By: Diane Benjamin
The Normal Town Council meeting last Monday had parents of students at Glenn Elementary show up for Public Comment.
The parents know Unit 5 might vote to close Glenn, they want Town officials to intervene to keep their neighborhood school open. I wonder how many of them voted in the last consolidated election where the school board ran unopposed but got a 1% Sales tax increase passed just for schools?
The school report card for Glenn: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?source=trends&Schoolid=170640050262007
The Unit 5 overall report card: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=trends&source2=ela.profiles&Districtid=17064005026
Click on Proficiency at either link to see the following:
Glenn English Language Arts (ELA)
District ELA
Glenn math:
District math:
Glenn Science:
District Science:
Glenn School students score lower than the district in every category.
Chronic Absenteeism at Glenn – slightly better than the district:
District:
Why does the district spending history show years of investing less in Glenn students than the rest of the district? https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/school.aspx?schoolid=170640050262007&source=environment&source2=sber
One more chart:
Watch Public Comment. There is one “funny” comment from Ron Ulmer not about Glenn. Normal put bike lanes on Linden, one block away from Constitution Trail where bikes actually are. With narrower lanes, traffic on Linden is now a nightmare. The Normal Council members ran unopposed too in the last consolidated elected, except mayor.
Just hit play:
Those reports are a mess. The whole thing is littered with unexplained acronyms. There is no help document that I could find that would explain any of the measurements in the report. Typical government work. That would never fly if a private corporation had to provide data to the government
Click the link, some explanation is there
Unfortunately private cos are the ones driving these reporting systems and data handling.
The push for privatizing is not what it is in reality. The whole government and private side are a mess and deceptive.
Same leadership. Same projects. Same platforms.
Everyone wants special considerations to keep their schools from being closed by Unit 5. Maybe it’s time people that want out of the district completely were given some consideration. Vote for vouchers!