By: Diane Benjamin
The ethics ordinance Unit 5 has posted on their website is REQUIRED by State law. It’s there to pretend legislators want to clean up corruption in Illinois. Every level of government is required to have one that meets certain standards. Of course nobody is in charge of enforcing it.
John Adams said: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
The ethics ordinance is the same. If people think it doesn’t matter it doesn’t.
Review these two points from the ethics ordinance: https://blnnews.com/2023/02/17/does-unit-5s-ethics-ordinance-matter/
Got it?
No Unit 5 employee can solicit For or Again a referendum.
Corey Beirne gave this speech two nights in a row. At Prairieland parents asked a couple of questions, if video exists I don’t have it. This video is from the 2nd night – at Parkside.
Parents told me they were appalled by politics being mentioned at their children’s band concert. Beirne threw a wet blanket on an event for the kids. I’m happy one parent thought to pull out his phone and tape it.
Comments I deem stupid will be deleted, my website. Don’t like it? Get your own. Don’t forget Beirne is also an elected County Board member. ICYMI: https://blnnews.com/2022/09/21/the-truth-about-district-10-candidate-corey-beirne/
Sadly, the county prosecutor will not do anything to enforce the law & neither will jb’s atty gen.
Sheriff has to investigate first. If his office fails you are right.
– Thanks for sharing Diane!
-I agree we need a fair-playing field and need to be onguard.
-That said- what he said is definitely not electioneering. He never told people to vote for the referendum. All he said is that programs lile that were on the chopping block. I think that guy is obnoxious and hate his politics, but he didn’t cross any lines wirh that comment.
– I think we need to be careful with our outrage. We should be focusing our attention on things like Danennberger (on which you did excellent reporting). Trying to make Berine’s comments into a scandal, which they arent, hurts our credibility.
-Wurth, Jada, Emery, and Frank need to stop complaining about Union endorsements and fixating on lowlifes like Beirne. Endless outrage won’t win the election- positive conservative policies will. They seem to be floundering (which isnt good for those of us who want real change).
Play the last line again. “Your SCHOOL needs you” is support for the referendum. Actually he just wants to keep his job.
– Thanks for pointint out that line. I listened to it closely several more time.
-Reapectfully, I still disagree. The line preceeding that was, “familiarize yourself with the issues and engage in the process.” Saying your school needs you is a call to action, but in the context of the previous sentence, it seems more like a call to civic engagement. I don’t see a problem.
– Can we please stop putting me in a position where I’m defending Beirne? 😂😂😂 I seriously can’t stand the guy and think hes obnoxious with a capital O. But he did nothing wrong here, in my opinion.
Just because a bad person does a thing does not automatically mean it is a bad thing. Or in this case at least an illegal one.
Unfortunately, it is Way too easy to voice the pro-taxes/anti-children position in a positive light. The negative position takes awareness of things I think most people, including parents, lack. And then it takes thought and analysis most people don’t have / won’t take the time to do.
Wokeness is psychologically damaging, perhaps even crippling, to our children. But it’s often subtle, and unless you realize that wokeness needs to be rooted out before anything else, it’s easy for passive parents to overlook and just see ‘save the music program!’ (Even though the its wokeness aspects are themselves contributing to the harm our schools are doing to our children.)
He should resign.
I agree with DESANTIS2024.
I have to admit that I don’t know much about electioneering laws. If teachers are forbidden from mentioning the referendum in any way, shape, or form, then he violated the law. If, as some have mentioned, the law merely prevents teachers from supporting or opposing a referendum, then he is in the clear. Nothing he said really came across as advocacy. Like others have said, I hate his politics, but I love the 1st amendment and his speech was protected.
I also agree with Desantis2024 on candidates (Wurth, Jada, Emery, & Frank) needing to do more than airing grievances and voicing support for *more* e-learning. I saw Desi sharing an image on FB that “no means no” in regards to the referendum. I love it in terms of opposing this unnecessary tax hike, but find it ironic that the school board candidates mentioned above that put out that advertisement are the same ones pushing for e-learning, despite us as parents clearly rejecting that and having said NO to that. I also noticed that they keep lowering the age they want the e-learning for. You had mentioned to me previously that it was just for Heartland classes, but their website is promoting e-learning down to 6th grade now. Instead of pulling back on that idea, they just keep expanding on it, which I find crazy. “Conservatives” in 2024 should not be promoting e-learning. Period.
You told me to stay focused on what the candidates say and pay attention. I have, and honestly I’m not feeling any better about our choices. Not that I’m voting for the leftist trash, but I also can’t bring myself to vote for kids that would have my kids back staring at a screen during the school day.
Find someone who was there. His comments were inappropriate
-Does anyone else have additional video? Would honestly love to see video of him doing something innapproriate as I can’t stand that guy. That video above isn’t innapproppriate though.
– Tom- understand the concern- I agree elearning is a bad idea- too. Are there any interviews or articels out there where they’ve elaborated on that topic? Would love some 1sthand info on that topic- their site is kind of vage on it.
I wish someone has prairieland video
Unit 5 does E-learning now. Ask them!
I agree with you @Desantis2024. I’m sure that there are thousands of things this guy has said that I am opposed to. There are views he has that I disagree with. However, this is not against the law.
I would compare it to the email that Stan Nord sent his fellow council members. Koos/Reece and Co. can bloviate all they want, but Stan shared facts.
I would also wonder if Beirne is still getting compensated for this time. I talked to an Elementary School music teacher, and she chose to do the program although pay was removed for it. I’m unsure if the same happened for these concerts.
I have still seen nothing from the “No to the Referendum” candidates that has me saying, “These people know what they’re doing.” I fear if they get elected that they would resign when they realize what the position actually entails and how their proposals don’t actually solve the district’s problems.
DeSantis 2024 endorsed by George Soros. Bummer for DeSantis, unless,,,,.
Not true, listen to the whole audio of the ancient geezer
I was at Prairieland for the first night 👋 . He said the same thing that night too. Didn’t think much of it. Not much there.
In regards to the candidates mentioned above: Would love to hear more about their thoughts on comprehensive sexuality education, CRT, getting books out of our libraries, and wondering why they aren’t talking about these litter boxes that I keep hearing about. THOSE are the things most of us want to hear about. Maybe add those issues to their website? Or post their thoughts about them? I know they’re on our side, I just worry that others don’t know that.
If you want voters to turn out, gotta talk about the issues we care about!
I went to my son’s PTO meeting and heard virtually nothing on ANY of those issues. Would love them to get out in front.
@Northpoint Mom,
Good for you to be listening closely to your kids teachers, but I don’t think you’ll hear anything about CRT principles and the like from them yet. The state’s new Equity Ideology is still in process. The ISBE has mandated Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading standards (CRT based) that are being rolled out in various forms and degrees in all school districts.
At this point Unit 5 has established the framework for the ideology with a new DEI department. They have committed to a complete overhaul of their pedagogy to be Equity driven. You would think that something that big would have required parental input or at least some discussion, but there wasn’t. For a reason.
Currently the DEI Dept is establishing training, policies and gathering student data to find disparities based on identity demographics. All disparities they find will be blamed on biases. (CRT in practice). They are focusing now on making sure that teachers know about socially constructed identities. (there are many) 55 staff are on the Identity Training team. Identities in CRT have inherent levels of power, and this is when the CRT ideology takes flight. I have grandkids in Unit 5 but no kids. If I did I would ask their teachers constantly about what training THEY are getting.
After teacher training the next phase is rolling the ideology out into the classroom. Unit 5 has committed to a goal (#4) that says they will have equity-based curriculum in every grade and every subject. Math will have equity related problems, Reading will cover equity ideology, history, science, everything will touch on equity.
The state’s goal is to teach your kids a CRT based world view. I believe its illegal as do 5 states that have outlawed it. 12 others are working on banning it in classrooms. Illinois and Unit 5 are deeply committed to following through with this. Keep your eyes and ears open. Don’t stop asking questions because they won’t let you know what their real intentions are.