less, residing in the District; for most districts, the 50 signature number applies]. Since the Establishment may challenge some signatures, you will want to get 75, or so, signatures to be on the safe side, in case maybe a few people sign your petitions who are not currently registered to vote in the relevant District, write down a name different from their registered name, etc.
--The petition circulator should be sure to have the nominating petitions notarized and numbered-- and the circulator should comply with the requirements set out in pp. 14-18 of the Candidate’s Guide.
--You will need a notarized Statement of Candidacy, as discussed at p. 19 of the Candidate’s Guide.
You will need a receipt for filing a Statement of Economic Interests with the Cook County Clerk, if your village is in Cook, with the Lake County Clerk, if your village is in Lake, etc.
If you are running for the Winnetka School Board, file by 4:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 5 with the Secretary to the Board of Education at the District office at 515 Hibbard Road:
Your nominating petitions [notarized], Statement of Candidacy [notarized] and Receipt for filing a statement of economic interests.
For getting on the ballot for other school districts, check for filing locations by calling your school district office.
For other village board seats, check for filing information by reading the
State of Illinois Candidate’s Guide from the Illinois Board of Elections.
Boys and Girls, 50 signatures. How hard can that be? Stand out in front of your local grocery, coffee shop, banks-- or go door to door and get the registered voters in the District to sign. The residents don’t have to promise to vote for you; they are just putting you on the ballot, so the voters can have a choice, the patron saint of the voter.
Do it now, or forever hold your peace about your School Board paying your superintendent $357,000 to oversee 2070 students, wasteful spending, insufficient focus on academics, insufficient responsiveness by administrators and board members to parents and residents, improper use of confidential parental communications and no respect for democracy; abuse of taxpayers at board meetings; bad decisions for kids; District lawyers attending board meetings to monitor resident comments; having a school superintendent hire a principal who is the defendant in a wrongful death action without informing your board and then having your board say, “Who cares.”
The choice is yours. Run, Concerned parent and taxpayer, run.
******************************************************
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