Tag: ESSER funds

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

District 87 raising taxes tonight too-not spending ESSER money?

By: Diane Benjamin Tis the season to steal your money! Unit 5 will raise property taxes tonight. So will District 87. The District 87 levy is expected to increase 8.24% according to the Public Hearing notice: https://go.boarddocs.com/il/district87/Board.nsf/files/CLPP386222AD/$file/Notice%20of%20Public%20Hearing%202022%20Tax%20Levy.pdf Illinois school districts have received more than $7 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Relief Funds (ESSER) to […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Unit 5 Word Salad

By: Diane Benjamin In this story I showed the salaries reported to the Teacher’s Retirement System from Unit 5. That is where OpenTheBooks.com gets there data from. https://blnnews.com/2022/04/01/unit-5-did-esser-funds-inflate-salaries/ This chart is from the OpenTheBooks website, it clearly shows salaries increased in 2020 while Unit 5 had fewer employees. This data is used to determine pensions […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Like Unit 5 salaries, here’s District 87

By: Diane Benjamin Unit 5 story: https://blnnews.com/2022/04/01/unit-5-did-esser-funds-inflate-salaries/ The numbers on the graph again come from Open The Books and from the ISBE School Report Card website: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/District.aspx?source=studentcharacteristics&source2=enrollment&Districtid=17064087025 Enrollment decreased in 2020 and 2021. Employees increased a lot in 2021, but the average salary crashed. District 87 also needs to report where ESSER Funds were spent. […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Unit 5 – Did ESSER Funds Inflate Salaries?

By: Diane Benjamin The chart below came from Open The Books. The number of employees and total payroll reported to Teachers Retirement Fund also came from Open The Books. The number of students each year came from this story – note enrollment DECREASED: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/04/unit-5-enrollment-is-decreasing/ Average salary is just Math. Even with enrollment down, salaries saw […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Huge Crowd at Unit 5 last night

By: Diane Benjamin Proving yet again local government has no respect for religion, the Unit 5 School Board held a meeting on a Wednesday night during lent. Churches don’t do Lenten services anymore? Mine does. The video claims this meeting lasted until 2:43 this morning. 75 people signed up for Public Comment. Not everyone stuck […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Unit 5 video:

By: Diane Benjamin See this story for context: https://blnnews.com/2022/03/02/unit-5-and-equity/ There was actually only one introductory video, Unit 5 gave me access. It is 1 minute and forty seconds that says almost nothing. So you don’t have to request access I taped it for you. The original quality is almost this bad: The speaker is Dr. […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Unit 5 and EQUITY

By: Diane Benjamin If you haven’t browsed Unit 5’s website, you missed this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cPB0fnxfB3G2Dwp8Cyzawy5_bPej-A-C/view That is an update to their Equity Action Plan. See PDF pages 5 and 6 for what they want to achieve. This paragraph bothers me: The purpose of public schools is to teach. Students should never know the “authentic self” […]

Written by Diane Benjamin - editor

Want to know why your kids school doesn’t care what you think?

By: Diane Benjamin One reason: https://illinoisavengers1.wixsite.com/savederek/post/covid-cash That link has a BUNCH of questions school districts MUST answer. You can access all the payouts Illinois forked over to schools in emergency relief funds from that link too. I pulled out McLean County. Here’s your homework: Start sending FOIA’s. Blind copy me please, blnnews@yahoo.com Since lots of […]