A press release from Crystal Lake High School District 155:
District 155 Named to 5th Annual AP District Honor Roll
Crystal Lake – Community High School District 155 was named to the 5th Annual AP District Honor Roll for increasing AP test participation while maintaining a high level of success rate.
The honor roll includes 547 school districts in the U.S. and Canada.
Only 26 districts in the state of Illinois were recognized.
Johnnie Thomas
This is the third consecutive year District 155 has been named to the AP District Honor Roll.
“This prestigious recognition is a result of our dedicated teachers, and it shows how hard our students work to continue to achieve high standards,” said Dr. Johnnie Thomas, superintendent.
District 155 continues to see positive trends with AP results.
The number of students taking AP exams has increased from 1,318 in 2013-14 to 1,507 in 2014-15. The district administered 390 more exams than in 2013-14.
And 76 percent of students who took AP exams were awarded an honor score of 3, 4, or 5.
It is estimated that D155 students will benefit from a combined college savings of $4,181,320 based on their performance.
This school year, District 155 offers 25 different Advanced Placement courses.
The district is the first in the state to offer AP Seminar simultaneously at all four high schools.
Students also have the opportunity to take three different dual credit courses which are offered in partnership with McHenry County College.
Families have saved an estimated $373,892 more from dual credit coursework.
My daughter has personally benefited from the AP courses offered in D155.
She came into her new school as a college freshman receiving 34 credit hours for the AP tests that she had passed.
For about an $800-900 investment in AP testing fees she’ll save about a full year’s worth of out-of-state tuition and room/board totalling about about $47,000 before any grants.
Rather than estimating, perhaps the district could survey their recent graduates that passed AP exams to determine credits received and then approximate the amount of savings.
Given the elevated cost of college tuition these days, a program like this can result in significant savings for families trying to pay college tuition.
I always chuckle how schools are willing to take credit for the positive outcomes of good students but do everything they can to avoid responsibility for the poor outcomes of bad students.
Which one is it, schools and teachers?
Do you have a big impact on students (and therefore are responsible for all of the failures), or do you have little-to-no impact at all (and therefore cannot take credit for the AP program at D155)?
Please propose an answer that is logically consistent.
That is to be commended but what about all the kids who were told they were doing “just fine” in elementary and middle school yet when they reach high school they are not academically talented enough to take AP classes and furthermore many when they reach college are required to take remedial level English or Math (remedial level college requirements can vary depending on the intended or declared major).
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CHSD 155 still does not videotape board meetings and post them on the district website.
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So on one hand they tout meeting College Board AP targets for “for increasing AP test participation while maintaining a high level of success rate” yet on the other hand have lousy board level transparency in they don’t videotape board meetings.
It’s important to note what the AP District Honor Roll does and does not honor.
The AP District Honor Roll does not honor schools which have the highest percentage of kids overall passing AP tests with a 3 or above.
Rather it measures very specific criteria.
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/5th-annual-ap-district-honor-roll.pdf
https://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/awards/ap-district-honor-roll
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Maybe someday someone will estimate the unfunded pension liability attributed to teachers retiring from CHSD 155.
For McHenry High School District 156 teachers a rough estimate is $79 Million Dollars using data and protected estimates from Taxpayers United of America for 107 retirees.
Read about that at the follow URL.
http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2015/10/01/mchenry-high-school-teachers-strike/
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There is also an unfunded retiree healthcare liability attributed to Crystal Lake High School District 155 retirees; thus the unfunded is not just pensions; it’s also retiree healthcare which is heavily taxpayer subsidized.
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The Crystal Lake High School District 156 pension and retiree healthcare unfunded liability tab is just a tiny party of the overall unfunded pension and retiree healthcare liability disaster in Illinois which is primarily due to legislative benefit hikes and local pay hikes which results in hiking the employer or state pension contribution.
There is a direct correlation.
Hiking benefits and pay hikes the contribution.
That’s a big problem because taxpayers are obligated for the increased contributions.
This system was not designed for sustainable taxpayer contributions, much less affordable.
It was designed to hike benefits, pay, and pensions, and stick the taxpayer with the tab.
It is an absolute disaster and insanity.
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Here is a high level overview of the Illinois public sector pension disaster.
There are 19 pension systems in the Illinois Pension Code.
The Illinois Department of Insurance tracks 17 of those systems (CTA & RTA / Metra / Pace & other mass transit pension systems are not tracked by the Illinois Department of Insurance).
Two of those 17 pension systems are Downstate Police and Downstate Fire pension systems.
Downstate Police and Downstate, unlike IMRF, are not pooled pension systems.
Thus each taxing district that participates in Downstate Police or Downstate Fire has a pension board that administers and manages its own pension fund, adhering to the rules put in place by the Illinois General Assembly and Governors.
That increases the number of public sector state and local pension systems and pension funds in Illinois to 672 as of calendar year 2014 according to the Illinois Department of Insurance report.
Here is the report.
Illinois Department of Insurance
Public Pension Division
2015 Biennial Report
(covering calendar years 2013 – 2014)
Released to Governor Bruce Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly on October 1, 2015
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So why is this important relating to AP Honor Roll Status for Crystal Lake High School District 156.
Well, Crystal Lake HSD 156 like all public school districts in Illinois are part of an unsustainable pension scheme.
The system is broken and must be fixed, but there is not plan to fix it, and it should not be taken in isolation as taxpayers are obligated for many other pension systems, plus retiree healthcare, plus other obligations we have not addresses in this post such as bonds.
So with all the smart people at CHSD 156 why won’t they explain this to taxpayers.
Many reasons, but the primary reason is they want the highest possible pay and highest possible benefits and highest possible pension and highest possible retiree healthcare.
It’s not in their best interest to reveal the scheme to taxpayers, other than they should worry about their benefits being cut someday.
But even if their benefits get cut someday, well, for a basic analogy, are you better off with $5 or with $10 unsustainable cut to $8.
It’s a money grab.