Post by southsidesignmaker on Feb 27, 2009 9:12:20 GMT -5
Consultants getting school district calls
Some St. Charles residents still unhappy about St. Louis firm's role in District 303
By Alexa Aguilar | Special to the Tribune
February 27, 2009
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-school-consultant-w-zone-27-feb27,0,6408917.story
In the name of "community engagement," more and more Illinois school districts are turning to formal brainstorming sessions to help determine their long-range direction, often hiring outside consulting firms to aid the process.
"People don't like top-down decision-making," said Rodney Wright, president of Unicom ARC, a St. Louis-based communications firm used by dozens of suburban Chicago school districts. "You need to ask the community where they want to go because the community owns the schools."
St. Charles school officials may be the latest to get such outside help. District 303 has spent about $154,000 for Unicom to conduct regular community meetings—which it dubbed Summit 303—to discuss everything from class sizes to gifted education to teacher training.
Skeptics of the process weren't too surprised when, at the end, the group recommended a $294 million referendum question to get approval for extensive renovations and rebuilding throughout the district.
"The whole thing was nothing but a way to crowbar in a referendum," said Brian Litteral, one of the district's most vocal critics.
When a phone survey by Unicom in January showed St. Charles voters weren't prepared to support a spending plan that large, the district scaled back its proposal and now is asking voters in April to fund a $114 million building plan. The same survey showed that 34 percent of voters were suspicious of Summit 303 and its recommendations. And about 50 percent of those surveyed had not heard of the effort.
So how effective was Summit 303? Did it truly engage the larger community?
"I don't know what else we could have done," said Glori DeJure, a Summit 303 participant and parent of two students. "We actually went door to door asking people to participate."
DeJure said she counted herself among the skeptics at the beginning of the 14-month process. As a vocal opponent of previous district boundary changes, she was surprised she was asked to participate. She attended and said she was on the lookout for manipulation from day one.
But DeJure didn't see it. It's no surprise that after an extensive examination of the district, the community would see the areas of the district that need to be improved, buildings included, she said.
"We are showing the district in their underwear, and it's not going to be a pretty picture," she said, noting that students are being taught in closets, hallways and trailers. "Why should it be a secret? If that leads to a referendum, then so be it."
Litteral said he's distrustful of Summit 303 because community engagement often seems to lead directly to referendum measures in other districts. Members of his group, Citizens for Fiscal and Academic Responsibility, think that Unicom was able to steer the process to get the result the administration wanted.
"Supposedly, the goal of this group was to figure out ways to reduce class sizes and raise test scores at the high school," he said. "And then we end up with a bricks-and-mortar plan that has absolutely no tie-in."
"They want to give the appearance of consensus," he said.
"But it's nothing but smoke and mirrors."
Don Schlomann, superintendent of District 303, said that while the building measure is garnering the attention, the district is hard at work on some of the other recommendations the Summit members came up with, such as improving gifted education and offering all-day kindergarten.
Summit 303 members examined class-size issues, participants said, but when they realized the price tag attached, they backed off making any substantial recommendations.
Wright dismissed much of the criticism as coming from conservative groups that are anti-public education.
Wright said a district knows what it wants: District 303 sought an open-ended process while the school board at Lincolnshire-Prairie View Elementary in Lake County knew that it wanted a tax increase and used Unicom to help come up with four options.
The process involving meetings, often drawing people who are especially vested in the schools, can differ from a survey of the community, he said.
Still, District 303 had some of the highest participation Unicom executives have seen—about 1,000 unique participants, they estimate. "We are disappointed" that the building recommendation isn't going before the voters in April, DeJure said. But the timing coincided with the economic slide.
"We should have done the whole thing years ago. We should have fixed our facilities years ago. If more people would have attended, they would know," she said.
Some St. Charles residents still unhappy about St. Louis firm's role in District 303
By Alexa Aguilar | Special to the Tribune
February 27, 2009
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-school-consultant-w-zone-27-feb27,0,6408917.story
In the name of "community engagement," more and more Illinois school districts are turning to formal brainstorming sessions to help determine their long-range direction, often hiring outside consulting firms to aid the process.
"People don't like top-down decision-making," said Rodney Wright, president of Unicom ARC, a St. Louis-based communications firm used by dozens of suburban Chicago school districts. "You need to ask the community where they want to go because the community owns the schools."
St. Charles school officials may be the latest to get such outside help. District 303 has spent about $154,000 for Unicom to conduct regular community meetings—which it dubbed Summit 303—to discuss everything from class sizes to gifted education to teacher training.
Skeptics of the process weren't too surprised when, at the end, the group recommended a $294 million referendum question to get approval for extensive renovations and rebuilding throughout the district.
"The whole thing was nothing but a way to crowbar in a referendum," said Brian Litteral, one of the district's most vocal critics.
When a phone survey by Unicom in January showed St. Charles voters weren't prepared to support a spending plan that large, the district scaled back its proposal and now is asking voters in April to fund a $114 million building plan. The same survey showed that 34 percent of voters were suspicious of Summit 303 and its recommendations. And about 50 percent of those surveyed had not heard of the effort.
So how effective was Summit 303? Did it truly engage the larger community?
"I don't know what else we could have done," said Glori DeJure, a Summit 303 participant and parent of two students. "We actually went door to door asking people to participate."
DeJure said she counted herself among the skeptics at the beginning of the 14-month process. As a vocal opponent of previous district boundary changes, she was surprised she was asked to participate. She attended and said she was on the lookout for manipulation from day one.
But DeJure didn't see it. It's no surprise that after an extensive examination of the district, the community would see the areas of the district that need to be improved, buildings included, she said.
"We are showing the district in their underwear, and it's not going to be a pretty picture," she said, noting that students are being taught in closets, hallways and trailers. "Why should it be a secret? If that leads to a referendum, then so be it."
Litteral said he's distrustful of Summit 303 because community engagement often seems to lead directly to referendum measures in other districts. Members of his group, Citizens for Fiscal and Academic Responsibility, think that Unicom was able to steer the process to get the result the administration wanted.
"Supposedly, the goal of this group was to figure out ways to reduce class sizes and raise test scores at the high school," he said. "And then we end up with a bricks-and-mortar plan that has absolutely no tie-in."
"They want to give the appearance of consensus," he said.
"But it's nothing but smoke and mirrors."
Don Schlomann, superintendent of District 303, said that while the building measure is garnering the attention, the district is hard at work on some of the other recommendations the Summit members came up with, such as improving gifted education and offering all-day kindergarten.
Summit 303 members examined class-size issues, participants said, but when they realized the price tag attached, they backed off making any substantial recommendations.
Wright dismissed much of the criticism as coming from conservative groups that are anti-public education.
Wright said a district knows what it wants: District 303 sought an open-ended process while the school board at Lincolnshire-Prairie View Elementary in Lake County knew that it wanted a tax increase and used Unicom to help come up with four options.
The process involving meetings, often drawing people who are especially vested in the schools, can differ from a survey of the community, he said.
Still, District 303 had some of the highest participation Unicom executives have seen—about 1,000 unique participants, they estimate. "We are disappointed" that the building recommendation isn't going before the voters in April, DeJure said. But the timing coincided with the economic slide.
"We should have done the whole thing years ago. We should have fixed our facilities years ago. If more people would have attended, they would know," she said.