Post by title1parent on Jun 26, 2010 7:53:41 GMT -5
www.suntimes.com/news/education/2435648,CST-NWS-county27.article
2,500 teachers' certifications in limbo
Deadline Thursday for paperwork handled by office whose former director is awaiting trial
June 26, 2010
BY KATE MCCANN SouthtownStar
The Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education is sitting on a mountain of paperwork and unpaid bills that won't be resolved by Wednesday, the date legislation signed by Gov. Quinn designates as the last for the scandal-ridden office.
While former Regional Supt. Charles Flowers is awaiting trial on felony charges of theft and official misconduct, his office in Broadview is housing a backlog of 2,500 teacher certifications that are supposed to be completed by July 1.
Teachers who submitted their paperwork months ago -- and saw their $25 filing fee checks cashed by the office -- still have not had their paperwork processed, said Supt. Margaret Longo, of Forest Ridge School District 142 in Oak Forest.
The Illinois State Police also want to know when they can collect the nearly $136,000 the regional office owes them for performing routine background checks on school employees.
Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega said the State Police frequently performed electronic name background checks at a cost of $10 per name. Fingerprint checks cost the office $15 apiece. Vega would not comment on the debt owed to the State Police, except to say it has accumulated over the last several years.
Flowers was arrested in January after a long investigation by the SouthtownStar into the office's finances. The paper uncovered a bloated payroll of family and friends, hefty advances on the office's credit cards, and taxpayer money spent on restaurants and plane tickets for Flowers' family members.
He resigned in May, just days after the Legislature voted to abolish the office and nearly a year after the Cook County state's attorney's office sued him for fraud.
The regional office deals with everything from teacher certifications to building maintenance, and critics say the regional office has failed to adequately provide any of the services for years.
Those services will now be performed by three satellite offices in the north, west and south suburbs.
Leslye Botta, a family consumer science teacher at Kerr Middle School in Blue Island, said she learned in the fall that Flowers' office had not updated her file to reflect continuing education she had completed more than four years ago.
Botta, who said she completed all the coursework needed to keep her certification up to date, said she sent a cashier's check to the regional office to process her paperwork in May 2006.
The check was cashed, but the paperwork was never filed. She said her district has been trying to fix the glitch in her records since discovering it in the fall.
"This has caused me huge grief all year. There was nobody we could talk to, there was nobody answering our questions," Botta said.
Botta said she is working with staff at the satellite office, and they have assured her the paperwork will be fast-tracked after Wednesday and straightened out before the start of school this fall.
Kathy Sobkowiak, safety facilitator at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Dolton, said she, too, has tried for months to get the regional office to process her certificate.
"All my documentation has been sitting in the system since January. My certificate needs to be renewed by July 1. I know many of my colleagues are having issues making the July 1 deadline," Sobkowiak wrote in an e-mail.
Phone calls to the Broadview office have not been returned. The answering message says the office has resumed full operations of services to the 143 school districts it serves. But hitting "0" for an operator sends callers to the voice mail of Patricia Flowers, sister of the former superintendent. She did not answer the phone or return several messages.
2,500 teachers' certifications in limbo
Deadline Thursday for paperwork handled by office whose former director is awaiting trial
June 26, 2010
BY KATE MCCANN SouthtownStar
The Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education is sitting on a mountain of paperwork and unpaid bills that won't be resolved by Wednesday, the date legislation signed by Gov. Quinn designates as the last for the scandal-ridden office.
While former Regional Supt. Charles Flowers is awaiting trial on felony charges of theft and official misconduct, his office in Broadview is housing a backlog of 2,500 teacher certifications that are supposed to be completed by July 1.
Teachers who submitted their paperwork months ago -- and saw their $25 filing fee checks cashed by the office -- still have not had their paperwork processed, said Supt. Margaret Longo, of Forest Ridge School District 142 in Oak Forest.
The Illinois State Police also want to know when they can collect the nearly $136,000 the regional office owes them for performing routine background checks on school employees.
Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega said the State Police frequently performed electronic name background checks at a cost of $10 per name. Fingerprint checks cost the office $15 apiece. Vega would not comment on the debt owed to the State Police, except to say it has accumulated over the last several years.
Flowers was arrested in January after a long investigation by the SouthtownStar into the office's finances. The paper uncovered a bloated payroll of family and friends, hefty advances on the office's credit cards, and taxpayer money spent on restaurants and plane tickets for Flowers' family members.
He resigned in May, just days after the Legislature voted to abolish the office and nearly a year after the Cook County state's attorney's office sued him for fraud.
The regional office deals with everything from teacher certifications to building maintenance, and critics say the regional office has failed to adequately provide any of the services for years.
Those services will now be performed by three satellite offices in the north, west and south suburbs.
Leslye Botta, a family consumer science teacher at Kerr Middle School in Blue Island, said she learned in the fall that Flowers' office had not updated her file to reflect continuing education she had completed more than four years ago.
Botta, who said she completed all the coursework needed to keep her certification up to date, said she sent a cashier's check to the regional office to process her paperwork in May 2006.
The check was cashed, but the paperwork was never filed. She said her district has been trying to fix the glitch in her records since discovering it in the fall.
"This has caused me huge grief all year. There was nobody we could talk to, there was nobody answering our questions," Botta said.
Botta said she is working with staff at the satellite office, and they have assured her the paperwork will be fast-tracked after Wednesday and straightened out before the start of school this fall.
Kathy Sobkowiak, safety facilitator at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Dolton, said she, too, has tried for months to get the regional office to process her certificate.
"All my documentation has been sitting in the system since January. My certificate needs to be renewed by July 1. I know many of my colleagues are having issues making the July 1 deadline," Sobkowiak wrote in an e-mail.
Phone calls to the Broadview office have not been returned. The answering message says the office has resumed full operations of services to the 143 school districts it serves. But hitting "0" for an operator sends callers to the voice mail of Patricia Flowers, sister of the former superintendent. She did not answer the phone or return several messages.