By: Diane Benjamin
Unit 5 incumbent candidates claim the district has a structural deficit. That is why they want more money.
Unit 5 has known about this problem for YEARS and has done nothing to fix it except borrow money and try to raise property taxes twice. Just this fact proves why a new board needs elected. This is not how fiscally responsible people act. Future revenue is being ignored, Vote No Again!
Each candidate was asked if the teachers union should endorse candidates. It is vital for voters to understand the union represents teachers, the school board represents students, parents, and the people paying the bills. Electing pro-union school board members means your wallet isn’t represented in contract negotiations.
The video below concerns the teaching of ideology instead of essentials, including comprehensive sexuality. Note the 2 incumbent board members did not say why they adopted the nation standards instead of opting out like over 700 other Illinois districts did.
It doesn’t appear that any of the candidates know what Equity is. Or at least how to effectively talk about it.
You only have to go to Unit 5’s Original Equity Audit to find ample reasons why it shouldn’t be in our schools.
“CRT is a college course” is just another way to say, “I don’t want to talk about it.” The conservative candidates must be able to squash that statement because lazy progressives vote by sound bites regardless of truth.
CRT principles in schools have been banned by 5 states and 16 additional states are in the process of passing the ban through their legislature.
We don’t need a DEI department in Unit 5 for Diversity or Inclusion. They’ve been supporting that for decades without it. We also don’t need DEI to instill a man based religion (Equity) into our kids minds. The first amendment does not allow it.
One other point. Because all the conservative candidates had to answer first all the progressives had the opportunity to rebuff their points.
Okay- you get rid of the DEI Czar. That saves, what, 100,000ish dollars. The hole that Unit 5 is in is 12 Million. Even in the conservatives mostly wildly optimistic scenarios, you’ll have a 4-5 million dollar hole to fill. We’ve heard from the current board how they’ll cut that gap, but if y’all are being honest with yourselves, the conservatives haven’t offered ANYTHING.
Saying you wont cut band and sports isnt an answer. More e-learning doesn’t answer the question. Choosing a few administrators you don’t like won’t even get you there either.
At the candidate forum, it was fair to ask if raising taxes was the only solution. The correct followup, however, should have been, “If some of these revenues don’t come through to fill the entire gap, are you willing to consider a tax increase of some sort as part of thr anwer. Just sayin’…
Eliminating Dr Shelvin saves far more than $100,000 plus it adds actual education time instead of indoctrination
A document you shared on YOUR OWN BLOG identified her 2021-2022 salary as $98,000. Please tell me again how eliminating that position “saves far more than $100,000.” Also, it took me all of 30 seconds to fact check that. Why can’t you do the same?
Also, what evidence do you have that her position is involved with curriculum construction? Seems like a bit of a stretch to throw that out there without, once again, ANY EVIDENCE. Whether you like that position or dislike that position, you sure aren’t coming at this from a fact-based point of view. You also didn’t (as usual) address any of the larger issues brought up by my post. Good job, Diane!
How much did the Trainers cost? How much did implementing her plans cost? Do I need to post the video of her cackle again celebrating what she gets by with?
Diane, I FOID’ed Unit 5 on this. Their answer is that there is only one employee in DEI, Dr. Shelvin. All the training hours, meeting hours, etc. are folded into the existing hours of the teachers and staff involved.
I asked how can you track teachers and staff hours worked for the DEI department? How can you then budget teachers and staff hours? I received no answer.
They didn’t record the training video for the 42 hires either. (From memory, didn’t look it up)
Diane, I believe their intention is to keep the Equity religious instruction as secret as possible for as long as they can. They are in the teacher training phase now. If parents knew the source material for Illinois and Unit 5’s ideology, they would shut it down tomorrow.
@ Rational Thinker,
Proof that DEI is involved in curriculum construction. From Unit 5’s Equity Audit Document available online.
Goal #4 of 10
4: TEACHING AND LEARNING – In each grade and within each content, we have curriculum and resources aligned with equitable pedagogical beliefs and culturally responsive instructional practices that promote elimination of implicit biases and affirmation of student self-identities.
That’s EVERY GRADE and EVERY SUBJECT.
Here is the Unit 5 DEI Pledge found in all their Equity documents.
“To ensure a systemic and continuous development toward advancing equity within all policies, processes, procedures, initiatives, decision-making and fiscal responsibilities.”
Unit 5 is or will roll out “Identity Training” to all the schools. There are 55 teachers/staff on this team.
Even though they claim only one employee in the DEI Department. Dr. Shelvin she has purview over everything the district does now.
To me though this discussion about DEI is separate from the budget discussions, but just as or even more important than the budget discussions.
Really, that’s the best that they could do!?! They ceded the bulk of their time to the socialists on that question, and offered NO SPECIFIC PLANS on how they’ll get that nonsense out of our schools. Blanket generalities just aren’t enough.
I’m also a little peeved that they keep talking about respecting parents when we’ve been clear that WE DON’T WANT MORE E-LEARNING. Yet, mindblowingly, it’s the conservative candidates that keep saying that we NEED more of that. I’m not okay with my kids sitting in front of a screen all day at school. I want more time with ACTUAL TEACHERS, learning Reading, Writing, and Math.
I also noticed the conservative candidates didn’t have much to say about DEI. Could this be because they know that the e-learning platform they’re pushing, Imagine Learning, is HEAVY on DEI and brags about including DEI principles in all their products? Hmmmmm…….
Was hoping there would be at least something to latch onto with those 4, but there just doesn’t seem to be much in the way of conservativism in our “conservative” candidates.
You could have attended! I have more videos.
Tom M. is right though. The declared leader of the group, Brad Wurth, states that more e-learning is one of his top ideas. He does not share how that will cut costs or improve quality, but he’s trumpeting it like it will make a difference. So if you want your kids in the classroom, learning the basics, then Brad Wurth is not for you. Considering their combined efforts, can the same be said about Franks, Emery, and Jada being against in-person learning of the basic needs?
If you’re looking at realistic spaces to cut, socioemotional behavior management has failed in the schools that have tried it, and the admins/educators behind it fled a while ago when their efforts went up in flames. The large investments in that and the DEI position should be amongst the first to go. It takes away from the core needs.
The typical canned response: “we don’t teach Critical Race Theory in k-12. It’s a graduate level class taught in law school.”
The reality: they re-educate the teachers through workshops, seminars, conferences, classes, etc. Then the teachers, in the classroom, teach, “IN Critical Race Theory.” They Frame EVERYTHING they teach through the Lens of Critical Race Theory. It does nothing to unite. It does everything to divide.
It is crystal clear that it is a conflict of interest for the teacher’s union to endorse School Board Candidates. Period. The School Board MUST represent the children in the school district, their parents, and the tax payers of the district. The Teacher’s Union represents the Union. So, for those Candidates receiving the paid endorsement of the Teacher’s Union, they will NOT be properly representing the children, their parents and the taxpayers.
The people complaining about the Teacher’s Union endorsing candidates sure were quiet when the police Union endorsed last cycle and dumped a total of $24,000 (an insane amount) in the election. You can’t logically be okay with it one case but not another. 🤷🏻♂️
Nothing compared to what the realtor assoc did
Police union supported candidates who didn’t want them abolished. Voters agreed.
In both cases the candidates were calling to cut budgets. They didn’t call to abolish police anymore than the school board candidates are calling to abolish Unit 5.
Also, your point was immaterial to the point I raised. If that wasn’t a conflict of interest than neither is this. It’s called being “principled.” Look it up some time.
I have a feeling voters aren’t any more okay with candidates attacking teachers as being groomers and indoctrinations than they were with people calling all police racist in the last election. Also doesn’t help that the conservatives are calling for more e-learning. 😂😂😂😂. Good luck with that!
Kiss are going to be e learning in the future because there won’t be a choice!
Great argument Diane! Make sure they know to tell that to voters who disapprove of expanding e-learning. “More screens at school because that’s the way of the future.” Maybe they could even pitch it as a way for kids to stay at home instead of going into an expensive school building. Maybe they could call it “remote learning.” The way of the future! 😂😂😂😂😂. Also, you Still didn’t address the point I made in my last post.
Stay in last century!
The E-learning they talk about is to earn college credits. Facts matter
Not according to Wurth. That is one of his big plans, but he learned not to use the term “GoogleMeet.” Even if Wurth believes otherwise, that’s not the message he’s spreading.
How can anybody running for the School Board not know what parents mean when the talk about CRT in schools. If they claim it’s not being taught because it’s a college course, it means they support teaching CRT concepts. They don’t have DEI in the school unless they believe in the concepts of CRT. One of the basic concepts is that because of “systemic racism” all white people are racist. They talk about “white priveledge”. Unit 5 has had teacher training based on this concept. They have looked at the disparity in disciple and concluded that it’s because of “systemic racism”, not because there is a difference in behavior. Do you think a teacher might think twice about sending a student to the principal’s office if it’s consider racist? Wouldn’t it be nice if they just said we do believe in indoctrinating children, instead of telling us that CRT is a college course. They don’t want Parents to know what they are doing.
You are exactly correct. Unit 5 got on board with DEI in 2020. People were DISTRACTED and weren’t paying attention because of the plandemic. “Never let a crisis go to waste.” They didn’t. This is when they ramped up the dei, crt garbage.
Fedup
My understanding is there is a long history of this new ideology (religion)in education. It started in the 60’s when the “hippie” Marxist revolution in America failed. The Marxists moved into education. Long story short we get the ISBE’s mandatory Social Emotional Learning (Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading)for all school districts which establishes itself as DEI departments to educate our children to become social activists for a new Socialist society. Equity is Equality of outcome.
Reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic. Expand from that basis to teach skill sets and that’s good enough. Worked just fine for the past generations. The woke administrators and teachers should move to an outright communist country to be happy, own nothing, and eat zee bugs.
If I could afford it, I’d pay their way. They’ll much prefer North Korea, China, Cuba, etc.