PeoriaStory

The million dollar lawyers

PEORIA, IL -- Legal fees for the Peoria Public School District totaled almost $1 million from the education fund from 2016 to 2018, school critic Sharon Crews told the school board at its August 27 meeting.

She has researched the legal costs, and her report is attached below. It's worth reading carefully. And she had trouble getting information from her Freedom of Information request, which seems questionable.

The other usual critic at the public comment section of the board's agenda, Terry Knapp, continued the criticism of the legal bills. The Peoria Federation of Teachers doesn't pay lawyers to negotiate the union contract, he said. The union members do it themselves, he said. Knapp is a former PFT president.

Knapp said a union contract actually saves money by keeping the parties out of court.  Then he criticized the public charter school Quest, which has a two page contract and is in litigation against former staff members.

The grievance and arbitration process attached to most union contracts makes the process simpler and cheaper than a lawsuit.

Knapp then said the school district could save $6 million by "getting rid of Quest." It's run as a business, and is "not interested in teachers," he said.

Knapp asked who is paying a District 150 administrator, formerly a Quest administrator, who is spending time in court for a Quest lawsuit.

Here is a recording of the comments.

There was no response from the board to this question.

Download D150 Aug 27 181

Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said the district's Chicago law firm has "saved us lots of money," and is not paid for travel now. A $900 monthly retainer allows calls and questions to be asked and answered, but access to the lawyers is restricted to a few administrators, she said.

     -- Elaine Hopkins

Here is the comment from Sharon Crews:

In the lawyer-prepared response to my FOIA request about legal issues and fees paid for 2016-2018, all specific details were redacted.

A 2015 Chicago Tribune article about reporting legal costs in public schools could easily have been a description of the information I received. The article stated, “Analysis of legal spending was thwarted by claims of attorney-client privilege. Some descriptions were so heavily redacted that work was described as only “research,” “analysis” or “preparation.”

With regard to attorney-client privilege, who specifically is the client? When the school board or the district, not a person, is the client why is attorney-confidentiality required? What is the public’s right to know?

The Tribune article states that “school superintendents maintain that legal spending helps avoid costly lawsuits, aids in contract negotiations and ensures compliance with laws. If these are Peoria’s main reasons for hiring attorneys, the redaction of details seems unnecessary because these cases are reported in the Peoria Journal.

However, the article points out what I believe to be true about this district, also,—that money is “spent liberally on attorneys who gave general legal advice on everything from reviewing a copy machine lease to assessing open records requests,” and that district administrators pay attorneys for phone conversations and responses to e-mail questions.

Which administrators have the right to contact lawyers for legal advice and/or action and who gives them permission to engage lawyers and, therefore, has the right to authorize money spent on legal fees? To what extent can the board limit contacting lawyers and for what reasons?

The total spent on legal fees for almost two years from July 2016 through May 2018 was about $968,000—almost one million dollars from the Education Fund.

For 2016-17 lawyers were paid $17,258 for travel expenses to and from Peoria. That, I believe, is a travesty. There were no travel expenses listed for 2017-18. I have to ask: Was a decision made not to pay travel expenses or is it possible that I just didn’t receive that information?

Lawyers handled 3,045 issues categorized into 53 very nebulous topics over a 23-month period—that is an average of 123 issues a month. Doesn’t that seem excessive? I assume that all of the administrators on Wisconsin Avenue have administrative degrees and that most of those degrees include courses in school law. Why shouldn’t these high paid employees be qualified to deal with many of these issues?

$117,000 was spent on 17 issues related to personnel matters, negotiations, and grievances. My guess is that this legal advice favored the administration, not the teachers and other employees. I am curious about the $785 spent on five instances of issues labeled as SBE Complaints (which appears to refer to Eisenhammer).

About $340,000 was spent on 70 issues related to Peoria Public Schools—WOW that’s informative!  About $36,000 was spent on 15 investigations. $49.000 on nine lawsuits, $133,000 on sixteen issues related to students, $35.644 on 22 special ed issues. $27,642 was spent on thirty issues that had no title at all—obviously top secret.

Other topics include: Agreement, Arbitration, Audit letters, board governance, board policy, Charge, Complaint, Contracts, Court Reporter Fee, Due Process, EEOC, Finance, FOIA, Grievances. Please consider the possibility that this money is not being wisely spent.

Rally Aug. 26

PEORIA, IL -- UPDATE: About 75 people, maybe more, attended the rally, in 93 degree temperature.  But good speeches, and good networking prevailed.

Here's a scene from those who dressed as the handmaids, in the Tale film.  After all, that's what Kavanaugh want to do to women: make them slaves to their bodies.

From a news release:

Local Activists Will Gather to “Unite for Justice” in Peoria to Urge Senators to Vote No on Brett Kavanaugh

On August 26th at 1:00 p.m., local activists, leaders, and champions for women’s reproductive freedom, including Helen King from the local NAACP chapter, Robin Sledge from SEIU Local chapter of the Service Employees International Union, Dana Garber from Planned Parenthood, Robert Jorgensen from the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club, poet/performer Beckett Kenny will gather for a Peoria “Unite for Justice” event.

Donald Trump has long promised to only nominate a justice who will end Roe v. Wade and criminalize abortion. Trump has found his man in Brett Kavanaugh. We can’t and won’t go back to the days when abortion was illegal in this country. We know what’s at stake in this fight: our most precious and fundamental rights.

Brett Kavanaugh will not only work to end Roe and criminalize abortion, he will rule to gut health care, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, environmental protections, workers’ rights, and immigrant rights. And his record of arguing for extreme executive privilege, such as suggesting that the Supreme Court was wrong to compel the Watergate tapes from President Richard Nixon, creates the real threat that confirming Kavanaugh will help Trump put himself above the law.

We're rallying to urge our senators to vote No on Kavanaugh and protect the freedom and agency of Illinois women and families.

WHAT: Unite for Justice Peoria Event

WHO: Indivisible Peoria Area, and Peoria National Organization for Women

WHEN: Sunday, August 26^th, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: Federal Courthouse, 100 N.E. Monroe St. Peoria, Illinois

My take:  Be there! Your life could be at stake with Kavanaugh on the court. He's a right wing extremist, and would end medical care for millions. 

Elaine Hopkins

Killing NPR

MACOMB, IL -- What word describes the Western Illinois University Board of Trustees? 'Arrogant.'

At the board's August meeting, a standing-room-only crowd, perhaps 200 people, filled the Grand Ballroom of the WIU Student Center on Aug. 24 to show support for retaining the NPR station on campus, WIUM.  The operation is known as Tri-States Public Radio. 

The public comments came at the beginning of the meeting, in reaction to the sudden decision to shut down $453,920 in university support to the station, a scheme designed to axe it.  Station fund raising and underwriting, already done to the max, will not be able to raise that much more money from a largely rural area for the station budget.

Nine people commented in the 20 minutes allocated for comments.  Three more people were in line but the board chairwoman refused to allow them to speak.

The comments ranged from concerns about lack of transparency in the top down decision -- revealed only last week -- to concerns about loss of quality of life, an information desert in the area, loss of educational opportunities to students, and problems recruiting new faculty and new area residents without an NPR station available. 

The comments were followed by a lengthy standing ovation.

One WIU staff member, a fund raiser, also spoke, and promised to help the station raise money. He likely was ordered to speak.

Here is a recording of the comments, followed by the responses from the chairwoman and WIU president Jack Thomas

Download WIU board Aug 24 18

The administrators are digging in their heels and appear not to be moved by the large audience.There was no discussion of the comments, and a contract for Thomas -- the buck stops with him -- was then approved unanimously, without discussion.

So what's the answer?  Afterward, some talked of civil disobedience, and electing the Democrat J.D. Pritzker as governor, to appoint new board members who care about the university and its community. The board meets again on Sept.27-28.

 -- Elaine Hopkins 

UPDATE:  The story in the McDonough County Voice is reposted on the Facebook page 'Save Tri-States Public Radio,' and on the Voice page: www.mcdonoughvoice.com/  

And a terrific story now on the TRSP website, with recordings: http://www.tspr.org/

--EH

 

 

 

Thanks for the bargaining, and...

PEORIA, IL -- The Peoria Public School District 150 Board meeting has such a different ambience from the past it's difficult to believe what has occurred. Instead of hostility there's collegiality, interest, acceptance when audience members rise to present comments.

Critics of the past such as Terry Knapp now often complement the board. On August 13 Knapp thanked the board for successful bargaining with the teachers union. Then he suggested "you can do this (bargaining) by yourselves," and do not need the Chicago law firm until the finale, to check the results. That would save money, he said.

Knapp then thanked pro basketball star Shawn Livingston, a Peoria High School alum, who appeared at a school event.  Knapp suggested that successful alums be celebrated by the district, an idea that the superintendent later seconded. "When people achieve things they should be recognized," Knapp said.

Here is a recording of the comments. 

Download D150 8 13 18

Activist Sharon Crews suggested that the schools teach self discipline and other social skills to the students, which the district is also doing. Her remarks are printed below.

-- Elaine Hopkins 

From Sharon Crews:

When public schools are discussed, I often hear people blaming parents for the discipline problems. We’ve been playing this blame game for years, but so far the discipline problems continue to worsen. If parents (especially young parents or single mothers) do not have an adult in their lives to guide them in teaching their own children the need for self-discipline, where do you expect them to learn those skills?

If we look at the history of why public schools were established, one of the main reasons was to teach children to live productively in society. Today we have to find ways to teach children to control aspects of their own lives and temperaments.

The only other source of help and direction would probably be the church. Therefore, I think you will have to acknowledge that it is the job of the public school to inform and help parents teach their children how to behave outside the home and up to schools to find ways through consequences, etc., to teach students how to behave in groups—that is inform parents of the behaviors that are not only expected but also demanded of their children at school. Both students and their parents have to adhere to the district’s policies.

I hope that any efforts to achieve these goals would be planned and carried out by Wisconsin Avenue administrators through their own ideas without purchasing any programs.

I am sure programs have already been purchased, but I hope that all discipline-related programs for parents and students will be given the personal touch. Teachers should be asked to help with these plans. However, parents must understand that the policies, consequences, etc., are instilled with and carried out by the highest authority in the district.  

Behavior problems are so serious in our schools that an all-out effort must be made to restore healthy classroom environments.

Years of high-stake testing took up excessive time when students should have been engaged in learning experiences that involved the interaction of teachers with students and of students with other students.

A greater problem is that discipline problems take up so much of the teachers’ time that students have to be given work that probably could be considered busy work. Keeping students busy with little interaction with each other is often necessary because students have not been taught how to socialize—an effort that must start long before middle school. K through 8 schools allowed for more continuity.

Students need to know how to get along in school and in this world. Children should be given the freedom to socialize, Learning how to socialize in school will obviously impact how children will socialize as adults. At school and at home, children should learn negotiation skills, problem solving, and self-control. Of course, children must, also, learn how to accept and appreciate classmates who may be different from themselves.

With the onslaught of NCLB and just before I retired, I was appalled by a trend toward cutting out the teaching of literature to make room for teaching and testing the basics of grammar and math.

Children and young adults absorb much about life through reading and discussing literature in English classes. I fear that classic literature is not as much a part of English classes as it once was—I hope I’m wrong.

Good literature allows young people to identify with the characters in a novel or drama and thus to find ways to solve their own problems. Good literature helps young people understand historical periods and cultures that are unfamiliar to them.

Of course, reading is the most effective, if not the only way for students to expand their vocabularies. Just as we learn to do almost everything through imitation, students learn to write by reading good literature.

In the 1970’s I chose the book Five Smooth Stones, published in 1966 about the Civil Rights Movement, for my freshman enriched class to read. I still recommend it as a way for young people to come to grips with the problems of that era and how young people coped with the racism of that era.

Of course, a return to courses such as home ec and child development would help prepare males and females to be parents. Please put your hearts and souls into showing Peoria’s young people how they can control themselves and their lives. - 30 -

 

FLIP the 18th: An Invitation

PEORIA, IL -- Here's an event to help flip the 18th District: