My son's teacher gave us a link to access the JH math text online - why do we need a textbook? But thanks for fixing one up:-)

I figured they had an online alternative. For the tactile kids, the hard copy works better.

It isn't the first text I've repaired. For my kids' grade school library, I've fixed several over the years.

If you had been paying attention you would know that crossing guards and police nearly got run over trying to get the kids across safely. The BOE did everything half ass backwards and didn't put the sidewalks in according to a school safety zone requirements. The sidewalk is right up against a major street where over 1000 cars were clocked going by in only an hours time in the morning. I don't live there but that is just a major accident waiting to happen so until sidewalks and crossings are done correctly, I wouldn't let any child cross there.

Very well put, Cindy!!!! Hope somebody on the school board is listening!

Cindy got this one correct!!! The taxes get any higher here and I'm gong to be walking away from my home, tried to sell but it's the taxes that kept killing the deal.

Does anyone know if we still own the land on rt126? If we do isn't that something that we can get rid of. I'm sure we didn't pay cash for that and if we did why not sell or at least try to. There has got to be areas that we can cut that are doable for all.

Frankly I can't see any way around going to the tax payer for more when it comes time to open those additions, good luck with that one.

Ah, yet again the irony of teacher-bashing by people who from the looks of this comment did not pay attention to their own teachers when they had the chance. Gee, do you realize that teachers are quite often parents with taxes and bills to pay, too! What a concept!

Tough choices to be made during these times. It sounds like there is some consideration being given to all options.

Teacher bashing? I don't consider the demands of the CTU to be reasonable by any standards. They have managed to produce the WORST educational system in the country. Your kid could get a better education in Somalia than in Chicago public schools. Fire them all, and start over, they are using the children as pawns. Good teachers don't need the protection of a union, only the poor, lazy and under-performers need it. Even liberal Icon FDR said public unions were contrary to the public good ... and he was right!!!! BTW, Lake Forest teachers went on strike too, their AVERAGE salary of over 102,000 is not good enough. Remember, they are part of the reason downstate Illinois no longer wants to participate in the TRS pension system. Why should they have to pay for pensions that are two to three times as much as their employees are receiving? So now their state reps are leading the charge to have the pensions pay by property owners at the local level. If you think your tax bill is high now wait until that shoe drops.

I went to school in Chicago in the mid 1970's and we went a full day K-5 was 830 to 3:15 and High School was 730am to 315pm, often times later depending on the whims of the band director. How did they end up with the short day and year that they have now? Who is responsible for that? Now when they want to restore the school day to the same length most of the teachers attended when they were kids it's some sort of crime. Now in a district that's 600 Million in the hole ( and we thing 3 million is bad) what they want amounts to adding another 400 million to it, who pays for that? When do you put your foot down and say there is no money. They can be replaced.

I meant K-8 where I said K-5

I don't think I'd consider technology in our schools as "cool toys". I see the things my son is learning in graphic arts, and last year in 3-d art and am thankful that our schools have the technology to teach this, since this is what will keep them current with technology going forward. This is what they will need to get ahead, keep up, and get jobs. The reason they are there is to learn, absolutely, and they are learning invaluable skills through the technology that 308 is offering and hopefully will continue to offer. We need to empower these kids with these skills that are so important in today's world. They need math, science, language arts, but so often those are used in technological forum so the combination is priceless.

@Loreta - I didn't say "give up" technology, I'm saying we can afford to skip this round of upgrades [$$$$] on a tight budget and still "keep current" for the next couple of years. As far as getting ahead and keeping up - we need more than technology to empower our children with the skills needed for the future, especially looking at the level of technical jobs being offshored.

Ayar, I absolutely agree with you. We do need more than just technology. That's why I said the combination of tech with the other basics is so essential. I also agree that cuts are appropriate, and hopefully they can find ones that can be made over a short period of time and not affect the quality of the technical education, or any other area of education for that matter, that they are getting now. I think we are both on the same page here and we appreciate the fact that 308 has a good offering in this area, and needs to keep us current, while being fiscally responsible.

Two of those good leaders, while being here a long time and having a lot of friends and supporters in the district ran schools that failed to make AYP for two years. It's an unfortunate way to measure but it is what it is for now. Perhaps they left before getting fired.

@JimmyJ, do you understand how AYP works? Ive seen you make this claim before, and it's totally unwarranted.

@Robyn...I understand that if you make a comment against a teacher or popular administrator you catch hell. Since neither person spoke publically on their decision to leave, my assumption is as valid as it is to blame the so called "conditions" the BofE created. If a school or anything else is supposed to make a set goal and it doesn't repeatedly then what happens, who is held accountable? Not the teacher, they have tenure, so maybe the administrator who is non union and is in place to implement the programs and policy. I knew both of them and knew Tracy well starting back when she was assistant to Colvin at Thompson. I'm not making any comments other than offering a comment. I know that's generally frowned upon here on the Patch by those who consider themselves "in the know" and by those who like to quote facts and figures. I know what happens for students when a school doesn't make AYP. If it is set as a goal and the goal is not met ( yes I think NCLB sucks but that's a different argument for a different day) then who is accountable? Can 100% of students be at 94, 95, 100 % ? No. But until you opt out, someone is accountable. The reason that's my feeling is timing, new boss coming, maybe you aren't doing as well as you could have, you get a nice offer elsewhere so why not go. I refuse to believe that two extremely seasoned veterans of multiple superintendent and Board changes left because of 4 of 7 members of the current board, thats nonsense

Kevin did speak publicly on his reasons for leaving (in an article in the Ledger). I also had several conversations with him. I realize it still makes my remarks hearsay, but in none of our discussions, NONE, was not meeting AYP brought up as one his reasons for seeking the superintendency. Kevin wasn't one to see a problem and run. In five years, he took a struggling, disconnected school and built an incredible community. Parents, teachers and children were all proud to call Long Beach home. That's not the sort of person that deserts because of AYP scores. (And we can't just "opt out" of NCLB, unfortunately.)

I realize I do jump in and defend teachers often on here. It's not that I think they're perfect. It's that I'm disgusted by the comments that are so disparaging of them and the profession. Are there bad teachers? Of course. Just like there are bad cops, doctors and plumbers. But I don't condemn the entire plumbing industry because one plumber didn't fix the leak under my sink properly. I wish people would do the same for educators.

I didn't comment about Brian and Tracy because I didn't know either of them well enough to have those personal conversations.

308 researched opting out of NCLB but we couldn't or we would have lost all of our Title I funding. With the state continuing to cut funding, there's no way we could survive without the federal Title I money. I would be thrilled to be out from under NCLB!

@Robyn...You are right about teachers, I think we do lump the poor ones in with the good ones. Whether it's a calling or a profession you need the skill to motivate and that's something I feel you can't learn by student teaching you gain it from experience, although some never do. I've experienced the "other side" when I ran an after school club for three years at BH. We anticipated 8 to 10 kids and we never seemed to have less than 20. It's definitely a challenge and those 90 minutes twice a month were plenty to make me glad I never wanted to be a teacher in the sense of a classroom teacher day in and day out. You also see how teachers hands are often tied by policy, often so that they can't teach as they would like to. It's a hard job. No doubt about that, but on the business side, D308 is public sector, there are no "profits" from a business, the money comes from us, so the question is when we say we need good teachers and good teachers say we need more money, how much of OUR paycheck are we willing to give to the school district? When do we say we don't have any more money?

When the BOE ( a past one ) asked the administration to pay 10% of their insurance, it was bloody hell, Colvin did the moaning and groaning for all of them with the old song "but other districts have better packages" routine. Notice they all left....humm...we're here for the kids....we were here for free insurance was more likely.

@JimmyJ....not all of us have been here 20+ years. 308 doubled in size in the past 10 years. So some are new(newish) to 308 and are seeing the issues as they are now and have been over the past 2-3 years and are fedup with what the Board is and is not doing.

@Martin...I've been here about 14 years. When I arrived Old Post was the newest school. Dr. Plank was Superintendent and his great contribution was to go with a reduction in transition fees, I'm sure there was plenty of crap before that but that's about as far back as I go. A board members son attended the same K-5 my kids. When presented with a list of discrepancies mostly physical: boilers not working, toilets not flushing, roof leaking, hand me down computers half of which didn't work, lack of sufficient hot water for hand washing, He said "oh I wasn't aware of those things" so either he was blind, ignorant or didn't care. It took 4 more YEARS to finally get something done. Maybe living a couple doors down from the then President had something to do with his blindness, I don't know. Granted past is the past...but how many people go to a board meeting from the public. Last time I went it was about 6. When meetings were held, three of them, to determine how many new schools to build back in 2006 there were three meetings and roughly 15 to 20 people showed up to each one.A total of 45 to 60. With a student population of roughly 17,000 there should have been more than that. So when the next referendum meeting is held the room will be packed, standing room only. Somehow I don't believe it.

@JimmyJ... I agree completely, if half the posters on the Patch showed up to BOE meetings, the BOe would get a little worried about whow as watching them. I have shown up to a meeting or two, but watch most via the web. Can't leave the little ones alone.

This was mentioned in the CTU as well. The report on WGN said there is a 7% contribution and the teachers put in 2 and the district puts in 5 on top of their employer contribution. WHY...WHY do we do that? Is that part of the "oh we have to bend over and take it up the you know what to get "good" teachers"

John,
Downers Grove does not do this, yet few would argue the schools in Downers don't attract good teachers. I agree with you, there is no reason for this practice to continue, when 35% of districts in IL DON'T do this, and most(almost all) of them have higher performance and test scores.

This 'benefit' doesn't attract good teachers, it attracts greedy ones. And that is not what I want in my district.

fine, but make sure that Superintendents, Principals, and other Administration pay in THE EXACT SAME WAY. Same pain. Same gain.

Not true, at all.

Then why is the D308 documentation showing that the pay schedule is salary+TRS, as in PLUS TRS contribution? This has been shown to be the case in multiple sources, one of which is the actual labor agreement between the union and the district. Your confusion on this matter does not translate to facts in the outside world.

It is not a strong point for you when the majority of teachers are not even aware of what their union is doing.

retired teacher - according to the link in Tim's post above, your statement appears to be false. Have you looked at the report contained therein? Please do, and pay attention to the chart at the end.
It appears that CUSD 204, Indian Prairie ie: Waubonsee Valley, Nequa et al do not make any contribution on behalf of their teachers. they seem to be okay.