District 201 board meeting - October 14, 2009

[Ted]

  This is a summary of the District 201 board meeting that occurred on October 14, 2009. All board members were present except for Michael Iniquez. The meeting started very late (8:20 PM) and ended at 9:20 PM.

1. Superintendent search - Board President Peske stated that over the next month the board will be reviewing applications for superintendent. District 201 has not had a permanent superintendent for over 18 months.


2. Mr. Perfect - Morton West Principal Joe Gunty announced that Morton West senior Anthony Bruno had been identified as a National Merit Scholar. In addition, Gunty stated that young Mr. Bruno had scored a perfect score of 36 on his ACT test.


3. Meeting with Quinn - On Saturday, October 10, Board President Jeff Pesek and district administrators met with Governor Pat Quinn. Pesek stated that he asked Quinn for money to build a new Morton East and to build a new Freshman Center. At the September board meeting, the architects stated that a new Morton East building would cost as much as  $132 million dollars and a new Freshman Center would cost as much as $62.5 million dollars.


4. Finances - The district has hired an outside consulting firm to help them with the district's finances and budgets. The firm's name is PMA and the representative from PMA (Linda Makowski) stated that the firm had previously performed work for CIcero Elementary School District 99; Berwyn Elementary School District 98; Riverside/Brookfield High School District; Proviso High School District and the Carpentersville district. In Carpentersville, Ms. Makowski both worked as the district's business manager and, at a later point, served on the district's school board.  Ms. Makowski claimed that in the time frame of 1999 to 2003, Carpentersville budget deficit was reduced from a $14 million dollar deficit to a balanced budget. She also claimed Carpentersville passed a referendum to increase regular taxes as well as other facility referenda. It was stated that up to this point, PMA had provided services to the district pro bono.

 The board will hold a special meeting, tentatively scheduled for October 30, to discuss the district's finances. At the September board meeting, Board President Jeff Pesek requested that all departments submit proposed budget reductions of 10% and 20%. Assistant Superintendent of Finance, Gail Kopf, stated that she had not had a chance to review the proposals. The audits required for regulatory purposes have been completed. Finally, all administrative salaries have been posted on the district's website, per a new Illinois law.


5. Truancy and Residency - Last spring, the board approved a measure to lay off two truancy officers and outsource the truancy and residency checking function to an outside contractor.  At the October board meeting, the board hired a truancy officer. It was stated that the board felt the truancy function (going door to door to find out why kids did not come to school) was different than the residency checking function.  The outside contractor will continue doing the residency checking function but the newly hired truancy officer will perform the truancy function. The residency contractor has an external database that it can cross check and has done work for Proviso, Plainfield, Oswego and Lyons Township.


6. Facility projects - The architect presented to the board the highest priority facility projects including $2.5 million to fix the roof at Morton East; $1.3 million to fix the roof at Morton West; $460,000 to fix the pool at Morton West; $600,000 to fix the fire alarm system at Morton West and $740,000 to fix various things at Morton East (greenhouse, air conditioning system, heating system). The total cost will be $5.6 million dollars. At the September board meeting, the architects recommended fixing high priorty items of $11.7 million dollars ($7.1 million at Morton East; $4.6 million at Morton West). The architects also recommended 2 open amendments for Morton East and 3 open amendments for Morton West. The board tabled the facility project agenda item.


7. Test scores - Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Vicki Parkinson stated that a presentation would be given to the board at the November board meeting about the test results from last spring. The test results are in and the administration is currently digesting the information. Ms, Parkinson stated that she believed that students who took ACT Prep Program at Morton would improve their test scores by 60%.  Parkinson also stated the district was on the state's  AYP "Not Meets" list and that the administration is looking at districts that meet the state's AYP requirements to see what they are doing differently.


8. Driver's Education - The district examined their fees for driver's education and concluded that they are not charging enough in fees to cover the driver's education cost, compared to other districts  The administration has suggested looking into raising fees for driver's education.


9. Bids and contracts - The district received only two bids for taxi service (one from a bus company) so the board voted to reject all bids and re-bid out for taxi service; The board approved the contract for Chronos Time keeping, which will be phased in over 2 years; The contract for this year will be only for employees who currently punch in, which reduced this year's per person license from $108K to $70K. The claim was made that the new Chronos system will allow the district to eliminate two FTEs and the claim was made that the system would pay for itself in 2 years and that the administration expected a savings of $300K to $600K over 10 years. The board also approved an asbestos inspection contract and a physical therapy contact with Allied Health and a contract with a company to handle MedicAid fees and payments.


10. At the Copa!! - Several alumni from the 30s and 40s who were involved in the music program have donated artifacts to the district. It was claimed that one alumni had connections to the Barry Manilow Music Foundation and that that alumni would look into getting donations to buy music instruments for the schools.


11. Principals reports - Morton East principal Frank Zarate stated that they had a "uniform sweep" at Morton East on October 1. The goal was to see how many kids are complying with the uniform policy. Zarate stated that he wanted to see 98% compliance but the "sweep" found a 95% compliance. Zarate also asked the board to table agenda item 10.08, which is identified on the agenda as "Approval of Student Travel".  Morton West principal Joe Gunty stated that the school had set goals to improve their attendance rate (last year was 90%) and graduation rate (last year was 78%). The Alternative School celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month.


12.Personnel changes - The two most significant personnel changes were the resignations of Ralph Gardner as Dean of Students at Morton West and the resignation of Andrew Kruzich as the district business manager.


13. Travel - CTE director going to CTE training; 4 teachers going to a Math convention (1 teacher doing a presentation); 36 students going to a theatre festival in Normal; the adventure club going to Delton. Michigan and music students going to a music festival in Sandusky Ohio.


14. Usual business - The board approved the minutes; approved payroll and payables; approved expulsions (10); approved personnel decisions; approved facility and travel requests; approved drug testing of custodians (5 randomly chosen per month); approved " first reading" of new policies for students with disabilities. The board tabled the approval of the formation of student clubs.


 The next regular board meeting will be at Morton East on November 11. The board will also be holding a special board meeting, tentatively scheduled for October 30.

[Ted]

  Also, nothing was mentioned at the board meeting about the carnival or about the funds raised by the carnival.

[Robert Pauly]

From what I've been told, overall test scores did not improve.  We'll find out, though, when the state releases scores on October 31.

[Classof67]

Thanks, Ted for attending and reporting...

What does this mean, please?

Excerpt form the Facility Projects

"The architects also recommended 2 open amendments for Morton East and 3 open amendments for Morton West."

[Ted]

Thanks, Ted for attending and reporting...

What does this mean, please?

Excerpt form the Facility Projects

"The architects also recommended 2 open amendments for Morton East and 3 open amendments for Morton West."

I am not quite sure what it means. I think it means that the architects are recommending that the board keep some "open" items on the facility plan for this year that are not for any specific thing but which could be amended later in the year for something specific.

  That's what I think it means, but I am not sure myself.  I just wrote down what the architect said in the meeting.

Ted

[n01_important]

On the finances... although I applaud the district is trying to better understand the budget, should this be a regular admin/board function?

I mean, doesn't the district have a financial arm that looks at this stuff?  If so, are not they qualified?

Should the board include people that have strong financial backgrounds that can lead the Finance Committee and drive such questions?

So, I'm trying to say... do we have holes in our admin/board with incompetent people that they need to hire a contractor?  What about fixing that hole as well?

[Ana]

Maybe Dr. Stanley Fields should be running District 201 also.  He's doing wonders with District 100.  I have such high hopes.

[Classof67]

Here is the administrative compensation disclosure document from District 201.

[Berwyn Patsy]

How do these administrative salaries compare to other
districts?

[OakParkSpartan]

How do these administrative salaries compare to other
districts?

Here's some OP info.

Keep in mind that those numbers completely ignore performance.

[Ted]

I mean, doesn't the district have a financial arm that looks at this stuff?  If so, are not they qualified?

Should the board include people that have strong financial backgrounds that can lead the Finance Committee and drive such questions?

So, I'm trying to say... do we have holes in our admin/board with incompetent people that they need to hire a contractor?  What about fixing that hole as well?

The district assistant superintendent of finance is Gail Kopf and she does a pretty good job.  The business manager just resigned.

I think the district is just trying to bring in "outside eyes" to look at the situation. The claim is that this woman they are bringing in turned the Carpentersville district around.

Ted

[n01_important]

I mean, doesn't the district have a financial arm that looks at this stuff?  If so, are not they qualified?

Should the board include people that have strong financial backgrounds that can lead the Finance Committee and drive such questions?

So, I'm trying to say... do we have holes in our admin/board with incompetent people that they need to hire a contractor?  What about fixing that hole as well?

The district assistant superintendent of finance is Gail Kopf and she does a pretty good job.  The business manager just resigned.

I think the district is just trying to bring in "outside eyes" to look at the situation. The claim is that this woman they are bringing in turned the Carpentersville district around.

Ted

I'll take your word for it.

But I doubt the "outside eyes" can turn things around unless the board acts on the recommendations.

Let's see the recommendations.

[Ted]

4. Finances - The district has hired an outside consulting firm to help them with the district's finances and budgets. The firm's name is PMA and the representative from PMA (Linda Makowski) stated that the firm had previously performed work for Cicero Elementary School District 99; Berwyn Elementary School District 98; Riverside/Brookfield High School District; Proviso High School District and the Carpentersville district.

 In Carpentersville, Ms. Makowski both worked as the district's business manager and, at a later point, served on the district's school board.  Ms. Makowski claimed that in the time frame of 1999 to 2003, Carpentersville budget deficit was reduced from a $14 million dollar deficit to a balanced budget. She also claimed Carpentersville passed a referendum to increase regular taxes as well as other facility referenda....  

 I did some research on the Carpentersville school district (CUSD 300) and here is what the IIRC website has for the Carpentersville district's revenues, expenses and deficits over the last decade:

 

     http://iirc.niu.edu/District.aspx?source=Finances&source2=Expenditure%20Amounts&districtID=31045300026&level=D  

   
 Here is a summary of the revenues and expenditures:

Year 2000 - 01 2001 - 02 2002 - 03 2003 - 04 2004 - 05 2005 - 06 2006 - 07

Revenue   $112,166,860   $119,337,387   $149,657,821   $138,025,762   $148,499,946   $166,348,254   $184,967,266

Expenses   $114,538,015   $170,111,935   $180,204,977   $155,974,295   $159,471,352   $169,639,607   $239,978,703

Deficit        ($2,371,155)   ($50,774,548)   ($30,547,156)   ($17,948,533)   ($10,971,406)     ($3,291,353)   ($55,011,437)

[OakParkSpartan]

Does that include some sort of construction?  How could you run an operating deficit of $50 million???

[Ted]

Does that include some sort of construction?  How could you run an operating deficit of $50 million???

Yes, it does include construction but the revenue numbers would also include revenue from the state or from bonds for construction.

  If the district had a large amount of money in reserve, they could have operated at that large of a deficit.  In the years 2002 to 2005, District 201 ran up some large yearly deficits because of the building of the Freshman center.

  What might have happened is that the Carpentersville district issued a lot of bonds in the early 00's to increase their reserve fund to pay for construction and now they are paying off the debt with some yearly amount.  At the same time, they are probably getting revenue from the state and federal governments as well to pay for part of the construction and that would be in the revenue amounts.


Here are the construction expenditures:

2000-01    $3,042,647
2001-02   $42,217,143
2002-03    $44,978,152
2003-04    $14,725,465
2004-05    $9,165,886
2005-06   $11,199,087
2006-07   $70,093,245

Ted


Ted

[Ted]

  At the board meeting, the board tabled the agenda item for the formation of a new student club.  The club (or clubs) were not listed in the agenda.

  I went out on the district website to see what club(s) were tabled.  There was only one club on the agenda. The club that the board tabled was for the formation of an African-American club at Morton East:

10.09 Approval of School Clubs
Meeting: 10/14/2009 OPEN SESSION REGULAR MEETING
Category: 10. ACTIONS ITEMS – CONSENT AGENDA
Agenda Type: Action (Consent)   
Agenda Item Content
The African American Student Club - East Campus

[Classof67]

 At the board meeting, the board tabled the agenda item for the formation of a new student club.  The club (or clubs) were not listed in the agenda.

 I went out on the district website to see what club(s) were tabled.  There was only one club on the agenda. The club that the board tabled was for the formation of an African-American club at Morton East:

10.09 Approval of School Clubs
Meeting: 10/14/2009 OPEN SESSION REGULAR MEETING
Category: 10. ACTIONS ITEMS – CONSENT AGENDA
Agenda Type: Action (Consent)  
Agenda Item Content
The African American Student Club - East Campus

Did they say why the consent was tabled?  And did they say it would be tabled until the next meeting?  Wonder why the hesitance.

[Ted]

Did they say why the consent was tabled?  And did they say it would be tabled until the next meeting?  Wonder why the hesitance.

The consent agenda was not tabled. Agenda item 10.09 was tabled. The description of agenda item 10.09 was "Approval of School Clubs".

During the principals' reports, Morton East principal Frank Zarate made a recommendation to table agenda item 10.08 (Approval of Student Travel) but I think he misspoke and meant Agenda Item 10.09. During his comments, Zarate indicated that the tabling of the agenda item was something that was discussed in closed session.

Then, later on, a board member made a motion to table agenda item 10.09.  I took it to mean that the board was tabling agenda item 10.09 in response to Zarate's request.

 Since this agenda item was apparently discussed in closed session (according to Zarate) and was not discussed in open session, I would assume it has something to do with either student disciplinary matters, employee personnel matters, collective negotiating matters or litigation,  since those are the ONLY things that can be discussed in closed session, according to the District 201 agenda.

Ted

[Classof67]

Did they say why the consent was tabled?  And did they say it would be tabled until the next meeting?  Wonder why the hesitance.

The consent agenda was not tabled. Agenda item 10.09 was tabled. The description of agenda item 10.09 was "Approval of School Clubs".

During the principals' reports, Morton East principal Frank Zarate made a recommendation to table agenda item 10.08 (Approval of Student Travel) but I think he misspoke and meant Agenda Item 10.09. During his comments, Zarate indicated that the tabling of the agenda item was something that was discussed in closed session.

Then, later on, a board member made a motion to table agenda item 10.09.  I took it to mean that the board was tabling agenda item 10.09 in response to Zarate's request.

 Since this agenda item was apparently discussed in closed session (according to Zarate) and was not discussed in open session, I would assume it has something to do with either student disciplinary matters, employee personnel matters, collective negotiating matters or litigation,  since those are the ONLY things that can be discussed in closed session, according to the District 201 agenda.

Ted

Thanks, Ted.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out based on the narrow scope of the closed sessions.

[mustang54]

  Ted I think that was the second meeting in a row that club request was tabled to the next meeting. If I remember correctly they said the first time it was because the club had no teacher or staff member listed on their application to oversee the new club.