By: Diane Benjamin
Unit 5 didn’t like the results of the November referendum – so they demand you vote again.
Vote No Again
Ask Unit 5 Board members how it is possible to be this irresponsible with other people’s money. Anybody see a problem? Anybody?
Tim Gleason is pulling the same stunt on Monday. His planning for a DC lobbyist was shot down at the last meeting, so Monday the Council gets to vote again. The only change proposed is paying the $270,000 over 3 years monthly with the right to cancel with 30 days notice. Of course nobody will ever cancel, payments will be made with little accountability.
Here was the last vote, maybe the Clerk can get a name for Sheila Montney instead of calling her Ward 3.
One person who voted yes doesn’t fit with the other 3 who also did. Guess which one!
Every alderman should vote NO on principle. Either the voice of elected representatives matter or Tim Gleason gets whatever he wants by bullying.
I predict Tom Crumpler got flipped since he rarely shows any deeply held principles. I feel sorry for Ward 9 residents.
The Feds don’t hand out free money, it comes with strings and a copay. Essentially they will run Bloomington, Normal is the perfect example of what happens when Feds are welcomed. The citizens and their representatives don’t.
Thanks to Kathleen Lorenz Normal had their own re-vote on property taxes. Of course it wasn’t in your favor.
Good lord. According to the chart above Unit 5 spends around $12,000 per student. That’s insane
State average is around $16,000 per student. Unit 5 is doing very well at 12,000ish if that is what we spend . Also, I hear all this nonsense about too many administrators. Please let me know which building level admins you’d like 5o let go. They’re overworked as it is. They handle discipline, scheduling, teacher evals, have to be at IEP meetings, have to be at 504 meetings, etc. If you shrink building admin, which of those responsibilities do you let go by the wayside? Reduce the amount of misbehavior that gets disciplined? Evaluate teachers less frequently than Illinois law requires? You have to give something up if you cut building admin.
So what about District admin? You’re talking about a handful of people (10 or so I’d guess). Cutting one or two of them won’t make a big dent in the deficit.
Also, the average admin salary in Unit 5 is $93,000. Calculated it myself. The Super has a base salary just under 200,000. For comparison, 87’s super is, I believe, around $215,000 for a smaller district. Not that her pay isn’t a lot of money, but it’s much less than districts of comparable size. Unit 5 is already towards the lighter end of things in terms of spending on admin.
As Diane says, facts matter! Just keeping things in perspective!
You obviously aren’t looking for facts.
Ask the candidates!
I was part of a meeting where someone did. The person asked a good question about realistic solutions, and the “No” candidates didn’t provide a feasible answer. Mr. Wurth gave a long rambling answer that didn’t make sense and the others stayed silent or attacked with no substance. The “ Yes” candidates may not be the best option, but when the “No” candidates have an opportunity to share their plans and fail, that sticks with voters.
To those saying that the biggest contribution to the school district’s bad shape because of unfunded mandates: spot on for 2 of the biggest 3 issues.
Get first person info!
I could see paying $12000 / student if the education was any good, but it’s not. On a worldwide scale our students wildly underperform
The dei czar and her staff need to to be cut, as well as eliminating dei from unit5. Any savings is good, no matter the amount.
Facts matter, including the ones we don’t like. Yes, there are Some facts that support the U5 tax increase, just as there are Some facts that support communism and even worse ideas.
One thing I noticed in the small print at a recent meeting was U5 will use part of the tax increase to hire more counselors/psychologists/etc. Talking with a student my son knows, they were described as “useless”. So there’s a start – cut useless personnel and especially don’t hire More of them!
And while some may argue that those positions are needed due to the poor mental health of our children, a better approach would be to stop institutionally damaging them in the first place. Wokeism, whether it’s CRT or DEI or some other group of letters, creates cognitive dissonance. Very few kids have the capability to even recognize that, much less call it out, so it manifests as mental/emotional/behavioral issues. As the saying goes: “Government – If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait ’til you see our solutions!”
NO does not mean NO to Tim Gleason. This is like the colosseum. Government refuses to ever take NO for an answer. Pathetic!!!!
Who are the fiscally conservative and pro citizens candidates for blm?
Nalefski and Baker, wards 4 and 6. All the rest are unopposed
Support Good Candidates. if you can’t find any,
Recruit Good Candidates. if you can’t convince any,
Become Good Candidates
Gleason is passed at the council and his expectations are the council will obey him. He has forgotten whom the employee is. Maybe they need and executive session to remind him
Exactly – He forgets he’s only the city manager of Bloomington, not the city manager / queen of Normal.
Didn’t the superintendent for unit 5 just get a pay raise in the business world where I came from when business was bad and not enough revenue to pay expenses salaries were frozen or cut don’t care if the workload was heavy do your job or go somewhere else. Layoffs were used if necessary get a life taxes are not free money they come from those of us that work.