By: Diane Benjamin
Below is what was put in staff mailboxes at Colleen Hoose and possibly other Unit 5 schools. It does not have a name other than the Vote Yes symbol used by the Political Action Committee who is trying again to raise your property taxes after failing in November.
This is obviously a flagrant violation of law by campaigning on public property. It even mentions which candidates the union is supporting. I FOIA’d the video of the mailboxes, it took 2 days to get a response that video doesn’t exist. Supposedly the Normal police are investigating. Do laws matter in Illinois? We will find out.
If you vote YES and hand over more money to Unit 5 there is no assurance proposed cuts will be restored. The union will be wanting a large piece of it though since their contract expires this year.
Keep in mind: You will be handing money to the same people who were incapable of balancing the budget for many years while educating 1000 less children. There is no proof property taxes will go down when the bonds are paid off. Government always invents ways to prevent that, like another building program requiring new bonds.
Unit 5 does not need the money right now. There is no reason to vote YES when a new school Board can be elected in April. They know some future revenue is being ignored to scare a Yes vote.
The four candidates running together (Wurth, Franks, Jada, and Emory) have pledged to not cut student programs. The other 4 will.
Early voting starts today. Check your ballot before voting please. There are races I haven’t gotten to yet. Anyone on the Heartland Board now should not be re-elected because they are pricing people out of a community college education. $182 a credit hour? Ridiculous.
I realize they are a little fuzzy, I don’t have originals.
There is a much bigger problem. Think about it. Someone entered the school, went deep within the building, and was able to spend the time necessary to put something in each of the mailboxes all without being detected or caught on any security camera. The “paper pusher” has proven that a route exists for someone to place a destructive/dangerous device deep within this elementary school without being detected or caught on camera. This is the scary reality of Unit 5 not being able to provide any information.
The security failure concern goes away if it turns out that Unit 5 administration is lying and security footage does exist. Do you think Unit 5 would have no footage if it were VOTE NO propaganda or if a gun was discovered in a mailbox?
Most likely, a Unit Five staffer put the circulars in the boxes not someone from the outside. Keep in mind that cheaters always win in Bloomington-Normal. It’s been ingrained in Bloomington- Normal for decades. The Clique rules everything. It will never change. Get used to it or leave. The place is without hope.
$182 a credit hour. Oof. I paid a little over half that per credit hour my last semester at ISU, in 1997. To b fair, the State of Illinois, not surprisingly, isn’t holding up their end of the community college bargain. When they were started, 1/3 was to come from tuition, 1/3 from local property taxes, and 1/3 from the state.
Normal investigating this is laughable. The police chief answers only to Pam Reece. If he wants to keep his job, he will do what he is told. Pam wants the tax hike to pass and she has a tradition of using town staff to push her political agenda. Examples…
– She ordered her police to enforce Pritizker’s Covid recommendations on restaurants that she saw were open.
– Pam used town resources to reprimand residents who she saw working in their yards or going to their mail boxes without masks.
– Her staff pulls campaign signs of conservatives and ignores others.
– Before the last election, her staff were pushing off big new developments coming to the council so the news wouldn’t give people to vote against the tax hike referendum.
Normal operates as a kingdom. Just like the council, the staff does what the King and Queen order. Right and wrong does not exist. No way will the police dare put out any findings that would jeopardize the tax hike that their Queen and King want to be passed.
I guess we know who NOT to vote for, per the flyer… 😉
You keep mentioning that the “No” candidates won’t cut any programs. Will you commit to asking them the question of how they will pay to continue the programs? No amount of realistic administration cuts will cover the shortfall . Teachers with 40-50+ students in their classes won’t be able to teach the content even if they do keep it.
Or will their way to keep classes provide content once every few months by a district-wide teacher?
The “No” candidates know they can’t campaign saying their only goal is to maximize tax reductions. So their goal appears to be to say they won’t cut anything but no explanation how they will accomplish that.
Ask them!
I have. They present zero realistic solutions. It’s like the Biden promise to eliminate student loans. They seem to promise anything to get elected but no explanation of how they will deliver.
If you’re looking for candidates who can deliver on their platform, you would be wise not voting for the “No” candidates until they can provide rational, realistic solutions. It appears that is why they are no longer showing up to sessions.
Funny!
Which candidates have stated they don’t support the tax hike?
The 4 running together
I have asked a few of them JT’s question and have been referred to their website. They need to use some facts and figures and revamp their message because it’s truly not resonating with my moderate friends. All everyone hears is, “more e-learning.”
I am voting for this group because I cannot stomach the current board members or the two new union-endorsed candidates. However, the No group needs to step it up if they want to be successful with the majority.
Send them that message through the website
Diane where is their website?
Unit5studentsfirst.com
I agree with Mom. The four ‘no cuts’ candidates are clearly the best ones, but I don’t see how ‘no cuts’ is workable. Yes, there are other things that can be cut instead of the current “How can we inflict the most damage on the kids?” proposal. And Yes, there are unacknowledged increased revenues in the offing. But as best I can tell it’s still not enough. We’ll still need some smaller cuts, or some additional revenue items, or a different, smaller tax increase, or a mix of those..
I was about to say they need to post a concrete plan, but sadly in politics doing the right thing sometimes just gives your opponents more ammunition, more things to negatively misinterpret for the dishonest press to repeat, etc.
Maybe put together a concrete plan and show it to a few cynical supporters? I know I’d personally love to change my to tune to “I know it seems unlikely, but they Can do it.” But I’d need to see the proof first.
My issue is that the four conservative candidates aren’t being accurate in their use of data.
They are saying that Unit 5 can cover most of it’s 12 million dollar deficit using increased revenue from rising property values. Specifically, they’re saying that a 7% increase in EAV will lead to $9 million additional dollars for Unit 5. That number is accurate.
The issue is that Unit 5 is already projecting a 6% increase in EAV and has already factored that into their upcoming budget which has the 12 million dollar deficit.
In other words, the candidates are wrong that there is this pool of unaccounted-for revenue due to rising EAV.
It seems like Desi is the one who put that argument together for them, and I’m honestly not sure if she realizes that she is very incorrect. And I think the candidates are too willing to eagerly just blindly accept her argument because it gives them an out to saying that they will make cuts and lay off teachers to close the gap.
Thankfully the slate candidates have time to work with the community and actual district budget and finances plus the cover of the bonds for the next two years to put a realistic plan in place. When asked about eLearning, I was advised there are really good programs that can be used in situations where learners may benefit from eLearning over in classroom learning. They aren’t suggesting everyone be moved to eLearning and Brad Wurth’s wife homeschools two of their children so he has a lot of good experience that he is bringing as alternatives that could save the district money in please of other more costly supports.
I am voting for them because they have ideas, know that there are other ways to reduce the deficit besides making children the political pawns.
Talk to them. They are very real, open and forthcoming. They do have the best intentions; refreshing to say the least.