McHenry County Blog

Yesterday we left the Huntley School District’s Financial Advisory Committee meeting after talking about how stunned those attending were to find out that Special Education Director Cheryl Kalkirtz was no longer with District 158.

Controller Mark Altmayer for some reason didn’t think it proper to share the information, even though the Daily Herald had quoted Superintendent John Burkey on the subject in an internet published article.

In the public comment period, parents spoke about their lack of trust, especially when they see services not being delivered to their children.

They expressed their concerns about a revolving door with Special Ed administrators who seem to disagree with top administrators about what is the right approach.

Altmayer explained to the committee that parents had a distrust of special services but not the fiscal department (his area).

Parents then emphatically said they didn’t trust fiscal and wanted the committee to provide oversight regarding how the Federal Stimulus (initial time again, IDEA and IDEA ARRA) money is spent. They seemed to want a check and balance on whether it is being spent on where it is intended, that is, special needs.

Altmayer admitted that it wasn’t the district’s finest moments how “it took 4-5 months to get the IDEA ARRA funding correct.”

Strangely, in one breath, Altmayer cheerfully beamed,

“There is not a ton of issues.”

And, in another breath, Altmayer matter-of-factly referred to how administrators came up with how the Federal Stimulus money should be spent:

“It was pretty much a disaster.”

This is the firth and final installment of a too long article about the discussion of spending $800,000 of special ed money allocated to Huntley School District 158 this year as a result of the Federal stimulus program. The other stories are here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Board member Paul Troy brought up the question of staff training. He found $8,000 explicitly listed.

It turns out there is more, but it was not identified in the budget document. It was bundled with other identified expenditures in various line items.

Clearly exasperated by this point, Superintendent John Burkey asked,
“What do you think it should be?

“Tell us.

“We’ll make it look like that.”

Troy suggested 5%, saying he “would also like to see the general education teachers get it, too.”

“It’s already there,” Burkey replied.

“I want the regular education staff to understand the needs of the special ed (kids),” interjected veteran board member Mike Skala. “They don’t have a complete understanding of what it means to be special ed.

“If you tell me that’s what’s going to happen, great, and I’ll theoretically hold you accountable.”

“If that’s what you want, it’s not in here,” Burkey observed.

“General teachers don’t know what to do when a kid has a melt down,” Seedorf said. “Don’t call the kid a name. Don’t insult the kid. Is it impossible to send down a memo that says, ‘If you have a problem with a kid, call Cheryl and (another person)?”

Assistant Special Ed Director Karen Alward revealed that she was “doing Special Ed 101 classes” in each school.

As the meeting moved toward its conclusion, Skaja concluded, “Everything we’ve brought up has been addressed.”

Kevin Gentry disagreed.

“I think people want a different allocation, but can’t (come up with it).”

“I don’t feel comfortable spending $500,000 on Read 180,” Don Drzal added.

Referring back to Comptroller Mark Altmayer’s statement that he would order the Read 180 licenses as soon as the plan were approved, Skaja said,

“Do it slowly, then go forward with more.

“As soon as it’s approved Mr. Altmayer said he’ll filed a purchase order.

“That’s the one item I wouldn’t approve.”

“I’m fine,” Troy said, seemingly changing his mind after Skala spoke.

Maybe someone else can figure out how the board will vote when given more detail in the face of a December 1st filing opportunity, but I have no idea.

What I took away from the meeting was that there were not a lot of suggestions the special ed staff professionals made that could not be fulfilled with the money that was available.

If some Read 180 money were to be eliminated by the board, it made me wonder if the Special Ed Moms, who were filled with suggestions at the July 14th town hall-style meeting with administrators and board members I attended, might come up with their own priority list for spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

Surely, some of them know enough about the subject to make rational suggestions of what would help their children.

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Huntley School District 158 School Board member Paul Troy is on top.  Superintendent John Burkey can be seen just below.

Five of the seven school board members can be seen in the next shot, plus Supt. Burkey.  From left to right are Don Drzal, Paul Troy, Shawn Green, John Burkey, Kevin Gentry and Kim Skaja.  Hidden behind Skaja sits Mike Skala.  Aileen Seedorf sits to the right of Troy.

This is the fourth installment of the discussion last Thursday night at the Huntley School District 158 board meeting on spending Federal stimulus money under the IDEA grant program. Here are links to the prior stories: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

When we left off, newly-elected member Don Drzal was trying to find out what the special ed administrators would spend money now destined for Read 180, if the hoard decided to cut it back to a pilot program.

Assistant Special Education Director Karen Alward seemed to have already provided the answer in an interchange with board member Kevin Gentry.

Gentry was trying to find out how the special ed administrators had gotten down to the $800,000 in first year money that is available.

“We really didn’t have to say, ‘No,” to anything,” Alward told the board. (Alward is the one looking at the camera in this only shot that got all four special ed administrators’ faces.)

Later it was explained that some suggestions, like providing gift cards to students for accomplishing something, were made that just were not legal under the guidelines.

Board member Aileen Seedorf, who seems to be the patron saint of the Special Ed Moms waiting until last.

“I believe the parents would have expected something in this year,” she said.

“Is that correct?”

“Yes, “The Moms answered.

Seedorf asked about the classroom furniture. Board President Shawn Green had a similar concern.

Kevin Gentry took offense at what he thought was a Seedorf’s accusation that regular students were treated better than special ed students.

“If you’re right, we need to do something about it.”

Green agreed: “If you have specific concerns they need to be addressed?”

Seedorf repeated several times that the committee she has proposed could have investigated that line of though, but the board majority had decided not to allow it.

She burrowed in on Read 180 and took a jab at one of her fellow board members.

“I’m not interested in running for senate.”

“I’m not interested in running for senate either,” Gentry replied.

“Good for you,” Seedorf countered.

Seedorf wanted to know if the Read 180 pilot program “could be pared down to 15-20.

“How many do you need to buy to do a small study before you drop big bucks on this?”

Special Ed Director Cheryl Kalkirtz replied that they could also be used as part of an RIT initiative, that is, with at risk kids.

“Let’s get 30 licenses and see how the kids do,” board member Paul Troy added. He suggested that would be better than “buying 360 license today.”

“We need to give direction to the administration and move forward,” long-time board member Mike Skala said.

“We can’t just buy 360 licenses and go forward not caring whether they work or not,” Troy interjected.

“If the administration wants to change it and come back to us, I’m fine with that…but not the opposite,” Skala replied.

The board decided to ask for more detail on the Read 180 line item.

“We all trust you. You’re all professionals,” veteran board member Kim Skaja added.

More tomorrow.

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Read the whole series:

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 1

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 2

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 3

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 4

Huntley School District 158 Special Ed Moms Draw Blood, Board Divided – Part 5