Back in June, McHenry County Blog reported that a complaint had been filed regarding cheating by Crystal Lake District 47 employees on testing under the Performance Evaluation Reform Act, PERA, for short
Now, in response to a Freedom of Information request, District 47 reports
District 47 does not possess any of the records you are requesting nor are we aware of any investigation.
District 47’s Freedom of Information request reply.
If you would like to read what prompted my FOIA request, the article is here.
The anonymous poster in the original article, whom you claim to be a former district employee, “filed a complaint”- or so you wrote in the original article.
Would you care to share with whom, and when, the complaint was filed?
A scanned copy of the letter(with personal information redacted) that was presented to the investigating agency?
After all if your anonymous ‘former employee’ can share the facts of the case with you, Cal, they can certainly provide you with the name of the investigating agency.
And, to wave Occam’s Razor around a bit- if you were being investigated by the authorities, Cal, you wouldn’t have any paperwork or documentation to share with anyone either, if you were subject to FOIA laws.
The Illinois State Board of Education is the agency to which the complaint was made.
The allegation was administrators in Crystal Lake Elementary District 47 were not following the proper procedures when taking a self-administered test in 2012 at the district’s administrative office.
The test was to certify administrators have the knowledge to properly conduct teacher and principal evaluations (that’s an oversimplification).
Teacher evaluations were revamped in the Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA), which was Senate Bill 315 (SB 315), which was signed by Pat Quinn as Public Act 96-0861 (PA 96-0861) on January 15, 2010.
A FOIA to ISBE might reveal more information.
Dear John,
I am anonymous as far as Cals article goes because I asked to be.
The report to the ISBE was confirmed with an actual reply back from the ISBE to prove the dates and contact time.
My actual name and email name (which is my actual name) is on record with my report.
Furthermore I have kept up contact with with the ISBE to insure the case is not overlooked or swept under the rug.
I was told it was being handled by someone in high athority and I personally plan on seeing it through.
The article Cal wrote was based on the original wording of the report that was sent to the ISBE.
Everything has been handled to my strict rules of processing to make sure any holes (such as your Occams razor) have been thoroughly covered.
I understand your concerns since the highest punishment is loss of your Illinois Teaching Certification which involves many, as well as the ramifications that the Union will impose on those who were evaluated in the past who have suffered bad reviews or job loss due to improper evaluations.
Could lead to a series of lawsuits so forgive my anonymity.
I had already reported this event internally to a head position as our district handbook instructed while in the presence of the other witness.
I had expressed concernes to this supervisor that I woluld not personally report this to the BOE since past reporting had put me in bad positions as I was personally told to keep information to myself and was reprimanded for past reports, which I also have proof.
Hope that helps with your questions.
A state FOIA would be nice as would a local newspaper picking up the story.
So I attended my first (of many to come) D47 School Board meetings last night.
Although it was a very pleasant meeting, lots of smiling kind inviting faces, an appointment of a new principal at Indian Prairie, and a very thorough evaluation of an online parent survey, there was one thing this meeting was lacking, severely lacking.
No Taxpayers.
No Parents.
No Taxpaying parents.
No Citizens.
No Taxpaying citizens.
No Precinct Committemen except for myself and Sandy Johnson Robertson.
Outside of Sandy and myself, there were 2 parents, a boy scout, 2 businessmen who lost their copier business contract with D47 and about 50 teachers, principals and school staffers/admin.
The school board has a few select duties to attend to.
Number one is the education of our children.
I have many more meetings to attend before I make any judgement in this area.
Other areas include teacher/admin employment and contracting, and taxes/funding.
Maybe it is just me, (I doubt it), but how can any decisions on teachers/union/contracts or our taxes, ever be of a balanced nature or even in the best interest of the taxpayers and/or parents, when 95% of the audience is teachers/admin and the board itself has 90% sitting members who are Dr.s, teachers, principals, lawyers and admin personnel.
Again, it is to early for me to judge this board, but if the old adage that “perception is 99% truth” is correct, then we (taxpayers, parents and committeemen) need to get in there and see what’s going on.
This will be my call to action as your committeeman.
Get out there and monitor your D47 school board.
Attend.
Involve.
Inform.
PARTICIPATE.
PARTICIPATE.
PARTICIPATE.
More to come
Scott Vetter
Algonquin 36