Bittman4board

In terms of McHenry county Schools, Huntley 158's tax rate is 5th out of the 18 unique combinations in McHenry county. The school rates jump around quite a bit in McHenry County. Fox River Grove D3/ D155 has the highest rate at $6.77. This is almost 50% higher than 158's tax rate.

The tax rate is key for people looking to move into an area. The lower tax rate means the same value house will pay less in property taxes. Or a new buyer can afford more of a house payment which increases the home value.

The Riley / Marengo rate of $3.12 is quite low but this is somewhat of an anomaly because they reduced their Levy for this year, I believe because of a statute which said if you have so much cash on the books, you can't levy for more. Even without that they were always on the lower side of rates in McHenry county.

This is a post which contains my opinion and does not reflect on the role I am in for the District.

The Election for Huntley 158 Board of Education is on-going. Please Get out and Vote.

I am not up for re-election this time but it made me think about all we have done since we came into our roles two years ago:

- We picked a new Superintendent, and she is excellent. Exactly what our district needs right now.
- Our academics are improving. Yet not enough. The new board members have continued to drive academics as a focus for the board and administration.
o Our rankings have improved in the state and with our focus should continue to improve.
o We instituted a review of curriculum and performance at the different levels for the public and the board to review together on how things are going. This is starting to grow in participation from our initial year.
o These curriculum meetings allow for more detailed discussion of things which are improving and things which are struggling. Honest discussion with Data.
o Math is one of the areas where we are struggling still as a district (and statewide).
o I made a proposal to boost each middle school with an additional classroom math teacher to reduce the number of students per class in one grade. We should test this to see if we can drive better performance at this critical age. (Students get additional ELA time in 6th grade with 2 sections) This was done for next years budget. We should see this at least as an option.
o Since our enrollment continues to fall, this should not be budget impacting.
o We have worked with Admin to reduce screen time for Students. They will be piloting a greatly reduced Kindergarten need for chromebooks next year. The savings from fewer chromebooks should be utilized for more budget for classroom materials.
- The LIGHT Program revamp including a place to call home.
o The new board members worked with the SES Assistant Superintendent to develop a plan which would not require a heavy referendum (The previous BoE developed plans and the cost was over $10MM and it didn’t solve the unique place for the LIGHT home) and would support the goals of our Transition Program (LIGHT). We had a ribbon cutting this year to celebrate the community – school district location which was opened in January. The LIGHT program has multiple unique needs and our Admin were able to address many of them.
- A parent driven request for a Special Olympics team. We didn’t have one.
o The new board members drove this as part of the strategic plan to implement. We are now in the 2nd year and it has grown to over 20 students and is available to 3rd graders to LIGHT students. We expect it to keep growing and have requested the budget to reflect this growth in participation.
- The new board members, against the advice of the previous superintendent, created a specific board committee to highlight Special Education. Over 10% of our students fall into this category. These students deserve a spot within our Board structure.
- Transportation is a key issue for LIGHT and High School students with special needs. We approved several new Wheel Chair Vans and Buses to support this key item. We learned about this need when we received a 2-hour tour and discussion through the LIGHT program when it was at Marlowe.
- Around Discipline, the new board drove several common-sense changes from the start of our tenure.
o We re-invigorated the no cell phone policy across the district right away. Even the governor who campaigned against us as “radicals” has come around to our way of thinking.
o As new board members we actually read SB100 and implemented a new vision for the Parent Teacher Advisory committee.
o This committee brought parents, teachers and staff together to talk through some of the toughest issues in the district and continues to do so.
o Through Data, the behavior matrix was developed and implemented across all the schools. Behaviors should be treated similarly at each school.
o Through Data, attendance was discovered to be a major issue driving some of our performance on key academic measures. Imagine, kids in school do better than kids who don’t go to school.
o A major push for attendance was implemented this past year to great success. We have had huge improvements in our attendance at our schools.
o Additional exploration of the data showed very clear correlation between chronic absenteeism and academic performance. It was also shown that year over year the problem grows for many students who are chronically absent at the younger grades into the higher grades.
o PTAC is addressing more behavior this year, while monitoring our data from the previous year changes. We also tackled AI usage within the school.
o These changes cost very little to the district, yet drive huge improvements to the expectations for students, parents and staff.
o New Board members met with dozens of teachers about their concerns in the classroom and the management of behaviors. We advocated for these teachers in the boardroom and when working with administrators. Changes have been made and behaviors have improved. (The work here can never stop though)
- Dual Language and MPAC. The district has a large growing population of students where English is not their first language. Whether it is Spanish, Polish or Ukranian. There are dozens more languages in our district.
o The dual language program was performing poorly and what could be a signature program for the district. While many of the teachers were outstanding, it did not have the best curriculum behind it and had several unique behavior issues to contend with.
o The new board along with administration pushed for new leadership and this has started the change in this program with some logistic changes and a more robust curriculum with a measurement system in place. We are on a positive path forward.
o MPAC highlights an area where the parents are engaging with the district to help drive additional support for those who speak a different language at home. I have been to several of these meetings and it is a very driven group. Several changes have come out of this which are bringing more opportunities to this specific group of households and students.
- Taxes, Finances
o As a new board, we drove quickly to shed additional costs to move spending into the classroom. The second highest admin position was completely eliminated, and one cabinet level position was eliminated but replaced with a lower paying position.
o Every opening is now scrutinized to determine if the position is necessary, or if it should be eliminated because of the continued enrollment decline.
o This year’s budget, for the first time in a long time, the new board requested giving high level input to the administration. The previous board simply took the administration budget without providing guidance.
o For those who don’t like the Levy, the Budget is what drives the need in the Levy. This is where the discussions happen. The most split votes in the past two years have been around the budget.
o A cornerstone to a good education for our students is to have great staff and staff that is consistent year over year. During the HEA negotiations, we found a win – win to fix some gaps that had developed over the past ten years with the previous boards who preferred spending on pet projects instead of the classroom teachers. (Think Orange Frog, etc)
o Staff retention (HEA) has changed dramatically since the signing of the new contract, and our ability to hire the best candidates has improved.
o Overall, the levy is not where I would like it to be. We passed a 4% net increase to existing homeowners in the first year, and a 2% net increase to existing homeowners in the second year.
o If you watch the budget votes, your taxes would be higher if the “new board” did NOT get elected.
o This has resulted in a tax rate which is dropping quite a bit, making D158 homes some of the best values for homebuyers looking in the surrounding area. Our tax rate is almost 25% less than D47/155 and D300. If we can continue targeting 2% inflation increases in the levy, it should continue to drop.
o New Construction adds to the total EAV in the area. Yet, if most of the new construction adds to the number of students, everyone’s taxes will go up with each new house and student(s) in those houses. Impact Fees and Transition fees help mitigate against this. They have not changed in decades. We brought this up and this has created a stir. What we need is a conversation on how best to grow the area so we do not overdevelop. It needs to be balanced with commercial / industrial growth.
- Other things we have done on the board:
o We have participated. We go to PLTW, Special Olympics, Student Mock Interviews, Athletics, reading to students, celebrating the kitchens in each of our schools. As a board member, this is where the enjoyment comes from. To get out and be with the students and staff.
o To create more engagement with our Retired homeowners, the Silver Pass was created to great success. Folks can go to athletics, plays, and musicals for no entrance fee as long as you ask for the pass.
o A student character recognition program was created called the High Five. This was driven by discussions with Ms. Murray and Administration.
o We have challenged the admin team to negotiate more with pricing with our vendors and have saved quite a bit in doing so.
o We have made FOIA responses publicly available.
o We had a long process to understand the changes for Title IX, and ultimately the board voted 4 – 3 to stay with the original intended Title IX, not the “2024” Title IX changes.
o We have opened up public comment before and after the meeting. So people watching can comment at the end of the meeting.
o Before taking office, we met with both Unions, many admin, and teachers to understand the current state of the district.
o We have reduced the number of buses purchased due to the declining enrollment.
o We have reduced how long the meetings take to be more time efficient and try to increase viewership/community participation. (No more 3+ hour marathons)
o We have approved a study of our potential enrollment and our potential facility usage. Our enrollment looks to continue to drop for the next several years.

In summary, this is a long post but there has been a lot done. As a new board, we came in to help make this district better. We brought our energy and passion for educating our students into the boardroom. This is why we need parents from a variety of backgrounds on our board. There has been a lot done, but there is still more to do. Remember as BoE members, we are volunteers – this is all unpaid. We have been and will continue fighting for the best school district for your kids and your community.

Please Get out to Vote! It Matters.

Celebrate World Down Syndrome Awareness day.

This writing is from my perspective as an individual and should not be taken as a view of anyone else on the Board or the Administration.

Is a high-school with 34% of its students proficient in Language on the SAT better than a school with 80%? In Illinois the answer is YES.

Its that time of year again! At the end of October, we will get the next edition of the Illinois Report Card. As someone who watches how Illinois is progressing with the education of our students, this is always an exciting time.

My focus, and I think even the State of Illinois, is on academic achievement for all students. This is the goal as I see it for public education: To ensure all students can reach their potential. One of the main measures you see discussed is: Academic Proficiency. In other words, what percentage of the students are performing at grade level.

The state’s goal, expressed in the ESSA (Every Students Succeeds Act:https://www.isbe.net/Documents/ESSAStatePlanforIllinois.pdf ), is 90%. Illinois wants 90% of the students to be proficient in ELA and Math for their grade level. This is a good goal and it’s a bit of a stretch goal given the current statewide numbers. This is why Illinois wants to do this by 2033.

So how can it be a school (and its actually the top performing school in the state without selective admissions) who is the closest to this particular goal at 80% is not on the top list of schools for the state? While a school with around the state average for ELA is on the list of Exemplary schools?

The answer is because the rating system Illinois uses doesn’t give out additional points for over 37%. So a school with 37% proficiency in ELA (Its a lower number or Math) receives the same grade as a school with 80% proficiency even though the states goal is 90%.

The rating system the state uses is here: https://www.isbe.net/accountabilityindicators

It rates things like ‘how many fill out a survey’ with higher importance than getting closer to the academic proficiency level the state is targeting.

In my view, this is why Illinois proficiency has been steadily dropping from 40% proficiency to 31% in just 6 years. So less than 1/3 of students are proficient at grade level, but 90% are graduating. This may be because graduation rate is 50% of the scoring for how schools are rated. There is a lot of incentive to keep the graduation numbers high, even if the students aren’t meeting our own standards on proficiency.

Four of the top five schools based on highest proficiency (who aren’t selective admission schools) are listed as “Commendable” instead of “Exemplary” (For reference the top five in proficiency are: New Trier, Glenbrook North, Hinsdale Central, Stevenson and Deerfield. Only Hinsdale Central is Exemplary)

The change would be simple.
• Put more weight on the Proficiency factors and less on the Graduation Rate. (For HS)
• Expand the range of scoring to include the states goal of 90% as the high end NOT 37%.

If the state did these two things, Illinois would have a much more robust honest look at our schools with a better rating system.

In the meantime, make sure your students fill out the survey.

www.isbe.net