This is a place where the Davids of the world can unite and develop strategies and group efforts/consortia to make this world a better place to take on the Goliaths who bully anyone they choose. Whether it is parents striving to get a decent education for their children, writers struggling to find a forum for their work, or citizens working to get their vote counted, this site belongs to you...

New Bullies Perpetuating History

More than forty years ago, racist bullies thought they would silence the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Since that time, there have certainly been gains in the civil rights movement, but there has also been stagnation.

King stated:
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

Read about the bulling that is continuing to occur in the fields of education, law, voting, and elsewhere and then straighten your back to walk tall, speak out, and work for doing what's right.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Victory via the secret ballot: "No way!" to New Trier Referendum

For those who said you can't prevail against powerful bullies, I quote Margaret Meade:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Because individual community members from New Trier township dared to join with others to demand transparency by the administration and school board in the secretive process, dared to speak up about the hidden costs of the referendum, and dared to expose the facade that our community members are unaffected by the current economic realities, this referendum was soundly defeated (by over 62%) in the private voting booth.
Some of my remaining questions are these:
1. How many taxpayer dollars were spent on developing, promoting, and other expenses associated with this boondoggle? Did the school board approve of these expenses during an open board meeting?
2. How many taxpayer dollars were spent on political advertising for support of the referendum? Is this an allowable expense?
3. Were taxpayer dollars spent for attorney fees for this referendum? If so, did the board approve this expense?
4. When the school asked former school board presidents to come out in favor of this referendum, were there violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act?
5. Were there other violations of the Open Meetings Act in promoting this referendum?
6. Do the current administrators for New Trier live within the New Trier district, and if not, why not?
7. Who made the decision to place this referendum on the ballot despite the community survey that indicated that more than half of the community was against this building project? Did the school board approve this referendum with full knowledge that the school's own survey indicated the community was against it?
8. How much do the current administrators pay for property taxes at their own residences?


I hope that we can harness some of the vibrant community energy into building community involvement in improving the quality of the education itself for every one of our students (not just those destined to Princeton) in OUR schools. A "successful" huge empire-building project doesn't matter one iota if we leave behind even one student (who may be a diverse learner), segregated in a team-taught class with others "of his own kind." After all, the administrators don't own the schools, the community owns the schools. The school board is supposed to represent all the members of the community, not the administration's personal desires.

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