Hey Joe ask Mrs. Rains tonight what first grade teachers biggest copmlaints are in her former district orland park 135...kids come into first grade unable to read, falling asleep at their desks and unprepared for 1st grade. Ask her what the kindergarten teachers main complaint is...not enough time to get through everything. It takes time to get kids of this age unpacked and packed back up, plus time to settle down. There is ten times more research out there that supports the benefits of full day. They are just looking for and presenting information to support what they want. Postpone this cut one year and assemble a team of people to really research this program. Again there are other things that should cutfirst. This should not be on the table in the first round of cuts.

That's right, the board made the decision to keep FDK. The next responsible thing to do would be to assemble a financial committee made up of all the brilliant people that so graciously volunteered their time to review the budget and see where we can "trim the fat". We may not have to close 2 schools or increase class size. How can anyone threaten to do any such drastic matters before we even truly know what else can be done. We have 3 years to balance this budget and there will need to make some drastic changes, but we have "the best community to raise children in" and we need to come together and find solutions that will not directly effect our children's education! There are literally 100's of people willing to donate their time to help out in classrooms and with finances.
So what if they close a building, the building doesn't teach our kids. Why did we take an already closed building about 7 years ago, rehab it for around $39 million dollars open it again about 4 years ago just to close it again? That's not the state or federal governments fault. We have the same amount of kids in our schools now as we did before that rehab so the only change is we are rearranging the kids again.

Why do we have a dedicated Kindergarten school with an additional principal? Why can't our kindergartners go to their homeschools and attend their same schedule-that would be a HUGE savings!!

Now the board is back to square one. Today is K registration and Im sure Rains is going nuts. This just goes to show you the incompetence of these board members. And on Feb. 22nd they may cut FDK after all. They just delayed making a decision because of the overwelming turn out last night. The only thing last night I saw that was good was Doyle's committee. Past meetings board members fought with Doyle about this...now they flipped because of parents. Board members need to do their homework before the next meeting and get things done. They have wasted so much time, its horrible. I do not feel confident in their decision's...because they cant make any.

What the wonderful teachers in our district heard last night was that some parents feel it is more important to have someone watch their child all day so they can work regardless to what it will mean for the children in grades 1-8. I am so sorry that our teachers are going to have to try and teach our children while they stress about losing their job. Half Day K was a small price to pay if it meant NOT having to lose so many excellant teachers. Shame on the school board members who allowed tears to prevent them from doing their job.

Just in case you hadn't seen it yet, here's the updated story from last night's meeting. You also can read the transcript from last night's live blog of the meeting.

http://frankfort.patch.com/articles/live-blog-will-d161-go-with-tuition-based-full-day-kindergarten

Joe Vince
Local Editor, Frankfort

It's pretty simple, we have 5 million in reserves, if no cuts are made for '13- we will deplete about 1/2 of that. Also keep in mind the State of Illinois is planning on saddling our local school districts with funding our teachers pension- that would add (and I'm guessing) 1.2 million to our budget. I'm tired of hearing things like, "we need to look at other cuts" & "re-open contract negotiations", that should have been done 6-8 months ago. If the board decides (and it's looking more and more likely) to go to a referendum, I think it will be overwhelmingly defeated. At the next meeting parents from the Drew, Arbury & Frankfort Square will show in great numbers, pleading to the board not to close their school, what will the board do then? Barb Rains and Jim Martin are paid rather well to manage our district, what are their opinions? Why haven't we heard what they think are the best options. They are the education experts. At the rate we're going the district will be bankrupt before the 3 year plan can be put in place.

I agree with you. We need to make educated and well planned for decisions soon. How can we make these decisions without knowing where all the money is going? Last night they found a huge savings over a sidewalk and a contract and that was just in a couple of days. All I am saying is it would be good If we had a financial committee mull over everything and get a good idea of where we could cut back before making hasty educational cuts. Give them a couple of months is all. I reviewed my bills yesterday and decided I was paying too much for one of my services. I called the service and asked what they could do. I was able to save $40 for the exact same service. I didn't cancel the entire service without even looking at it or making the call to find out what else might have been available.

I THOUGHT THERE WAS A BUDGET CRISES GOING ON. DID ANYONE NOTICE THAT THEY JUST LOWERED ENROLLMENT FEES FOR EARLY ENROLLMENT BEFORE JUNE 15TH OF $105 AND $125 AND AFTER JUNE 15TH TO $125 AND $150. FEES FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS HAVE BEEN $125 AND $150 WITH NO EARLY ENROLLMENT DISCOUNT. THEY COULD HAVE KEPT COSTS THE SAME. MAKES YOU WONDER IF THERE IS REALLY A DEFICIT.

Someone fill me in here. Why is there a budget crisis in the first place? What is the cause? This is a very basic thing everyone needs to have a grasp on. Solving a deficit is important, but solving the problem should be the long term goal.

If our tax payments aren't enough, why not? If State funding is a problem, why aren't we given names of people to contact? Having mass meetings to plead for programs to stay available and deciding which schools to close is like cutting off whatever tumors you can see instead of treating the cancer.

So who knows how this came about? Please share.

Joe, can you find out when the Podcast from last nights meeting will be up on summithill.org?

Of course I read the transcript! I always do, Are you kidding me? Just want to hear it too. Thanks Joe! :)

Aside from keeping full day kdg, the best thing the board decided on was having a superintendents advisory committee. Hopefully, with more community awarness we can find a solution to this problem, so it no longer affects our children's education, our wonderful teachers, and our property values. Continue going to board meeting and make your feeling known. Inform your neighbors who aren't aware of what is going on and be a community advocate. If we won't who will?

When did the Full Day program start? If they start charging for FT will the parents have more say in what goes on during the kids day? Doubt it.

And how do they expect the students to catch up so they are ready for 1st grade? They have to know how to read by the time they are out of Kindergarten!

It's frustrating to read all of the misinformation & assumptions that are being stated about the board & the district. The $5 million in reserves is what is left in the bank in April BEFORE the property taxes are handed over to the district. The District currently has around $17M in reserves. At the planning meeting last Saturday & again last night, Mr. Perros explained that he, Borgens & Lenz, wanted to find cuts elsewhere BEFORE cutting educational programming. One of the many problems with State funding is that they pay more money to 'poor' districts. Since 161 has been able to cover the bills with property taxes, state aid comes in slower & decreases, because the district has been able to cover their bills. To say that the board reversed it's decision on FDK isn't exactly accurate. Only Sean Doyle changed his mind. The other 6 voted exactly the same way they told the community that they would on Saturday. I think Mrs. Raines committee is great in theory-but people need to understand that many of the ideas floating around are either not legal or contractually possible. However if the new committee is focused & can find areas to cut that don't hurt the kids-more power to them. We need to stop throwing stones at each other & blaming THE BOARD for everything that's wrong. True they're an easy target but bashing them gets us nowhere. And neither does all the misinformation that people float out as comments. (Not you Joe!)

MD-Charging parents more in fees or raising taxes isn't a REAL solution. It's just a bandaid & not everyone can afford it-hell they can barely afford to put gas in their car at $3.50/gallon. I heard someone say that if the Great and All Powerful Oz (aka Dr. Wylie) is having a hard time, looking to cut $8 million, it shouldn't be a surprise that 161 is facing the same issues. Ideas like charging parents for things like buses or increasing registration fees would create a greater burden to some families in OUR COMMUNITY that are already struggling. Not to mention it doesn't add up to as much money as some would like to believe. I also remember Mrs. Raines say that around 10% of our students are already on free & reduced. That's 350 kids! Getting on free & reduced isn't easy - you have to be basically under the poverty line. You can only bleed so much money out of people-expenses are going up EVERYWHERE but income isn't increasing. We need real solutions not criticism.

ROSE C- THEY DID NOT RAISE FEES. THEY LOWERED THEM.

MD - they offered an 'incentive' to parents to register early. After May 31, it's back to $150. Last year the board discussed offering this. It's not news. Had they changed their minds, someone would be slamming them for that. Ask Dr. Wylie how pissed 210 parents are about all the increases to fees he instituted for next year.

Rose, I was wrong on the 5 million dollar reserve figure (it seemed a little low to me), and I apologize to everyone..
As for Perros, Lenz & Borgens wanting to look elsewhere for cuts- what have they been doing for the last 10 weeks? Borgens sent a list of up to 320K in cuts to Rains-were these cuts discussed by the board? I read today that Perros wants to renegotiate the Johnson Control contract (540K). Wasn't Johnson Controls selected from an open bidding process? I totally agree with you on the charging for bus service, but lowering the registration fee when the district can't make ends meet is sending the wrong message.. You say we need solutions, not criticism. Eliminating FDK could (and should in my opinion) be a big part of the solution. And while eliminating FDK may not be off the board, with registration now underway, it's unlikely we will see a change for the 2012-13 school year.

I agree with Rose. I was at the board meeting when this was discussed. Parents were upset with the late fee. Some people just can't afford it. Because registration had already begun last year, they couldn't elimate the late fee midway through registration. They need numbers and people to register as early as possible. So they agreed to swipe the late fee and give an insentive to people to register early. PLUS, no one could actually tell us what the "late fee" money was used for and how much they actually collected.
This insentive was voted on and passed last year.