McHenry County Blog

If you spend some time looking at the most recent detailed board packet that the Huntley School Board kindly posts, you will find some mistakes.

Previously, administrators incorrectly did the math on a list of items on how to spend about $1.7 million of Federal Stimulus ARRA funds for Special Education.

This week, simple math mistakes appear in the list of how the Federal money will be spent on Special Education.

I was glancing down the revised list and saw this item:

Description      Amount
RtI    25 conference @ $200 each.   $3,000

OK, fifth grade math test time.

What is 200 times 25?

The item is on page 8 of the board packet section which has this link (reproduced above with the questionable item at the bottom of the excerpt).

25 times $200 each is $5,000, by the way, not $3,000.

The math carefulness is repeated on page 12.

RtI Conference/ISHA  12X$350   $7,800.00
5 Laser Printers  (5X$400)    $4,500.00

The laser printer line item is at the bottom of the illustration and the RTI is 13 lines higher.

Anyone can make a math error, but couldn’t memo writers check their work as teachers advise students?

English is better, right?

There was a memo on page 6 of 199 to Supt. John Burkey and the board of education members that was dated January 7, 2009.  It’s for the board meeting on the 7th.  The date I pulled the memo was January 6, and it’s  2010.  The mistake about the year is the kind of mistake we all make at the beginning of a new year. The memo was jointly written by three administrators.

The 2nd paragraph aught my eye.

“Proudly, the Office of Special Services has finalized this list.  Having further worked with District Administration (RtI), the Technology Department, District ARRA Committee, Special Education Parent Advisory Committee and a subcommittee of PAC to establish this final product.”

Maybe Huntley’s English teachers can use this with their students to show how the second “sentence” is a phrase and not a sentence. Maybe it will be in sophomore year of high school. I remember my Middletown, New York, English teacher in 1957. She had as her goal teaching us how to write a sentence.

You hear people complain about how students graduate from high school without learning to do math or write complete sentences. When I worked as a cashier at Crystal Lake’s McDonald’s (one with arches and a sign saying 300,000 sold) in the summer of 1960, I added what was bought in my head. Now employees punch pictures.

I wonder why.

And, just in case you are interested in the Read 180 and System 44 expenditures planned, I’ve captured that page above.

I’ve been filing Freedom of Information requests with local, state and federal government entities for a couple of decades.

I have never received a reply such as the one I just got from Huntley School District 158.

I had submitted my second request for memos relating to the two reading programs which Special Ed Moms don’t think will of much help to their children, but could be useful to kids in the regular education program.

The first, contained within a multi-subject request, didn’t catch the attention of District 158 enough to even be mentioned in the reply.

Being more patient than most people give me credit for—hey, what choice does someone dealing with government have?—I filed a second FOI request asking for the same memos.

Now, I have received the following reply:

“We are unable to comply with your request for ‘memos previously requested concerning Real 180 and System 44′ as the request is too vague.  Further information is needed (dates of memos, name(s) of person(s) to whom and from whom the memo is address, pertinent information contained in the memorandum, etc.) in order to comply with your request.“

If almost sounds as if I must have a copy of the memos before I can get a copy of the memos.

I have appeal that denial to School Board President Shawn Green. In my appeal, I wrote,

“It is my belief that there are two such memos, which it seems to me could be found by an FOI officer by sending my request to those who have been involved in the purchase of these programs. Or, if you have a centralized computer records system, just searching it using those two identifiers as search items.

“If your staff cannot find these memos or, if you deny my appeal, I shall refile my request after January 1st and see how the newly amended law works.”

Starting in the new year, disputes can be referred to the Illinois Attorney General for resolution.

Anyone able to help me make that request more specific than the one that has so far been denied, please email me at the address at the upper left of McHenry County Blog.

This is the third part of a rather exhaustive article about what happened at last Thursday’s Huntley School District 158 school board meeting concerning how the district is going to spend the first half of a $1.6 million grant from Congress’s Stimulus Plan designated for special education.

In Part 1 and Part 2, McHenry County Blog looked at the public comments of Special Ed Moms. We conclude those comments here and move onto the reaction of the school board members.

Referring back to what had been presented at the town hall meetings in mid-July, she observed,
“It looks to me like you’re going through what you originally proposed.

“It isn’t about the money. It’s about our children. It’s about getting the right tool.”

Money for staff development came up again.

Newly elected board members Don Drzal and Paul Troy had tough questions.

Toward the end of a night in which the discussion on this subject ended about 11:15, Superintendent John Burkey was virtually pleading to be given direction.

“If you don’t want to see it, we’ll take it out,” the superintendent said.

The general consensus was the newer board members wanted greater detail.

Drzal was the boldest.

He pointed out that “the previous Special Ed Director clearly said this was to provide another program.”

The emphasis seemed to be on the word “another.”

“I don’t feel comfortable spending $500,000 on Read 180. I don’t think having the amount of money allocated to Read 180 is acceptable,” Drzal concluded.

For illustration purposes, he compared spending $40,000 on one reading program, $50,000 on another versus $500,000 for Read 180.

“That seems out of whack.”

The amount cited included a second reading program called System 44.

But the cost and elements of the two programs were not spelled out in enough detail for questioning board members to wrap their arms around the proposal.

Earlier Troy made a point that seems elemental for any government expenditure, but is too often lacking:
“Are there criteria in place to evaluate the effectiveness into saying ‘Yes, it ‘s worth going onto the next step?’”

Troubling to some members was a comment by Comptroller Mark Altmayer. He said that he would order all of the Read 180 licenses and spend the associated expenses immediately, if the board approved the Federal IDEA Stimulus Plan proposal.

“Don’t buy it,” a Mom behind me said audibly.

“You’re basically telling Shawn and I can’t vote for it,” Drzal concluded.

Drzal asked a logical budgeting question.

“If I don’t want to spend more than $80,000 for Read 180, do we have a plan for that (extra) money?”

Later he concluded, “There’s no Plan B.”

More tomorrow.

= = = = =
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