Congratulations to our Maine South Hawks!
Great game!
November 29, 2009
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Irreverent and Unrepentant Satire and Irony
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29 comments:
Way to go Hawks!
PRU, thanks for posting this. The Hawks played a great game and we are proud of our team. We should all be proud of how our town has been represented. Coach Inserra has done a great job.
maybe in 10 years or less they could join the Bears and do a better job than the current Bears players
Mike: In 10 months or less they could join the Bears and do a better job.
Seriously, hats off to the Hawks. With all our issues here, it's nice to have something upbeat to take our minds off it for a bit. The boys and coaches worked hard and deserve this chance to enjoy their success.
Hooray for our Hawks!
Ditto Father McKenzie and add my HOORAY FOR THE HAWKS!
What a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend for Park Ridge! Congratulations Hawks and coaches!
We love our Hawks!
I am also very proud of our football team and congratulate them on their second State championship.
Let's not forget we have other groups of kids and teams at Maine South who also make us proud.
That's right, while we are celebrating a championship, we should not forget the mediocre sports also. In fact, we have celebrated enough. Let's give a fair amount of recognition to all kids in all activities, not just football.
It's about fairness and diversity people!
Anon 2:06
No reason to be sarcastic and nasty. I was only saying there are many groups of kids and teams at Maine South that also deserve high praise. I hope the next time our Constitution team or our Chess team wins a State or National title there is as much hoopla since school is supposed to be about academics.
Yes, by all means, a State Championship in Football is worth larger class sizes throughout the District. There is a reduction in force comign for the teachers that will impact at least 75 teachers throughout the District.
Is it possible that Inserra could be one of those RIF'D?
3:17 PM...Is it possible that Inserra could be one of those RIF'D?
I SURE HOPE NOT!
For those of you complaining about other teams not being recognized. Can't you just let the Hawks have their moment in the spotlight now? How does this take anything away from all the other great things the students do? It doesn't. Stop dragging down our excellent student athletes because you resent the recognition they have earned. It's just pathetic sour grapes.
Does everything have to turn into some raging debate?
PRU, thank you for a straightforward, simple, positive post congratulating our football team.
Anon@6:38 --
You're welcome.
5:31-it is most certainly not sour grapes. The administration at Maine South has almost nothing on the brain but football. The amount of time and money spent on the program-which benefits only a handful of kids directly-is ridiculous. There is little money or effort extended-aside from the coaches-on all the other sports teams combined. The fields for the other sports for both the men and women are a joke. The parents in the baseball program are asked to come rake and seed the field to get it ready for the season. The girls softball fiels is also a joke. As a previous poster mentioned-the non athletic programs that also excel are short shrifted as well. And after spending $1.5 million on a field and lights-teachers and staff are being laid off.
So while we are all proud of the team and congratulate the players on their hardwork and success, the administration of MS-from Claypool on down-out to take a look in the mirror. There are over 2600 students at Maine South-not just the few dozen on the football teams. Try to expand your focus a bit.
Wow! Judging from some of the commie comments here, you would think that winning's for losers.
Anon 7:56
commie comments? Because anyone dares to suggest football is not more important than academics or other student teams should get as much congratulations and recognition that is commie to you? I said earlier I am very proud of our football team. I do not understand why anyone would think saying academics is what school is supposed to be about is commie. Maybe you are one of those anti intellectual types. I don't really care. We have lots of student groups and teams to be proud of besides only football.
11:19 has a point. Now is the time to spread the good will and spoils from this weekend's football championship evenly among all student groups, not just the ones who worked for it.
To anon at 12:30 AM:
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, but I don't know of any team or club at MS " that hasn't worked for it ". Did the Constitution team get to represent the school by accident ? Did the kids in the V=Show, or the fall play not work for it ? What about the band ? How about both Soccer teams ? Did the Hawkettes, who are State Champions year after year and ranked 5th in the nation not put any effort forward to get to their level of success ?
I haven't missed a football game in years, and being at the first game under the lights, on the new turf made me wildly proud to be able to say that this is where my kids go to school. I made the trip to Champaign (again) to see the team come home with the 8A trophy. I know dozens of these kids personally, their parents, as well as Coach Inserra, and believe this is the smartest,classiest, hardest working, mature team I've ever seen, they deserve everything they get, as they certainly have worked for it, but their needs to be some equity at the school when it comes to slicing up the pie for all teams and clubs. Unfortunately, the pie is getting smaller by the day with budget issues on the horizon, but that is a District 207 issue, and I don't believe anyone( uhhh, hello board members, anybody home ? ) knew we were in these troubled waters when they they threw the money to MS for the new field and lights. So enjoy the success of MSFB, the school and the kids deserve it.
OMG WTF @ 8:20:
You brought up the Board, and I think that is a great point.
Where were they during all of this?
My understanding is that Director of Finance has moved on, the Superintendent has moved on, but the Board (who approved everything district-widee), is still sitting pretty.
This is why we need to question ALL of our elected officials and potential elected officials when it comes time to vote. And as for the "vetting" process that the D207 & D64 candidates go through?
The Caucus??? That's a bullshit, feel-good process, that brings mediocre candidates to their positions.
We ought to retire it now.
D207 Board Members:
Eldon Burke
Joann Bram
Donna Pellar
Maragert McGrath
Ed Mueller
Sean Sullivan
Eric Leys
Where were you during the run-up to our current financial crisis?
Are there no fiscal conservatives on this Board (Leys?Sullivan? Hah!)
What a joke!
Anon 9:01......
Excellent points. Where was I while this mess was percolating ? Asleep at the switch it appears. I was under the impression the district was flush with cash a year ago. I am guilty of not digging deeper, as my first thought when the dollars were released to MS was that we were sitting pretty, not sitting on a time bomb. I personally will be more active going forward with the 207 board. Unfortunately, I have spent more time being involved with D64, and after attending those meetings, it is all I can do to get home safely without having first blown my brains out.
As far as the caucus, it is a joke. The members are nice enough people, but they don't vet the candidates properly, as they feel they did a great job if they are lucky enough to get a handful of people to even throw their hat in the ring, and stop looking after enough slots are filled. I have high hopes for the future though, as blogs like the PRU are making more and more people aware of the shortcomings of both districts, and forcing the citizenry to be more proactive both in the selection and election of these members. However, the members are mom, dads, parents etc. of the students, and not necessarily professional business people, who are sacrificing a great deal of time and effort in order to provide a better educational system for all the kids, basically for free. My beef lies with the superintendents of both districts who should have been keeping a closer watch on the kingdom. I will give Wallace a chance, as he just arrived in town, but Dr. Pryor, although she's a great lady, has really let us down by not riding herd on 64 both from a financial standpoint and academically-wise ( Huh ??? WTF, is that a word ?? )
To OMG WTF, Your texting reflects the maturity of your thought process. You must be one of those "cool" parents...LOL!
OMG WTF: Like you, my focus has been on D64 and the mess that is that district. Everything I "heard" about D207 was that they were fine relative to $$$$ (in the best shape of any of our taxing bodies). Shame on me for not looking harder at that District.
Now, from what I have been told, read, and heard firsthand @ meetings, things are bad and moving quickly to worse. Class size is going to spike as they let go of a bunch of teachers at the end of the school year.
Amazing to me, how things go there so quickly.
I guess I should now also take a hard look at the Park District, as I haven't really been paying much attention to those guys either.
anon 6:57:
Good luck with your little crusade. I do not know if you have noticed, but we live in a world where alumni of a Catholic University are screaming for the school to pay a Coach approximately 18 mil to go away. That is what you are up against.
Anon @ 10:34:
You are right, but Notre Dame is a private college that relies on the donations of their alumni, so pleasing them by eating a fat contract has likely been calcualated out to be a decision that will net the college more money.
Apples and Oranges when compared with D207.
The school did not break ground on the new football field until the end of May 2009. At that point, the D207 board who approved the $1.5 million for the field should have been aware of how quickly the nearly $100 million dollar reserve the district had was going to be used up. The field improvements could have been postponed. It would not have affected the play of the team this year as it did not in previous years. To spend $1.5 million for a field and then layoff teachers and increase classroom size is beyond irresponsible.
Jagger said: To Anon 9:01
Wallace did not just arrive in town. He was the Supt. of Curriculum in the district for the past 4 years. Notably, the district administrators admitted to the staff that the fiscal matter was partially their fault. They had been told not to hire any more teachers the last two years but went ahead and hired anyways. Also, Ken Wallace did say he was going to forgo his merit pay for this year. Big deal, he already received a raise when he became superintendent. As for the other administrators they still are going to get their merit raises (minimum of 10,000.00) but want the teachers to open their contract and take a pay freeze. Also, lets look at all the money the district wastes on food for meetings for the adminstrators. There's no need for this. There's also no need to feed teachers lunch when they are taking a course during the day. The district is already spending money on substitutes for them. Let them bring their own lunch or go out for lunch on their dime.
Jagger,
I agree with your underlying points---the District is wasting money.
Don't however get stuck in the weeds of food at meetings or food while taking a course. Not going to get much traction with thatas most people will roll their eyes when they see/read that. I know I did.
The bigger issue you glossed over at the start of your post. WHY when they were told NOT to hire more teachers did they go ahead and do that anyways. WHY when their reserve fund was evaporating did they go ahead and spend the $1.5M for the field at Maine South (and there was an equal amount spent for other improvements at Maine East and Maine West = $4.5M).
That's where you'll get traction. Not that I don't agree that dimes and quarters add up to dollars, but don't bury the lead.
rolling stoneAnonymous,
That's the million dollar question as to why they hired more teachers. I guess you would have to ask Greg Dietz, Asst. Supt. He's the one responsible for hiring the new teachers. Also, the board members should have been watching the past Supt. Joel Morris and the Asst. Supt. of business Pam Schau and taking a closer look at the financial situation. Also, even when they knew they had a financial problem they still went ahead and ordered new furniture for the Adminstrators. There was nothing wrong with the furniture they already had. Ken Wallace is conveniently saying when he took over July 1 when all along he had no problem spending money the last for years on technology which some of it is still laying around in basements of the school(s).
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