I went to one of the town hall meetings put on by Huntley School District 158 in mid-July.
Discussed were how the extra federal dollars for special ed from the Federal ARRA Stimulus Funds should be spent.
Parents had all kinds of practical suggestions on how the money should be spent to improve student learning.
It took months of waiting for top administrators to come up with their revised list.
Did the paid government officials listen?
Doesn’t look like it.
The parents are getting plenty of money recommended to be spent on the reading program.
But, they said they didn’t want the money spent on that.
Administrators are recommending among other things, the purchase of the items below for $80,550.
It reads more like an office equipment list not a special ed budget.
Almost ten grand for filing cabinets sticks out.
The whole list can be reviewed here.
Type in page 115 for the electronic page number after it downloads. The download is about 31 Mb. It may be slow.
Some of what you will see;
- Refrigerator for social workers, $200
- Tables for social workers, 15 @ $200 $3,000
- Printers for Speech Dept, 15 @ $500 each. $7,500
- Printer for Speech Dept, 1 $1,000
- Laptops for Speech Dept, 2 @ $2,000 each $4,000
- Computers for speech students, 10 @ $1000 each
- 6 locking lateral file cabinets, $4,800 at $800 apiece for Chesak School
- File cabinets for Conley School, $5,000
- Printers, administration building and high school, 10 @ $900 each $9,000
- Printers, 2, Conley School $700
- Printer ink, Conley School $400
- Ink Cartridges, Leggee School 25 at $50 each $1,250
- Tables and chairs, Conley School $1,500
- Tables, 5 , Marlowe School $800
- Laser Printers, 5, Marlowe School $2,000
- Plenty of binders. Conley $800.
- Copy machine and printer $1,600
- Laptops, 10 for Chesak School $10,000
- Laptops, 10 for Heineman School $10,000
- Laptop for conference room, Leggee School $1,000
- Laptop for conference room, Mackaben School $1,000
- 3 Laptops for students, Mackaben School $3,000
- Room dividers, Marlowe School $1,000
- Mileage reimbursement for staff $10,000
That’s not all, of course. Just a tad over $80,000.
$1.5 million came to the Huntley School District for special ed.
Want to see where the rest is going?
Take a look for yourself.
The special ed parents are.
I hope no Congressman or U.S. Senator representing this area brags about how all the money went to help special education students.
Once again, Cal prints information without knowing any background or details. Will the fonts change throughout these new strings of articles written by multiple parties? Will Cal use stock photos or copy and paste photos from the website without the district’s permission? More shock and horror to come. Way to go Cal. Very entertaining.
Some people would argue (and did argue at the 11-5 Committee of the Whole meeting) that routine expenditures should not be part of what is an opportunity to make more significant progress with special ed kids.