Forum for Discussion

I created this blog 16 months ago as I was leaving the school board after a single four-year term. I chose to not run for re-election, in part to a change in my family situation and increase work responsibilities. Now with the situation in Cary worsening, I am opening this up to become a forum for discussion.

If you would like to become an author on this blog, please email me at randelaw@gmail.com. Please provide your name, phone number and relationship to the district (parent, teacher, taxpayer, etc.)

Accomplishments from 2005-2009

Four years ago the voters of Cary elected a new board, agreeing that the time was right for a New Beginning in District 26. At that time, the newly seated board, including Craig Loew, Dave Ruelle, Chris Jenner and myself , set about to create goals for itself and the district. These included the following:

1. Enable District 26 students to be competitive in a global economy of ideas
2. Develop and implement a District strategic plan based upon systematic needs assessment
3. Continually improve the District’s positive learning and teaching environment to enhance stakeholder satisfaction
4. Promote two-way communications and involvement among all District stakeholders
5. Establish operational consistency and efficiently throughout the District

The board was told that these were challenging goals that would easily take 5 years to implement. The full board was in agreement that these were goals that reflected the community’s new core beliefs, and direction provided in the 2005 election. All members of the school board were committed to these and to the administrative leaders who would help District 26 in achieving these goals.

For the past four years, the Cary District 26 Board of Education focused on these goals, with the understanding that what they do - in creating policy, reviewing administrative recommendations and approving expenditures – should be focused first and foremost on improving student achievement for all students in District 26. This has been, and continues to the primary focus of this board.

Here are some of the education-enhancing, district-improving and financial-stabilizing actions that the Cary District 26 School Board has established and approved since the 2005 election:

Under the goal of “enabling D26 students to be competitive in a global economy of ideas” the Cary School Board has:

• Established D26 Learning Expectations – allowing parents to know what their children will learn each year for each subject area, and provide teachers a district-wide consistent set of expectations for instructional delivery.
• Created policy that requires pilot study of all new curriculum, to ensure that it fits within the needs of our students and teachers
• Created a Curriculum committee that provides board oversight in the direction of curriculum development and review
• Improved curriculum alignment and freshman-year placement with D155, for both Cary-Grove and Prairie Ridge schools
• Established improved instructional delivery for our ELL students through a program initiated by our Superintendent when he was the principal at Briargate school
• Restored our Gifted program, utilizing parental involvement and creative and thoughtful scheduling at Prairie Hill and Cary Junior High schools.

Under the goal of “operational consistency and efficiency” the School Board has seen the following improvements:

• Reduced our dependency on SEDOM services, through creative and improved programming and staffing for the special services delivery
• Lead the county in preparing for and rolling out Response-to-Intervention initiative for our special needs students. We have continued to improve our service to these children for the past 3 years, including the creation of an in-district autism program that is now drawing tuition students from surrounding districts.
• Improved in-service and continuing professional development for our certified staff, including drawing upon their expertise to provide challenging and engaging classroom experiences for our students

Under the goal of “Improving the positive learning and teaching environments” the School Board has:

• Two successful negotiated contracts with our certified staff
• Provided an additional planning hour each day for classroom teachers
• Approved class size limits, and cost-effective support personnel when student population exceeds these limits
• Promoted and lead-by-example by volunteering in classrooms and buildings

Under the goal of “promoting two-way communication and involvement” the School Board has :

• Opened up committee meetings to allow the input and free exchange of ideas from attendees into the discussion and debate
• Created an annual Curriculum hearing, allowing parents and other community members, a forum for constructive comments to improve our student’s educational opportunities
• Established communication standards to allow parents to understand district, school, classroom and student progress in easy-to-understand language – aligned with our Learning Expectations
• Continue to support Edline as a channel to communicate district, school, classroom and student news and achievement

Under the goal of “strategic financial operations plan” the School Board has approved:

• Reduction of total certified staff by nearly 10% since 2007, reflecting a similar reduction in student enrollment
• Reduction of certified staff retirement increase amount and eliminated district penalties for early retirement options
• Improved financial management though contracting with ADP for payroll services and timekeeping
• Improved transparency in bidding and contract awarding

This last goal has been the most challenging, as the Board worked with three different business managers in the last four years. (School financing, as I have come to understand it, is less about accounting and accountability, and more about positioning your needs to the state to grab a piece of the educational funding that may or may not be passed by the General Assembly.) I challenge the new board to demand stronger business and financial education requirements for business and operations managers that the State certifies to work in public education. Public education needs more financial knowledge and expertise to ensure that the public’s money is being spent effectively and efficiently. I am proud of the effort that our board has done to demand transparent – and accountable – financial management practices.

Finally, the School Board has worked to change the environment of public education financing by:

• Establishing the first “no pay-to-play” financial policy in the state of IL
• Establishing benchmarks for fund balanced requirements
• Establishing the first balanced budget financial policy, six months before it became required by law
• Initiating zero-based budget planning for 2009-2010 fiscal year