Our Mission
WEE
(Watchdogs for Ethics in Education)
WEE is a group of concerned citizens who hopes to make our schools more ethical and ultimately more excellent by putting people first. WEE encourages full disclosure of unethical practices throughout the district and hopes to serve as the Watchdogs of District 205. Accomplishing this vision is not easy, but is an essential element for excellent schools.
Goals
- Transparency in financial matters
- Disclosure of incidents within the schools
- Accountability in decision making
- Ethical treatment toward staff and students
Our family supports your mission. Thank you.
I’m looking forward to being a part of this group. We have much to offer!
I would like someone to contact me if possible on this. The school district has been herding all juniors to RVC for college placement testing. On the surface, it doesn’t seem to be an issue. However, what the school didn’t say to or ask the parents about were the test results. Ms. Busenbark of RVC said the results will be sent to parents AND the administration, according to FERPA this is illegal. RVC stands to gain $300k from an Illinois Success grant and David Kelley’s wife just happens to be the Chair of the Board of Trustees for RVC. RVC actually came to the classrooms at East and the students were told that it was mandatory. No other colleges have been allowed to come to the classrooms…only RVC. The legal department informed a board member that the school district technically doesn’t even need a signed permission slip to take students on field trips and does not need permission for those test scores.
We will investigate and pass the word about this, Kim.
I recently sent a letter to a number of people including all school board members and some of the media. I have so far received minimal response.
The following is the letter:
To whom it may concern:
I have three children in the Rockford Public Schools. One attends RESA, another Auburn Freshman Campus, and the third is at Auburn Main Campus.
I a troubled by the way registration for next year’s classes has been handled, particularly for the high-school students.
1) All three were required to sign up for classes without any parental involvement or even notification.
2) Those at Auburn were given only a list of classes to choose from, no course descriptions.
3) They felt “rushed” in choosing their classes for next year.
4) The Auburn students were told that many of the classes listed would not be available next year and that Band was on the list of classes likely to be cut.
5) It is their understanding that this is not a preliminary survey, but actual course sign-up.
6) The Auburn students were also required to sign a document falsely stating that they had gone over their class choices with their parents.
7) It is the understanding of the Auburn students that their counselors were required to handle class choice this way by the administration downtown.
This is troubling to me because I don’t understand why the administration would seek to circumvent parental involvement, particularly in something as important as course selection. This year, it is even more important since the existence of certain classes is dependent on enrollment.
Equally troubling is the precedent set by the students being required to sign their name to something they know isn’t true. After all, in a short amount of time their signatures will be legally binding.
In the past, the kids have been given a booklet with full course descriptions and time to go over the choices with their parents at home.
The way this course selection has been handled so far this year has done little to foster the atmosphere of trust and respect necessary for a quality education.
I am sure that I am not alone in asking the administration to please step back and start this process over.
Thank you,
Dawn Shirley
I had two responses, one from a reporter who said that the district claimed a few “small” problems at Auburn, but that “only affected a few families”
The other, which resulted from a school board member passing on the information to Ms. Sheffield is the following:
Ms. Shirley;
This issue was addressed last week with the staff at Auburn. By now your Auburn students should have received a planning guide and told to take that home to you along with the recommended schedule given. You have every right to peruse the guide and make suggested changes to the schedules if you wish. Obviously in some classes selection is dependent on the number of seats available, the period(s) of the day the classes are offered, and whether or not that meshes with the rest of the student’s core or elective choices, etc. I want you to know we expect and encourage parent participation in this process and anything that delivered a message we believe otherwise is not what was intended.
I have copied Auburn principal, Dr. Gaffey, on this and if you have not had the benefit of seeing a planning guide and providing your input I would ask you call him immediately and have this rectified. Please know that the process of scheduling classes for next year is on going until February so you will have plenty of time to look things over if you haven’t had the opportunity to do so. Dr. Gaffey may be reached at 815-966-3300 and his email is gaffeyk@rps205.com He will personally tend to your needs if necessary.
Thanks,
Earl A. Hernandez
Chief Executive Directors of Schools
I will say that my own children’s issues with course selection have been handled and that the counselors at Auburn have been wonderful.
However, I wonder how many parents don’t even know that their child has signed up for next years classes – or assume that something will be sent home.
I have spoken with a couple of other parents with kids both at Auburn and at other Rockford high schools. They are also upset at how things have been handled. At least one other high school has already sent out notification to parents about which classes their child has chosen, but at least one other has handled things just like Auburn has.
No one, so far, has addressed the issue of Band for next year.
Given the response (or lack thereof)I am at a loss as to how to go further with this.
Thank you.
I am a currently certified teacher and I, too, am very interested in issues such as transparency, ethics, and
accountability in school districts. Good for you for creating your site here!
I resided for about 15 years in the Collier County Public School District (Naples, FL) which is where Rockford’s superintendent Dennis Thompson was hired ih August 2007– and then not renewed in AuGust 2010.
I have written two articles about Dennis Thompson that you might find of interest. And, I created a new website.
Here is my new web site:
http://www.colliercountysunshinereview.blogspot.com
Here are the two articles I wrote about Dennis Thompson:
http://colliercountysunshinereview.blogspot.com/2011/01/public-corruption-crime-2-collier.html
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Public Corruption Crime #2: Collier Schools Superintendent Dennis Thompson and His Fake Public Record
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And I posted this other article on someone else’s site:
http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Collier_School_Board_Cites_%22Dark_Cloud%22_In_Not_Renewing_Superintendent_Dennis_Thompson
Collier School Board Cites “Dark Cloud” In Not Renewing Superintendent Dennis Thompson
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Hope you find these articles and my website of interest and use to you in your educational research into ethics.
Dennis Thompson seems to have a track record for pushing “Privatization”.
What has the cost been for the Rockford area and what might happen to other areas he goes to?
In late 2004 Dennis Thompson pushed for privatizing the custodial services for the schools in Rockford.
About 190 local people lost good jobs. These people were not just janitors, some were Plumbers,
Electricians and other skilled trades. He had them replaced with a Knoxville Tennessee based
company, GCA . They provided janitorial services, but not the building maintenance the skilled workers
who lost their jobs had provided in the past. http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/schoolid/345/articleid/54932/newspaperid/321/Outsourcing_Good_or_Bad_You_Choose8230.aspx
After several years the school buildings began to show disrepair, and something needed to be done.
Dennis Thompson approached Heartland church in March of 2007. The Church launched Sharefest and
got many volunteers from the area to help the cause. http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/6605767.html
Now I’m not saying anything negative about volunteering to help in our community. I’m sure many
people have not connected the dots. I am merely showing what and who caused the problem in the first
place, 190 good paying jobs lost and no saving to the taxpayer. How many more jobs will be lost to
these tactics?
Art LeDoux