Back to Work!

I hope that everyone is anxious to get back to school! I also hope that everyone had a relaxing week whether it was at home or some where far away. It is important to take time to unwind and relax so that one can focus on the tasks ahead. My wife and I had a great week of Colorado skiing with our friends, the Mlyniecs! The fresh air and wonderful snow provided a nice week on the slopes burning many calories! Hard physical exercise and good sleep really can refresh your spirit. I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow when school resumes. Think SUN!!

Spring Break 2008

Spring Break officially begins for Center Cass District 66 with the close of school on Thursday, March 20th. Classes will resume on Monday, March 31st. I hope that everyone is able to have a restful vacation period to re-charge their energies for the remaining 48 school days left in the year. Students have worked very hard up to this point and the last several weeks have been intense with local and state testing taking place. When we return, students will be working to complete their academic work for their grade level and prepare for a new year of school in the fall. Spring sports will be in full swing when we return and hopefully the days will be both warmer and longer.

While school is closed next week each building will be open daily between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. Custodians will be doing spring cleaning to prepare the buildings for the end of the school year. I hope that you have a good week. I am headed to Colorado for some spring skiing!

Springfield Update

Budget hearings are currently being held across the state by Speaker Madigan to gather input from citizens about the FY 09 budget. This is taking place while the Legislature is on recess until April 1st. They left town last weekend after only working for 15 days since January 1st. When they return, the race to adjournment on May 29 will begin. Few people believe that this adjournment date will be met. The rest of the session will promise to provide great entertainment should the Governor choose to participate. Everyone will be asking the same question: Where will the money come from? There is no easy answer to this question even in an election year. State finances are very bleak and the debt level is sky high. The current general economic malaise may slow done projected revenue growth for the foreseeable future. Medicaid payments and pension payments are climbing fast!

Legislators will have a hard time this year due to their past financial decisions and will be looking for a way to pay for these many budget obligations, while seeking to make themselves look good for their electorate. Tax hikes are never popular and the expansion of gambling is not without problems. Programs and services have been devastated by previous budgets and cuts and further cuts seem to be impossible to sell as a solution to this crisis. Maybe it is time, as Paul Green stated recently, for our elected officials to lead and fulfill their obligations to the people of Illinois! What do you think?

Horton Hears a Who

Yesterday was a great day at Hollywood Blvd in Woodridge. The District PTO held its annual fund raiser and it was a big success. My wife and I stopped for the raffle and silent auction and the place was mobbed! It was great to see so many families enjoying a day at the theater. Many volunteers worked countless hours to make this event a great success for the children of our school district. Everyone enjoyed the silent auction, raffles, face painting, Irish dancing and the new movie. Thanks again to the many volunteers of the the District 66 PTO, always working together for students!

End of the Year Calendar

Now that the snow and hazardous weather appear to be behind us, it may be appropriate to review the end of the school year calendar. Due to the one snow day when school was closed on February 1st, the school year must be extended one additional day to insure that we receive our full state funding. The final week of school will include Graduation on Tuesday, June 3rd at 7:30 p.m. June 4th will be the last full day of school and students will report for one hour on June 5th to pickup report cards. Enrichment summer school will begin on Monday June 9th and run through June 27th.

School News

We continue to look to Springfield for leadership but find mostly disheartening entertainment. Several issues have come up in the past few days:

The excitement last Wednesday was the emergence of HB 4232 sponsored by Representative Lang (D-Skokie) that would reconstitute the Illinois State Board of Education and remove it from the direct control of Governor Blagojevich. Read about this at

www.ilga.gov. This is just the latest act in the political circus caused by the intense dislike and distrust of the current Governor.

Speaker Madigan has scheduled hearings around the state to hear testimony regarding the FY 09 state budget. Hearing in our area will be held in Aurora, Cicero, Joliet, South Holland and Oak Lawn. The education community has been invited to participate.

The additional appropriation for special education funding has still not been passed and a hearing is scheduled for March 11th in the House Appropriations Committee. Senator Kimberly Lightford (D-Chicago) has moved to be sure that no changes are made to HB 4180, the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer bill are made this year. Since she controls the Senate Education Committee, this revision that would make the moment of “silence” optional, may never see the floor of the Senate.

State Auditor General, William Holland has issued a report showing that the unfunded liability for all five state pension systems has risen $1.5 billion last year. The “pension holiday” engineered by the Governor in 2006 requires that payments for FY 09 must be $3.2671 billion which is an increase of 226%. This fact will create enormous pressure on the FY 09 budget.

Report Cards

The second trimester has come to a close and report cards will be issued on Tuesday, March 11th. Since parents of students in grades 3-8 have 24/7 access to student grades this information should not be a surprise as you are able to monitor progress on a daily basis. Parents of students in grades K-2 will receive written report cards that indicate the level of achievement and mastery of curriculum. This week is also reserved for parent – teacher conferences. Parents are encouraged to take this opportunity to meet with individual teachers and discuss the progress of their children. I hope that many of you take advantage of that opportunity this week.

Student Silent Reflection Act Update

Local control advocates may win a round in Springfield this season! Yesterday 72 members of the Illinois House of Representatives ruled that local school districts should make the decision as to whether students should observe a "moment of silence" at the start of the school day. HB 4180 deletes the word “prayer” from the bill and would allow districts to choose whether or not to observe the moment of silence. Many school districts do not object to observing a “moment of silence” but only to the mandate by the state that students must observe it. HB 4180 now moves to the Senate where after more debate it is likely to be passed.

More Governor Blagojevich News

Our illustrious Governor made the news several times over the weekend. I got a chuckle out of Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune columnist, in his criticism of the Governor's haste to build a new lecture hall at NIU to replace Cole Hall the site of the recent tragedy. Zorn said, “It had all of the hallmarks of a Blagojevich feel-good stunt: Haste, Dubious necessity. Lack of consensus. And the whiff of moral vanity”. The start of the Tony Rezko trial and the news today that the $1 million the Governor gave to rebuild a Chicago church destroyed by fire had gone to the wrong people will provide new opportunities for news.

In other matters, the Governor's plan to expand his health care initiative throughout the state ran into another road block last week when JCAR again ruled in a 8-2 vote that the Governor can not expand health care coverage without legislative approval. Naturally, the Governor claims that “executive authority” allows him to continue to expand this plan. Comptroller, Dan Hynes projects that Illinois will have in excess of $ 1 billion in unpaid Medicaid bills by the end of the fiscal year in June 2008. Blagojevich's plan is estimated to cost $14 million for 2008 and could grow to over $ 225 million if unchecked. All of this on top of a budget that is $750 million short of revenues for this year. Where does this foolishness stop?

ISAT 2008

The annual ISAT testing window is now open and students throughout the state will be taking this state test in the next two weeks as required by the NCLR legislation. Center Cass students in grades 3-8 will be taking tests in the area of reading, writing, mathematics and science beginning next week. These tests are used to determine if local schools are providing students with the educational programming to achieve “grade level” mastery of Illinois State based on the Illinois Learning Standards which consist of 30 goals and 98 standards.
These tests have been developed within Illinois and are used to indicate to the federal government whether or not schools are making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). This program while laudable in intent is doomed to failure since it requires all students regardless of disability, language, and cultural background to take the same test refusing to acknowledge that students with disabilities will be unable to attain “grade level” achievement in many cases. The ISAT focuses on standards developed over ten years ago in 1997 and not updated since that time. Many things have changed in the past ten years.

Nevertheless, I am certain that our students will do well on this test and the great majority of our students will excel in their test performance. While this is a good thing, NCLB focuses on small sub-groups of the student population, such as ethnic and racial groups, as well as students with and without disabilities and looks for deficits in the performance of these groups. It is possible, in this system, to have 80% of students meet AYP and have one subgroup such as special education students not meet standards and have the school labeled as not meeting AYP. Once you fail to meet AYP, NCLB is full of punitive actions that are not helpful for the local school.

We continue to work hard to provide the best programming and instruction for our students at all times. We are also working with schools throughout the country to encourage congress to modify and fix the inequities and problems within this system. NCLB is up for reauthorization and should have been approved last year but the process continues to drag out with a lame duck president and democratic congress fighting to come to consensus on this issue.